Alfred Kinsey is the
rock star of sexologists: his Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
showed the public that missionary-position
baby-making is not the only way to have sex. In this piece Ken Mondschein reports that Kinsey’s own sex life and
upbringing influenced his research and, which in turn helped shaped American’s
views of sexuality.
“Just as Kinsey had once sought wasp
specimens in the wilds of North America, he canvassed fraternity houses,
addressed community groups, traveled to prisons and, beginning in 1939,
infiltrated the secret meeting-places of America's homosexual subculture —
all in search of the elusive, statistically pure '100% sample' that
would give a perfect cross-section of society.”
