Kinsey Confidential

Another claim to fame for Indiana University and the quiet little town of Bloomington is that it was where the controversial Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his Kinsey Institute hailed from.  For people who reached adulthood in the 50's, the Kinsey Reports created a sensation in the American society that would be inconceivable today.  As part of the IU New Faculty Orientation program, earlier this year we were taken to visit the venerable institution, located on the 3rd floor of the Morrison Hall.  Since that visit, we've also seen the PBS documentary, Kinsey, and a movie by the same title starring Liam Neeson as Alfred Kinsey. 

the Kinsey Reports

Scene Board

Kinsey's Home

I've been meaning to write something about the Kinsey connection at the University.  For this purpose, I went back to the K.I. this afternoon to take some photos and also to see their new exhibit, and on the way to campus I walked past the house which Kinsey built in 1927 and where his family lived until 1983 when it was transferred to the current ownership.  If the stories in the movie were to be believed, this house on the quiet little street saw a lot of action during Kinsey's tenancy there.  

Morrison Hall

The K.I. is housed on the 2nd & 3rd floors of the Morrison Hall.  Visitors are given a badge and are free to wander around the hallways and the gallery.  The prints, photographs, art, and objects you can see there are extraordinary and not for the faint of heart, some examples of which can be found in a visual tour video located on the bottom of the next link. They also have an extensive Library and Special Collections for research use with restricted access.   

Kinsey and Wells

What's remarkable, and there are several things, about the life and work of Kinsey are that 1) when the first report regarding human male sexual behavior first came out in 1948 it captured the public's imagination, despite doubts in the university community, and became an instant best seller, 2) when the second report regarding human female sexual behavior came out in 1953, however, it caused an uproar, was denounced as "an indictment of American Womanhood", and led to the investigation by the Reece Committee for possible links to the Communist Party, and to the subsequent cut off of funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, and 3) throughout its controversial history, the IU President at the time, Herman B. Wells, a demi-god-like figure at the University to this day, stood behind the research work done by Kinsey and defended the importance of academic freedom. 


Sixty years since the publication of the Kinsey reports, one wonders whether, despite the wind of the sexual revolution which swept across the country in the 60's, American society's beliefs and phobias about sexual behaviors have fundamentally changed from those of Kinsey's time, as witnessed in the current debate about gay marriage.