Social Change as Reflected in the Kinsey Studies

Abstract

In this paper I shall discuss some of the major sociological implications of the Kinsey findings, with special emphasis upon social change. In approaching this task, one is confronted at once with intriguing questions of causation. Why the Kinsey research? What ingredients in our cultural soil nourished this endeavor? The usual explanation follows the great-man interpretation of history, namely, that Dr. Kinsey felt very unhappy as he surveyed the vast sea of sexual ignorance in which mankind was floundering and decided to do something about it. To those accustomed to an emphasis upon social forces, this heroic interpretation of events is not altogether satisfactory. Such a program of research can also be interpreted as a cultural phenomenon, growing out of a sexual morality in transition. In its current phase the transition is marked by a steady decline of the ascetic tradition and the rise of biological realism as a counter-movement. This ideology places unprecedented stress upon physical sex, from pictorial displays of the feminine figure through real or fictional accounts of sexual adventures to the latest