1448 pages of Alfred C Kinsey

One of my favourites in our ever-expanding DVD collection is the movie, Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as Kinsey. Not surprisingly, it's the story of Alfred C. Kinsey, the sex researcher of the 1940s and 1950s who most notably wrote the volumes Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953). One night after enjoying another viewing of the movie it suddenly occurred to me that the movie was probably based on a biography of Kinsey and that 'of course, there would have to be a biography or two written about him'. Durrrh. (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes). So I Googled and sure enough I was soon entering my credit card details into an online purchase order for a Blue Mountains bookshop for my very own Kinsey biography. Now, while I was waiting for it to arrive, I was in Newcastle to see Phantom, and being the book whore that I am I spent some time rummaging through various Newcastle second-hand book shops. And, I found a Kinsey biography - the one on the right, all 935 pages of it - for $10.  I was assuming that this was the same book that I had just bought online but I thought at $10 I could afford it even if I was to receive it in the post again.  But lo and behold when my package from the Blue Mountains bookshop arrived if it wasn't a different biography, the one on the left, which was only 513 pages long. Phew!
I began with the biggie and managed to finish it in about three weeks. I then moved straight on to the other because I was interested in how each of the authors approached the subject and whether or not their interpretations varied much. The biography on the left, written by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy is often quite scathing of the one on the right, written by James H Jones. Jones argues that Kinsey was driven by various demons which pursued him relentlessly throughout his life. These demons were what Jones regards as his essential homosexuality, his inability to really accept this aspect of his self and his penchant for sado-masochism. Jones also tended to side with a number of Kinsey's detractors about some of the aspects of his studies, particularly the way he constructed his sample of something like 15 000 case histories. Jones also argues that at least some of Kinsey's interests were less scientifically motivated and more motivated by Kinsey's own desires, such as the filming of sex acts in the attic of his house, ostensibly to collect data, just as Masters and Johnson did a decade or so later. (SBS is currently showing a series based on the lives and work of M and J, somewhat unimaginatively titled, 'Masters of Sex').
Gathorne-Hardy argues that these demons are more in the imagination of Jones than real, and that rather than being homosexual, Kinsey's sexuality was fluid and for much of his life beyond his 40s he was bisexual. (Kinsey was married happily to his wife 'Mac' who provided him with amazing and loyal support). Gathorne-Hardy also demonstrates that Kinsey had an interest in SM (indeed it was probably Kinsey who coined the term) but did not see this aspect of him compelling him so much as did Jones.
Anyway, I really enjoyed immersing myself in the life of Kinsey, as recounted through these two biographies.
I recently 'liked' the Kinsey Institute's Facebook page and I hope to visit it sometime at the University of Illinois.
I once wrote something about Kinsey in a draft of my book 'Gay Tourism' though I'm not sure it ever made it to the final version. I can remember my co-author at that time, my friend, Loykie, asking me why I had written 'The zoologist, Alfred C Kinsey'...I had been following the way by which many social scientists had referred to Kinsey, trying to locate him as a zoologist (who really shouldn't have been doing social research). And of course his PhD is in zoology and the first 20 years of his career was studying gall wasps, and he did treat the sexual behaviour of humans as a form of zoology. BUT, he was much more than this and was a humane, empathic person who was indeed a social reformer, who actively campaigned to change archaic laws which saw people imprisoned for pre-marital sex or oral sex, believe it or not.
I will continue to enjoy learning as much as I can about Kinsey and his institute.