Widely considered as the most important sex researcher in the history, American biologist Alfred Kinsey wrote two influential books on the nature of human sexuality: “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male” and “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female”. Kinsey was also the founder of the Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (now named after him) at Indiana University.
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey in June 1894, Alfred Kinsey’s father taught engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. Kinsey graduated from Columbia High School, Hoboken, and his father insisted him to acquire a degree in engineering at Stevens. After two years, Kinsey recognized that engineering was not his passion, so he was transferred to Bowdoin College, Maine to study biology.
Kinsey finally got a B.S. in biology and psychology in 1916. After that, he was listed in a doctoral programme in zoology at Harvard University, where he got his Sc.D. in 1919. He took a teaching position in the department of zoology at Indiana University where he remained for the remainder of his career.
Kinsey had already become a big name in entomology by the mid-1930s. His research on gall wasps is considered as the pivotal point in the field of entomology. Meanwhile, his interest in human sexuality bore fruit when, in 1938, the Indiana University publication, Daily Student, issued an editorial calling for extensive information about and testing for venereal diseases, a serious health problem that had then stormed the nation.
Kinsey requested permission to design a non-credit course on marriage with about a hundred enrolled participants, in which several issues pertaining to sexuality were addressed. Soon he gave up his research on gall wasps and concentrated fully on human sexuality. His projects gained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Research Council in 1942 so established the Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana. He conducted interviews from 5,300 males and 5,940 females on which he based his groundbreaking works.
His publication about male sexuality was issued out in 1948 which sold over a half million copies. The female version, on the other hand, was printed five years later, however to a less warm reception.
The research work of Alfred Kinsey almost ended after the release of “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female”. He had allegedly offended thousands of the Americans and the U.S. congress exerted pressure on Dean Rusk, the in charge of the Rockefeller Foundation, to terminate unilaterally the financial support of the institute.
After failing to raise funding from other means, Kinsey unfortunately gave up his extraordinary efforts that revolutionized sexuality research. The institute, however, survived and is still functioning as an independent organization under Indiana University.
Alfred Kinsey died on August 25, 1956 of a heart ailment and pneumonia. He was 62 years old.
