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LANDMARK KINSEY STUDIES REPUBLISHED IN HONOR OF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
EDITORS: Requests for review copies of the republished Kinsey studies should be directed to Marilyn Breiter, Indiana University Press, 812-855-5429.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and Indiana University Press have republished that renowned work -- along with its companion volume, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, originally published in 1953.
Also republished is The Kinsey Data: Marginal Tabulations of the 1938-1963 Interviews Conducted by the Institute for Sex Research, a reanalysis of Alfred Kinsey's original data by Paul Gebhard, a key member of Kinsey's research team who succeeded him as director of the institute.
The three volumes have been out of print for some time, and their republication offers an opportunity to re-examine their legacy in light of current interest in Kinsey and his research. The fact that the three are being reprinted as a set underscores the importance of examining both the totality of Kinsey's work and its continuing impact on American culture.
"It is valuable that the third volume, The Kinsey Data, is being republished at the same time as the others," said Kinsey Institute Director John Bancroft. "It received little attention when it was originally published -- it hardly figures in the attacks against Kinsey -- and yet it helps provide a much better perspective of the other two works. It cleans up some of the data and reanalyzes a lot of it."
While there is general agreement in the scientific community that Kinsey's methods did not meet today's standards of survey sampling, the enormity and originality of his undertaking, and his perseverance in the face of criticism, make it a truly historic endeavor. Although filled with scientific tables and technical data analysis, the original Kinsey volumes became best sellers because they provided the American public and the scientific community with the first systematic description of Americans' sexual practices.
Yet despite the acknowledged shortcomings in Kinsey's methodology in comparison to modern research techniques, the studies offered valuable insight into sexuality, insight that continues to be of interest today.
"I think there are two enduring aspects to Kinsey's research that are important to understand," said Judith A. Allen, director of IU's Gender Studies Program and professor of history and of gender studies. "First, he objected fundamentally to the dualism between normal and abnormal sexuality. He basically believed that if a behavior or a characteristic could appear in a species, then it was a natural part of that species.
"Second, he proposed that there was a continuum of sexual experiences, and this led him to argue very fiercely against labeling people as homosexual or heterosexual. He believed that sexual classification of types of persons was fundamentally flawed, was hugely problematic and would not help anybody.
"I'd like to say that he was successful, but I don't think it's true. We live in a culture more obsessed than ever with sexual identity and what is and isn't normal. So this idea that he is this gargantuan presence over contemporary sexual politics is pretty laughable," Allen continued.
"All of it underlines, for me, as a historian, the incredible importance of much more detailed contextual study, because Kinsey is being mischaracterized, and what he believed is being obscured by sloganeering."
Bancroft agrees that making the books available to anyone who wants to read them will likely aid in clearing up misconceptions and allegations based on other than first-hand knowledge. But beyond that, he sees their republication as solidifying Kinsey's place in the history of research into human sexual behavior.
"As far as I am concerned," Bancroft said, "Kinsey was a man of scientific integrity and great compassion who made a superhuman effort to do what he thought needed to be done, and for this he deserves our greatest respect."
(Jeff Austin, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-855-0084, jeaustin@indiana.edu)