Sensational Findings

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The Man Who Pulled Back the Covers

Read and discuss the following text.

Alfred Kinsey –

The man who became known as the first and greatest reporter of America's sexual experiences was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 23, 1894. Alfred Kinsey grew up in a world where sex education was almost unheard of. Sex was still a "dirty secret," Married people did it—but only husbands enjoyed it. Single people didn't do it at all. If homosexuals did it, they went to jail. But, most importantly, no matter if you did it or not, you didn't talk about it.

Trained as a biologist, Kinsey taught at Indiana University. He first taught about insects. Then he became interested in sex education. He insisted that sex education should go beyond biology and teach children healthy attitudes about sex. He and his wife, Clara, began by informally advising university students about sex. Undergraduates often spent long afternoons at the Kinseys' house drinking tea and talking about sex. Upset at how little young people knew about sex, in 1938, Kinsey asked for permission to offer a "marriage course." He got permission to teach the course but only to seniors and married students.

In the course, Kinsey argued that sex was the glue that held human societies together. He attacked the role of religious institutions in regulating sexual conduct. Kinsey was extremely candid, discussing the most intimate details of sexual behavior without embarrassment or euphemisms, and using drawings showing the details of sexual intercourse. While he based the course on science, he used it to argue strongly for the sexual liberation of males and females alike.

The course was an immediate hit. Kinsey then decided that he should use his students to begin a study of human sexuality. He began asking students to complete a questionnaire on their sexual histories. Kinsey soon moved from questionnaires to interviews because he believed that he would get more truthful and complete answers. The interviews lasted several hours and consisted of between 300 and 521 questions. To persuade people to share their deepest secrets, Kinsey promised his volunteers total confidentiality. He even hired a cryptographer to develop a code for recording the results of each interview so that respondents were completely anonymous. This code was known only to Kinsey and his assistants, and it was never written down.

In 1948 Kinsey published part of the results of his work entitled Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. The book's contents were startling to many. Kinsey's research showed that the sex lives of many men did not correspond to the American myth that men only had sex with their wives. The book went right to the top of the best-seller lists, but there were many critics. Some felt human sexuality was not a suitable topic for public discussion; others disagreed with Kinsey's research methods. Some stated that sexuality could not be studied without also talking about morality.

The reaction to the report on men was mild compared to the firestorm that started when he published his research on females in 1953. According to Kinsey's statistics, more than 50 percent of American women had had premarital sex and 26 percent had had extramarital affairs. Kinsey used these numbers to argue that women were no less sexual than men and had as much right to expect sexual satisfaction. He also claimed that a satisfying sex life was essential to a happy marriage. Perhaps his most controversial conclusion was that women who had had sex before marriage were more: likely to have happy, sexually satisfying marriages than those who had not.

Although some people were grateful to Kinsey, many were upset and angry. There were a lot who argued that the statistics couldn't be accurate because "good" women would not have taken part in such activities, and if they had, they would not have told Dr. Kinsey. Prominent religious leaders such as the Reverend Billy Graham condemned the work. He declared that Dr. Kinsey certainly could not have interviewed any of the millions of born-again Christian women in this country who put the highest price on virtue, decency, and modesty."

In the end, the public outcry was too much for the politicians and Kinsey lost government financial support for his research. He died on August 25, 1956, disappointed that he had not persuaded the world that sex was good and that tolerance of many different sexual behaviors was right. Decades after his death, Kinsey's work is still controversial. While some still criticize his methodology no one can deny that he is in a large part responsible for the academic freedom researchers now have to discuss topics that were once taboo.

2) Find the English equivalents for the following in the text:

покрывало, откровенный, без смущения, эвфемизм, заполнить анкету, шифровальщик, поразительный, соответствовать чему-л., секс до брака, внебрачные связи, осуждать/порицать, ценить что-л. превыше всего, целомудрие, порядочность, общественный протест.

3) Answer the questions:

1. How did people feel about sex when Kinsey was growing up?

2. What was Kinsey’s educational background? How did he begin teaching sex education?

3. How did he conduct his research?

4. What were Kinsey’s findings about men and women?

5. How did people feel about it?

6. What do people think about it today?

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29