Alfred Kinsey

Today in class we watched a clip from the film Kinsey, which is based on the life of Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956). The film takes place in the edwardian era, which is considered to be a very modest time. Alfred Kinsey was a highly regarded man who conducted ground-breaking, large scaled interview research about sex. Though he was highly regarded, some say his work contained a high degree of biases. Not a lot of people were comfortable with the questions and with participating in the research interviews, so as a result of that the research he collected was derived from a sample that wasn't very representative of the overall population. Kinsey's work was highly influential, and helped shape the way people think of sexuality today. I've included the theatrical trailer for the film, which I think does an excellent job at illustrating just how sheltered people were from sex and how it was made to seem like a shameful act to engage in, talk about, or even think about. It also shows how complicated Kinsey's job was in collecting his research.

Kinsey (2004) Movie Trailer

Alfred Kinsey is a man who I really admire, as he was so brave to explore such a contravercial issue, and to expose his findings to the public. In a time when sex was such a hush-hush topic, Kinsey dared to ask questions that people had been wanting to ask for years, but were too afraid to ask. I think that it's really sad that people were brought up to believe that sex is something to be ashamed of, and were never really informed of how it works or what's normal to feel, think, and experience. In my opinion sex is something to celebrate and that, when done safely, is a great thing which a person shouldn't ever be ashamed of. I'm not saying that people should go around telling their peers every little juicy detail about their intimate lifes, but rather be comfortable enough to discuss it with those they trust. It's people like Kinsey that I really admire for daring to stand up for what they believe in, even if it means going against what society says is right or wrong, and eventually end up revolutionizing the way that people view the world around them. Kinsey not only increase the knowledge about sexuality amonst the average citizen, but he also helped solve many long lasting sexual disfunctions that had been prevalent in marriage for years. Essentially, Kinsey was an extremely influential figure who made it ok for people to both have a sexuality, and to be able to embrace and express it in a way that they didn't have to feel ashamed about it any longer.