Kinsey Report

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The Kinsey Reports are two books by the American zoologist and sex researcher Alfred Charles Kinsey on human sexual behavior :

  • Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948; German: The sexual behavior of the man , 1955) and
  • Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (September 9, 1953; German: Das Sexuelle Behavior der Frau , 1954).

The original English titles come from the biological tradition and are literally translated as follows: Sexual behavior in human males and sexual behavior in human females , in essence: Sexual behavior in males and sexual behavior in females . The Kinsey reports are among the milestones in adult sexual education and the sexual revolution .

content

Kinsey's research generated a lot of public attention. Some of his conclusions included:

  • Around half of the population is bisexual to some extent . For the classification of heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals, both sexual acts and psychological reactions that do not lead to external acts were recorded (see Kinsey scale ):
    • 50% of the men had neither psychological nor physical homosexual experiences after the onset of puberty (K = 0);
    • As adults, 46% of the men had engaged in both heterosexual and homosexual activities or reacted to people of both sexes;
    • 10% of the men were more or less exclusively homosexual in their behavior for at least three years, between the ages of 16 and 55 (K = 5–6);
    • 4% of the men were exclusively homosexual after the onset of puberty (K = 6);
    • About 60% of pre-pubescent male children engage in same-sex activities;
    • 6.3% of all orgasms for men and women are achieved through homosexual contact;
  • Masturbation is extremely common among men;
  • Women who masturbated before their marriage are no less sexually satisfied in their marriage; statistically, their sexual satisfaction is even higher;
  • Deviations and paraphilia are common with a percentage frequency of 22.3%.

Kinsey obtained its results mainly from interviews , the data of which were analyzed in anonymised form. The personal, confidential interviews lasted around 30 to 180 minutes with an average of 300 and up to over 500 questions. It was assumed that every person interviewed had practiced every sexual variety, if this was not the case, this had to be explicitly denied. The interviewers were specially trained males. They were also trained in how to behave towards the respondents so that they were willing to speak about previously taboo subjects. Most interviews, however, were conducted by the biologist Kinsey and the psychologist Wardell B. Pomeroy (about 45% each) and the interview situation was not entirely anonymous. Surveyed over 11,000 volunteers (5,300 men and 5,940 women) of all ages, religions, income levels, and education levels, and from all rural and urban areas of the United States, between 1938 and 1953. These included 25% (former) prisoners and 5% male prostitutes, which provoked criticism.

criticism

Kinsey presented his report as representative of US society. Critics criticized the fact that both the number of people interviewed and the selection criteria for the interviewees were insufficient for a representative analysis. In response to this criticism, Paul Gebhard , Kinsey’s successor as director of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research , spent several years purifying Kinsey’s data of these misleading factors, and in 1979 published The Kinsey Data: Marginal Tabulations of the 1938–1963 Interviews Conducted by the Institute for Sex Research , which essentially confirmed Kinsey's earlier conclusions.

Reception in film and fiction

Kinsey's research is part of the biographical film Kinsey - The Truth About Sex (2004) and the novel The Inner Circle (2004) by TC Boyle with the German title Dr. Sex .

literature

  • Alfred C. Kinsey: Sexual Behavior In The Human Male . 1949; archive.org
  • William Cochran, Frederick Mosteller, John W. Tukey : Statistical Problems of the Kinsey Report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male: A Report of the American Statistical Association Committee to Advise the National Research Council Committee for Research in Problems of Sex . American Statistical Association, Washington 1954.
  • Erwin J. Haeberle: Alfred C. Kinsey as a homosexual researcher . ( Memento of October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Humboldt University, Archive for Sexual Science, Berlin 1993 (with mention of the general working method, reviews, revisions and tenable statements).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saunders Advances Publication Date for Kinsey Report . In: Publishers' Weekly . September 12, 1953.
  2. ^ Paul Delbert Brinkman: Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and the Press: A Historical Case Study of the Relationship of the Mass Media to a Pioneering Behavioral Scientist . Ph.D. diss. Editor: Indiana University. 1971.
  3. ↑ Ronald D. Gerste : A Nation Blushes. In: Damals , No. 1/2018, pp. 10–13, here p. 13.