sex research

Scientific Sex Research by Dr. Kinsey
According to evolutionary theory, the fundamental goal for creature is the reproduction of its species. Sexual activity is the only natural way to reproduce next generations in all animal and also human. Different from wild animal, we are protected by an educated and law restricted society, in which we should behave morally and legally correct. Then, how to define the proper sexual activity, because of its relation to family and the life of everybody, is critical to our society. In old times, people established plenty of rules to educate young people what was the proper sexual activity. At mean time, to prevent people having morally incorrect sex activities, people also established some rumors such as masturbation would lead to severe disease and punishment. In this way, everyone’s sexuality is restricted to be the same and people are shamed about talk about sexuality. However, things have changed after Alfred Kinsey, whose story has come to public as a movie Kinsey.

The movie Kinsey describes the life and research of Alfred Kinsey, the first scientist studying the sexual behavior in human race. As a biologist, when he had some problems about sexual activity, he went to the experts for advice. He was brave and brilliant in which stage people are shamed of talking about sex publicly. The young people’s misunderstanding to sex inherited from their parents and the sex educational books, which was full of rumors at that time, made him determine to open a class about sex behavior and conduct related survey and research (Carey, B., 2004). He tried to correct the misleading of sex in society by his scientific research and his education. He was the only person who is not shamed about talk about sex everywhere. He enjoyed conversations about sex with his children in dinner and was open to their questions. From that time, most people started to understand what is real about the sexual activity and think sexuality itself ignoring the religious and old moral concepts. Because of his effort, sexual education is one of the essential classes for almost all schools. From the educational aspect, this movie stresses the importance of leaving a chance for children to have knowledge about sexuality. Because of him, the sex education class becomes a common class.

Besides Dr. Kinsey encouraged people to learn the reality of sexual activity, the movie also motivate people to talk about sexuality as one of the normal topic in our lives. Because of the contribution of Dr. Kinsey, sexuality is one of our normal topics in life and everybody enjoys sexual conversations. People started to create jokes about their sexual activity and use some humorous dirty common sayings in public. Most of the movies in our culture nowadays have sexual related stories. Some movies even spend a long time to describe the sexual activities in detail to make the story feeling real. For example, in Kinsey, it shows specifically and explicitly the situations that the couple had a hard time to finish sex and the time when they are enjoy their sexual actions out of bed. In short, the stereotype of talking sexual topic as normal is enhanced in the movie by the words of Dr. Kinsey and by the message the movie implicates.

However, some message from the movie challenges our culture to some extends. The movie encourages people to explore the sexuality freely and bravely. As Dr. Kinsey’s said in the movie, the sexual activity is a behavior need our exploration and sexual identity of everyone is unique. In other words, there is no restriction to our sex behavior. This concept is challenging to the stereotypes and norms in our culture. The movie also shows the example of Dr. Kinsey. Deeply in love with his wife, he still starts to have homosexual activities with his assistant. And after a while, when they think it’s not a perfect sexual experience, his assistant starts to have sexual relations with his wife under his permission. This story challenges the culture of America. In tradition, the committed couple should be their only sexual partner, especially after marriage. That’s the way to show they truly love each other. But in this case, as shown on the movie, even though they have a good relation, they can still have sexual activities with other partners and be honest with each other.

In all, Dr. Kinsey’s research, books and class make a sex evolution in our society. People start to talk about the sex in a scientific view. Because of his effort, not only people’s opinions about sex, but also opinions about humanity become diverse (Bullough, V. L., 2004). Just as Dr. Kinsey mentioned, every biological individual is unique in sexuality and need to be explored (Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E., 1948). The assignment has asked to find the points that are correct or inaccurate depiction of our culture. Based on the understanding of the movie and our American culture, I would like to say all of them are correct now because the fundamental concept of modern American is about diversity. People accept diversity from any perspective as what Dr. Kinsey did.

Besides the points mentioned above, the film also delivers the message that homosexuality is accepted and almost everybody has some level of both homosexual and heterosexual preference. For example, Dr. Kinsey thought he had both sexual preferences. But when I thought about his experience, I have come up with a question about his sexuality. If he didn’t study sexuality and didn’t have enough contact with people with strong homosexual preference, will he still think himself as the same way? Though he did a comprehensive survey about people’s sexuality, is the evidence in the survey can fully support his conclusion? And when people think about their sexuality, do they only think about sex or also think about family, responsibility and future? I think that’s the topics that the film has implicated for viewers. These implications are helpful for people to think about their identity and accept the concept of diversity in our culture though most people are still following what others did. As Dr. Kinsey mentioned, diversity is our nature, which we just need to explore for in our lives.
Reference
Bullough, V. L. (2004). Sex will never be the same: the contributions of Alfred C. Kinsey. Archives of sexual behavior, 33(3), 277-286.
Carey, B. (2004). Long after Kinsey, only the brave study sex. New York Times.
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948). Sexual behavior in the human male.
Kinsey, A. C. (Ed.). (1953). Sexual behavior in the human female. Indiana University Press.