KINSEY: The Movie, The Man

If you haven't seen the movie Kinsey, staring Liam Neeson, you really should. It does a good job demonstrating what it's like to be devoted to science in an area of study that people "just don't think you should be asking about." If you believe that the 1940's and 50's were a long time ago, and stuff like cutting grant monies in sex research for politically motivated reasons, doesn't happen anymore, think again. The most striking example was a man who devoted his life to identifying the "age type" for lack of a better word of pedophiles. He developed a group of slides of children that "represented" specific developmental stages of growth (regardless of their actual age.) These he used quite specifically in research with pedophiles to narrow down their paraphilic interests to create more powerful treatment strategies. Great care was taken in obtaining these pictures. The children we nude, but stood planely in front of the camera. They had grown up in families where nudity was not seen as traumatizing -- some European countries or nudist colonies in this country. These were gathered over a long time period. When this research went to speak to other scientists and law enforcement agencies working with sex offender treatment, he would use these slides to explain his work. These two settings: Research/Direct Therapy and Professional Training were the only format these slides were shown.
Time after time, in each State he appeared, he was arrested and brought up on "intent to distribute" and "possession" Child Pornography charges. I believe the feds got involved as well. They demanded all the copies of the slides to destroy, and he spent $10's of thousands of dollars to keep this important research going. Finally, a few years ago, he collapsed under the emotional, legal and financial pressure and destroyed all of the slides, ending his research. He was heartbroken, but reported to Contemporary Sexuality, a magazine by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (I'm paraphrasing): "I just could no longer do it."
Also around the same time, funding was killed which was targeted toward research on Teenage Sexuality. The sentiment was "we don't want to pervert the minds of our young people with those type of questionaires."

There are two scenes in the movies I want to briefly touch upon here. One personal, one political. In a touching scene, Kinsey's harsh disciplinarian father agrees to allow him to take a sex history. Very soon, it is clear that his father was a chronic masturbator at a very young age, and he was dealt with torturously. As viewers we can see that recalling this caused him such heartache, and he left the room. I am struck by stories such as these. Individuals who have endured extremely rigid restrictions and prohibitions regarding normal sexual development are sometimes simultaneously given very confusing messages that can include sexually inappropriate behaviors on the part of the adults, including sexual abuse. One clinical case presented a woman who would sexual abused a child in her care only while watching religious programming on TV. Another father constantly warned about the evils of dating boys, and forbade his age-appropriate daughter from dating, while simultaneously being sexual with her. She was told "the devil" was inside of her.
Let me be clear: I am not 'blaming' religion itself. Studies show that couples who Shower together, Have Sex with Each Other, or Pray together report enjoying overall greater marital satisfaction, and this satisfaction INCREASES when they do two or all three of those behaviors. Also, growing up in a family having clearly spelled out religious prohibitions against specific sexual behaviors (such as premarital sex) in a context of an affectionate, loving home is not what I am talking about. It is when the religious beliefs are used as the justification for abusive, isolating, or random acts of violence, or are put out as "universal truths."
Clinically, some couples use their religious beliefs about sex as a weapon against each other, refusing all emotional and sexual engagement. They will tell you it is because of their "religious beliefs," but when pressed, will often admit that others who are equally devoted to these same religious beliefs appear to enjoy a hearty, passionate attachment, emotionally AND sexually. Treatment shelled out to one generation often passes down to the next, sometimes with the same emotional tone, but lacking a more clearly articulated intellectual position (e.g. "sex is sinful.") The self becomes divided against itself, and the mind eats the body alive.

The second scene I wanted to mention touched me deeply, personally and professionally. In the scene, Kinsey and his associate have traveled a great distance to take the history of a man who is polymorphically perverse. As the man begins to describe his sexual behavior overall, in a very excited manner, the associate gets more and more upset, and leaves to "wait downstairs." Kinsey stays and his face remains thick, but the audience can see the effort he must make. The man continues, then stops suddenly, looks at Kinsey and says "You are really a lot more of a prude than I thought you'd be. I thought you would be a really swinging with-it kind of guy." "Please continue." was Kinsey's only reply, and his voice was clearly strained.

Very often the extreme right will make accusations that sex educators and therapist have "no morals." This loud, aggressive, even threatening minority will stop at nothing to assure that "morals" (meaning their values and beliefs) are upheld in public education and government. As sex educators and therapists, we are assaulted with accusations of lewdness, debatement, and unspeakable horror. Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D., has made a profession out of advocating the position that Table 34 of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male demonstrates that Kinsey himself "was a silent partner in the molestation of hundreds of children."

http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/kinsexchart.jpg

A shocking lack of evidence that Kinsey ever molested children doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of these critics. Within this circle, Kinsey is blame for every crime imaginable.
See a recent article in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?041206ta_talk_radosh

Reisman, having a doctoral degree in media, also has strange bedfellows. She endorses a book called “The Pink Swastika,” which challenges the “myths” that gays were victimized in Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party and the Holocaust itself, she writes, were largely the creation of “the German homosexual movement.”

All of this might be easily dismissed as a lone extremist if it weren't for the fact that she is influential and well funded in Washington, D.C. A year and a half ago, a study funded by the National Institute of Health to study the effects of mood on sexual risk-taking was almost withdrawn, along with four other studies. The amendment to withdraw the funds was narrowly defeated. Don't take my word for it. Google "Kinsey Lies" and see how much you come up with, and how one site builds upon another.