Believe it or not, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is like Elvis Presley. Although the scientist never had a string of hit tunes, he is similar to the King in that he still holds a lot of mystique many years after his death ( which occurred in 1956 ) . Not only is there an eponymous movie starring Liam Neeson that is currently in theaters, but there are also a just-released novel about him ( The Inner Circle ) and the increasing popularity of the a capella group called The Kinsey Sicks.
Therefore, 'Kinsey, Sex Surveys and the Study of Homosexuality,' a discussion held Nov. 15 at the Leather Archives and Museum, could not have been more timely. Stuart Michaels, assistant director of the University of Chicago's Center for Gender Studies and acting director of its Lesbian and Gay Studies Project, spoke about Kinsey's studies as well as a work Michaels co-authored, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States. Andrew Patner, of the Chicago Sun-Times, WFMT, and the Financial Times, moderated a discussion.
Michaels focused on the mechanics of sex research ( including the processes used in Kinsey's landmark 'Sexual Behavior in the Human Male' and the subsequent 'Sexual Behavior in the Human Female' ) and dispelled several myths about Kinsey, who actually started out as an entomologist studying gall wasps. One of the myths that Michaels tackled involved the '10 percent' concept. Kinsey actually never said that 10 percent of the general population was gay. It turned out that about 10 percent of the males admitted to having been predominantly homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55, which is not quite the same thing.
Michaels also commented on how the current political climate reflects a continuation of the conservative contingent that originally caused Kinsey to end his studies. Some of the researcher's results truly shocked the public; among them was that 37 percent of American men had had a homosexual experience to the point of orgasm. The lecturer drew a similarity in that the survey he helped lead, the National Health & Social Life Survey, was stopped by people like U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms; the surveyors ended up using funds from a private foundation. In addition, Michaels mentioned how, in Kinsey's view, everything boiled down to behavior; before, sexuality revolved around procreation—which automatically put sex in a heterosexual domain.
An intriguing point was that scientists do not conduct sex research for pleasure but in response to what they perceive is a social problem. Michaels intimated that, in Kinsey's day, the social problem he was trying to address was marriage. Today, sex research more than likely deals with sexually transmitted diseases or problems such as erectile dysfunction.
There were flaws in how Kinsey conducted his research. For example, Michaels pointed out that Kinsey wanted to use orgasms as a measurement of sex; unfortunately, there was an automatic problem with females, who often engage in sexual practices that do not necessarily lead to orgasms. However, Kinsey's influence on how Americans perceive sex and how scientists go about procuring results was, in the end, incalculable.
The program was sponsored by Chicago Gay Special Interest Group in Mensa; the Leather Archives and Museum; and the Windy City Bondage Club.