Amanda H. Littauer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469623788
- eISBN:
- 9781469625195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469623788.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter analyzes the responses of young women towards Alfred Kinsey's reports published in his Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). This publication is packed with statistics about issues ...
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This chapter analyzes the responses of young women towards Alfred Kinsey's reports published in his Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). This publication is packed with statistics about issues that most Americans were not accustomed to speaking of candidly, including masturbation, premarital petting and intercourse, extramarital sex, homosexuality, and bestiality. Kinsey demonstrated that much of Americans' sexual activity took place outside of marriage, and that the majority of the nation's citizens had violated accepted moral standards as well as state and federal laws in their pursuit of sexual pleasure. His discussion about sex made visible potential ruptures in systems of power relations. The published and private letters to Kinsey examined here reveal potential for average people to engage in public discussions about sex as part of attempts to contest authoritative knowledge.Less
This chapter analyzes the responses of young women towards Alfred Kinsey's reports published in his Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). This publication is packed with statistics about issues that most Americans were not accustomed to speaking of candidly, including masturbation, premarital petting and intercourse, extramarital sex, homosexuality, and bestiality. Kinsey demonstrated that much of Americans' sexual activity took place outside of marriage, and that the majority of the nation's citizens had violated accepted moral standards as well as state and federal laws in their pursuit of sexual pleasure. His discussion about sex made visible potential ruptures in systems of power relations. The published and private letters to Kinsey examined here reveal potential for average people to engage in public discussions about sex as part of attempts to contest authoritative knowledge.
Susan G. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042614
- eISBN:
- 9780252051456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042614.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In the early 1940s, Legman’s work with Robert L. Dickinson led to a job with University of Indiana biology professor Alfred C. Kinsey. This chapter shows Legman working as a bibliographer and rare ...
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In the early 1940s, Legman’s work with Robert L. Dickinson led to a job with University of Indiana biology professor Alfred C. Kinsey. This chapter shows Legman working as a bibliographer and rare book buyer for Kinsey’s fledgling sex research institute. During these years, Legman not only developed a deep knowledge of erotic bibliography and the literature of sexology, but also gained insight into the quantitative empirical approach to sexual behavior Kinsey applied in his landmark study, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Legman’s correspondence with Kinsey shows him developing a critique of Kinsey’s theories and methods and arguing for a humanistic and interpretative investigation of human sexuality. Legman mixed this humane position with fierce antagonism to Kinsey’s tolerant stance toward homosexuality and bisexuality. The two men ended their relationship angrily when Kinsey accused Legman of dishonesty, and Legman’s relationship with the Institute for Sex Research remained strained after Kinsey’s death in 1956. However, Legman helped form Kinsey’s unparalleled research library, and he would later deposit parts of his folklore collections in the Kinsey Institute archive.Less
In the early 1940s, Legman’s work with Robert L. Dickinson led to a job with University of Indiana biology professor Alfred C. Kinsey. This chapter shows Legman working as a bibliographer and rare book buyer for Kinsey’s fledgling sex research institute. During these years, Legman not only developed a deep knowledge of erotic bibliography and the literature of sexology, but also gained insight into the quantitative empirical approach to sexual behavior Kinsey applied in his landmark study, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Legman’s correspondence with Kinsey shows him developing a critique of Kinsey’s theories and methods and arguing for a humanistic and interpretative investigation of human sexuality. Legman mixed this humane position with fierce antagonism to Kinsey’s tolerant stance toward homosexuality and bisexuality. The two men ended their relationship angrily when Kinsey accused Legman of dishonesty, and Legman’s relationship with the Institute for Sex Research remained strained after Kinsey’s death in 1956. However, Legman helped form Kinsey’s unparalleled research library, and he would later deposit parts of his folklore collections in the Kinsey Institute archive.
Adrian Bingham
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199279586
- eISBN:
- 9780191707308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279586.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines how the press discussed ‘normal’ sexual attitudes and behaviour. Before the Second World War, reliable evidence about sexual activity was very scarce, and most journalists ...
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This chapter examines how the press discussed ‘normal’ sexual attitudes and behaviour. Before the Second World War, reliable evidence about sexual activity was very scarce, and most journalists shared the belief that Britons generally exercised a high degree of sexual restraint and adhered to strict moral standards. After 1945, these assumptions were placed under increasing scrutiny by new methods of social investigation. The British press gave considerable publicity to the sex surveys of Professor Alfred Kinsey and encouraged related research in Britain. Most notably, the Sunday Pictorial provided the funds for Mass-Observation to conduct its ‘Little Kinsey’ survey in 1949. Popular newspapers developed an ongoing interest in sex surveys, and helped to establish new expectations of ‘normal’ sexuality. The discussion of the ‘sex lives’ of ordinary men and women eroded the old reticence surrounding sex. By the end of the 1960s, the press consolidated the belief that British society had entered a new era of ‘permissiveness’.Less
This chapter examines how the press discussed ‘normal’ sexual attitudes and behaviour. Before the Second World War, reliable evidence about sexual activity was very scarce, and most journalists shared the belief that Britons generally exercised a high degree of sexual restraint and adhered to strict moral standards. After 1945, these assumptions were placed under increasing scrutiny by new methods of social investigation. The British press gave considerable publicity to the sex surveys of Professor Alfred Kinsey and encouraged related research in Britain. Most notably, the Sunday Pictorial provided the funds for Mass-Observation to conduct its ‘Little Kinsey’ survey in 1949. Popular newspapers developed an ongoing interest in sex surveys, and helped to establish new expectations of ‘normal’ sexuality. The discussion of the ‘sex lives’ of ordinary men and women eroded the old reticence surrounding sex. By the end of the 1960s, the press consolidated the belief that British society had entered a new era of ‘permissiveness’.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
What is the relationship between intelligence and sex? In recent decades, studies of the controversial histories of both intelligence testing and human sexuality in the United States have been ...
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What is the relationship between intelligence and sex? In recent decades, studies of the controversial histories of both intelligence testing and human sexuality in the United States have been increasingly common—and hotly debated—but rarely have the intersections of these histories been examined. This book enters this historical dispute by recalling the debate between Lewis Terman—the intellect who championed the testing of intelligence—and pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and shows how intelligence and sexuality have interacted in American psychology. Through a discussion of intellectually gifted onanists, unhappily married men, queer geniuses, lonely frontiersmen, religious ascetics, and the two scholars themselves, the author traces the origins of Terman’s complaints about Kinsey’s work to show how the intelligence testing movement was much more concerned with sexuality than we might remember. And, drawing on Foucault, he reconciles these legendary figures by showing how intelligence and sexuality in early American psychology and sexology were intertwined then and remain so to this day.Less
What is the relationship between intelligence and sex? In recent decades, studies of the controversial histories of both intelligence testing and human sexuality in the United States have been increasingly common—and hotly debated—but rarely have the intersections of these histories been examined. This book enters this historical dispute by recalling the debate between Lewis Terman—the intellect who championed the testing of intelligence—and pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and shows how intelligence and sexuality have interacted in American psychology. Through a discussion of intellectually gifted onanists, unhappily married men, queer geniuses, lonely frontiersmen, religious ascetics, and the two scholars themselves, the author traces the origins of Terman’s complaints about Kinsey’s work to show how the intelligence testing movement was much more concerned with sexuality than we might remember. And, drawing on Foucault, he reconciles these legendary figures by showing how intelligence and sexuality in early American psychology and sexology were intertwined then and remain so to this day.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the statistical representation in Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), presents a history of statistics in the United States that ends with postwar sampling ...
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This chapter examines the statistical representation in Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), presents a history of statistics in the United States that ends with postwar sampling theory, and analyzes Kinsey’s interaction with the statisticians. It suggests that while Kinsey’s study prompted the imagination of new normative ideals for a national survey of sex, he also articulated resistance to the statisticians’ ideas concerning the use of a sample of the national population.Less
This chapter examines the statistical representation in Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), presents a history of statistics in the United States that ends with postwar sampling theory, and analyzes Kinsey’s interaction with the statisticians. It suggests that while Kinsey’s study prompted the imagination of new normative ideals for a national survey of sex, he also articulated resistance to the statisticians’ ideas concerning the use of a sample of the national population.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the last of the four of Lewis Terman’s criticisms of Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), which centered on Kinsey’s views about the differences between ...
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This chapter examines the last of the four of Lewis Terman’s criticisms of Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), which centered on Kinsey’s views about the differences between secular and religious men. It explains that Kinsey’s account of sexual nature was in tension not only with Terman’s but also with psychoanalysis, and considers the differences between Kinsey’s and Sigmund Freud’s narratives about religion.Less
This chapter examines the last of the four of Lewis Terman’s criticisms of Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), which centered on Kinsey’s views about the differences between secular and religious men. It explains that Kinsey’s account of sexual nature was in tension not only with Terman’s but also with psychoanalysis, and considers the differences between Kinsey’s and Sigmund Freud’s narratives about religion.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the history of the explicit disagreement between American sexologist Alfred Kinsey and psychologist Lewis Terman on the issue of the relation between sex and intelligence. It ...
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This chapter examines the history of the explicit disagreement between American sexologist Alfred Kinsey and psychologist Lewis Terman on the issue of the relation between sex and intelligence. It suggests that the conflict may have started with Terman’s review of Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), which was published in January 1948. The chapter discusses the similarities between Kinsey and Terman in terms of their interest in eugenics and highlights the differences in biographical writing about them.Less
This chapter examines the history of the explicit disagreement between American sexologist Alfred Kinsey and psychologist Lewis Terman on the issue of the relation between sex and intelligence. It suggests that the conflict may have started with Terman’s review of Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM), which was published in January 1948. The chapter discusses the similarities between Kinsey and Terman in terms of their interest in eugenics and highlights the differences in biographical writing about them.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s silence on Alfred Kinsey’s findings about the frequency with which adult men reported homosexual sex in his review of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM). It ...
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This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s silence on Alfred Kinsey’s findings about the frequency with which adult men reported homosexual sex in his review of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM). It discusses Kinsey’s opinion that Terman’s review of his book was motivated by moral prudery and cites a biographical account which considered Terman’s review as one of the most moralistic responses to SBHM. The analysis indicates that Terman was not troubled by the evidence of widespread homosexual conduct in the population which Kinsey’s work had already begun to reveal and that his defense of the gifted had come to depend upon that projection of homosexuality onto the national population.Less
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s silence on Alfred Kinsey’s findings about the frequency with which adult men reported homosexual sex in his review of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM). It discusses Kinsey’s opinion that Terman’s review of his book was motivated by moral prudery and cites a biographical account which considered Terman’s review as one of the most moralistic responses to SBHM. The analysis indicates that Terman was not troubled by the evidence of widespread homosexual conduct in the population which Kinsey’s work had already begun to reveal and that his defense of the gifted had come to depend upon that projection of homosexuality onto the national population.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the relationship between attributions about a scientist’s character and the trustworthiness of scientific knowledge resulting from that scientist’s efforts. It analyzes the ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between attributions about a scientist’s character and the trustworthiness of scientific knowledge resulting from that scientist’s efforts. It analyzes the issue of intelligence and education in Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM) and the influence of Raymond Pearl on Kinsey’s works. The chapter also considers the hypothesis that cognitive dissonance is relieved by the knowledge that one’s deviant desires are shared by others and suggests that Kinsey’s work helped to relieve people from a sense of individual gift about their sexual practices.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between attributions about a scientist’s character and the trustworthiness of scientific knowledge resulting from that scientist’s efforts. It analyzes the issue of intelligence and education in Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM) and the influence of Raymond Pearl on Kinsey’s works. The chapter also considers the hypothesis that cognitive dissonance is relieved by the knowledge that one’s deviant desires are shared by others and suggests that Kinsey’s work helped to relieve people from a sense of individual gift about their sexual practices.
Peter Cryle and Elizabeth Stephens
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226483863
- eISBN:
- 9780226484198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226484198.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
The publication of the two Kinsey reports on human sexuality in the middle of the twentieth century was widely hailed as the first study of “normal” sexuality. His approach to the study of sexual ...
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The publication of the two Kinsey reports on human sexuality in the middle of the twentieth century was widely hailed as the first study of “normal” sexuality. His approach to the study of sexual behaviour marked a shift from that found in sexology and psychoanalysis. These had made very little use of statistics. Their approach was narrative, not quantitative; the concept of the normal that underlined their work was medical rather than mathematical. Kinsey’s work applied to the study of sexuality the statistical methods developed as part of the anthropometric projects examined in the previous chapters. Yet Kinsey himself was highly critical of the concept of the normal. The history of the normal in the 1950s is not, as is often assumed, simply the history of its increasing cultural dominance and ubiquity. Rather, the cultural processes by which the term normal became so ubiquitous and powerful in the mid-century need to be understood as intricately connected with those by which it became a subject of debate, resistance, and even outright rejection.Less
The publication of the two Kinsey reports on human sexuality in the middle of the twentieth century was widely hailed as the first study of “normal” sexuality. His approach to the study of sexual behaviour marked a shift from that found in sexology and psychoanalysis. These had made very little use of statistics. Their approach was narrative, not quantitative; the concept of the normal that underlined their work was medical rather than mathematical. Kinsey’s work applied to the study of sexuality the statistical methods developed as part of the anthropometric projects examined in the previous chapters. Yet Kinsey himself was highly critical of the concept of the normal. The history of the normal in the 1950s is not, as is often assumed, simply the history of its increasing cultural dominance and ubiquity. Rather, the cultural processes by which the term normal became so ubiquitous and powerful in the mid-century need to be understood as intricately connected with those by which it became a subject of debate, resistance, and even outright rejection.
R. Marie Griffith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451409
- eISBN:
- 9780801465642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451409.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter looks at another area of assimilation and distinctiveness: gender and sexuality. It explores how Catholics made up roughly a quarter of the nation's population during the twentieth ...
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This chapter looks at another area of assimilation and distinctiveness: gender and sexuality. It explores how Catholics made up roughly a quarter of the nation's population during the twentieth century; how their leaders held to a particular, well-developed view of sexuality and gender; and how contemporary historians of sexuality and gender have neglected to integrate Catholicism into their accounts. Drawing on Leslie Woodcock Tentler's study of Catholics and birth control, the chapter surveys the ways in which disparate reformers, including Margaret Sanger, Alfred Kinsey, and Mary Steichen Calderone, managed their interactions with Catholic leaders and ideas. The chapter also grants specific attention to sources of the Protestant–Catholic divide, as well as to some possibilities for remedying it in new scholarly work.Less
This chapter looks at another area of assimilation and distinctiveness: gender and sexuality. It explores how Catholics made up roughly a quarter of the nation's population during the twentieth century; how their leaders held to a particular, well-developed view of sexuality and gender; and how contemporary historians of sexuality and gender have neglected to integrate Catholicism into their accounts. Drawing on Leslie Woodcock Tentler's study of Catholics and birth control, the chapter surveys the ways in which disparate reformers, including Margaret Sanger, Alfred Kinsey, and Mary Steichen Calderone, managed their interactions with Catholic leaders and ideas. The chapter also grants specific attention to sources of the Protestant–Catholic divide, as well as to some possibilities for remedying it in new scholarly work.
Miriam Reumann
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238350
- eISBN:
- 9780520930049
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238350.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
When Alfred Kinsey's massive studies Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female appeared in 1948 and 1953 respectively, their detailed data spurred an unprecedented ...
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When Alfred Kinsey's massive studies Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female appeared in 1948 and 1953 respectively, their detailed data spurred an unprecedented public discussion of the nation's sexual practices and ideologies. As they debated what behaviors were normal or average, abnormal or deviant, Cold War Americans also celebrated and scrutinized the state of their nation, relating apparent changes in sexuality to shifts in its political structure, economy, and people. This book employs the studies and the myriad responses they evoked to examine national debates about sexuality, gender, and Americanness after World War II. Focusing on the mutual construction of postwar ideas about national identity and sexual life, it explores the many uses to which these sex surveys were put at a time of extreme anxiety about sexual behavior and its effects on the nation. Looking at real and perceived changes in masculinity, female sexuality, marriage, and homosexuality, the author develops the notion of “American sexual character,” sexual patterns and attitudes that were understood to be uniquely American and to reflect contemporary transformations in politics, social life, gender roles, and culture. She considers how apparent shifts in sexual behavior shaped the nation's workplaces, homes, and families, and how these might be linked to racial and class differences.Less
When Alfred Kinsey's massive studies Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female appeared in 1948 and 1953 respectively, their detailed data spurred an unprecedented public discussion of the nation's sexual practices and ideologies. As they debated what behaviors were normal or average, abnormal or deviant, Cold War Americans also celebrated and scrutinized the state of their nation, relating apparent changes in sexuality to shifts in its political structure, economy, and people. This book employs the studies and the myriad responses they evoked to examine national debates about sexuality, gender, and Americanness after World War II. Focusing on the mutual construction of postwar ideas about national identity and sexual life, it explores the many uses to which these sex surveys were put at a time of extreme anxiety about sexual behavior and its effects on the nation. Looking at real and perceived changes in masculinity, female sexuality, marriage, and homosexuality, the author develops the notion of “American sexual character,” sexual patterns and attitudes that were understood to be uniquely American and to reflect contemporary transformations in politics, social life, gender roles, and culture. She considers how apparent shifts in sexual behavior shaped the nation's workplaces, homes, and families, and how these might be linked to racial and class differences.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s claim that rates of premarital intercourse were stable across the generations and on the issue of the less-than-ideal husbands that ...
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This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s claim that rates of premarital intercourse were stable across the generations and on the issue of the less-than-ideal husbands that gifted boys might grow up to be. It considers Kinsey’s review of Terman’s 1938 book Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness and analyzes the condition under which Terman’s book was written, the detail of its account of marital happiness, and the effects of its conclusions on the interpretations of Terman’s own marriage.Less
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s claim that rates of premarital intercourse were stable across the generations and on the issue of the less-than-ideal husbands that gifted boys might grow up to be. It considers Kinsey’s review of Terman’s 1938 book Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness and analyzes the condition under which Terman’s book was written, the detail of its account of marital happiness, and the effects of its conclusions on the interpretations of Terman’s own marriage.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226500768
- eISBN:
- 9780226500935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226500935.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
In its October 1972 issue, Esquire carried a story by Philip Nobile which played off claims by alarmists such as Dr. George L. Ginsberg that in recent years there had been a marked rise in impotence, ...
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In its October 1972 issue, Esquire carried a story by Philip Nobile which played off claims by alarmists such as Dr. George L. Ginsberg that in recent years there had been a marked rise in impotence, against the reassurances of Dr. Albert Ellis that only reports of such sexual dysfunctions had risen. In the decades between World War II and the 1980s, the media portrayed incapacitated males as casualties of the war, of the social pressures of the consumerist, conformist culture of the 1950s, and finally of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These were the decades in which preeminent sex surveyor Alfred Kinsey and the therapists William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson became household names. In rewriting the sexual script, they popularized notions of new models of the sexual body, and in their very different ways advocated a shift in treatment of male dysfunctions away from psychotherapy and toward sex therapy.Less
In its October 1972 issue, Esquire carried a story by Philip Nobile which played off claims by alarmists such as Dr. George L. Ginsberg that in recent years there had been a marked rise in impotence, against the reassurances of Dr. Albert Ellis that only reports of such sexual dysfunctions had risen. In the decades between World War II and the 1980s, the media portrayed incapacitated males as casualties of the war, of the social pressures of the consumerist, conformist culture of the 1950s, and finally of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These were the decades in which preeminent sex surveyor Alfred Kinsey and the therapists William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson became household names. In rewriting the sexual script, they popularized notions of new models of the sexual body, and in their very different ways advocated a shift in treatment of male dysfunctions away from psychotherapy and toward sex therapy.
Paul A. Scolieri
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199331062
- eISBN:
- 9780190050580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199331062.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Dance, History, American
This chapter focuses on Ted Shawn’s role in the development of Jacob’s Pillow from a summer dance training camp into an internationally renowned dance school and festival. Through Shawn’s wartime ...
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This chapter focuses on Ted Shawn’s role in the development of Jacob’s Pillow from a summer dance training camp into an internationally renowned dance school and festival. Through Shawn’s wartime letters to his lover Barton Mumaw, the chapter relays an insider’s view into the early years of the festival, including the building of the first theater dedicated to presenting dance in 1942. It then focuses on Shawn’s later choreographic output as well as his many programmatic achievements at the Pillow. And finally, it looks at Shawn’s twilight years, especially his attempts to document the story of his life in relation to the emerging gay rights movement he saw intensify around him, including the publication of the Kinsey Reports, the influential study of American sexual culture, in which Shawn participated with profound liberating results.Less
This chapter focuses on Ted Shawn’s role in the development of Jacob’s Pillow from a summer dance training camp into an internationally renowned dance school and festival. Through Shawn’s wartime letters to his lover Barton Mumaw, the chapter relays an insider’s view into the early years of the festival, including the building of the first theater dedicated to presenting dance in 1942. It then focuses on Shawn’s later choreographic output as well as his many programmatic achievements at the Pillow. And finally, it looks at Shawn’s twilight years, especially his attempts to document the story of his life in relation to the emerging gay rights movement he saw intensify around him, including the publication of the Kinsey Reports, the influential study of American sexual culture, in which Shawn participated with profound liberating results.
Ellen Cheshire
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231172059
- eISBN:
- 9780231850681
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172059.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
From the 1930s to the 1950s, scientists, academics, and technologists were portrayed as “heroes” working to make the world a safer, better place. In most recent years, such films have tended to offer ...
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From the 1930s to the 1950s, scientists, academics, and technologists were portrayed as “heroes” working to make the world a safer, better place. In most recent years, such films have tended to offer a warts-and-all depiction, interweaving the academic prowess of their subjects with complex emotional stories. This chapter examines two films that feature men working in academia during the same period: Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey (2004) and John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001). Kinsey focuses on the period leading up to the publication of Kinsey's 1948 study Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, through to his death in 1956. The film covered the darker sides of Kinsey's character, including his bisexuality, masochistic and voyeuristic practices. A Beautiful Mind depicted how Nash dealt with and overcame his schizophrenia.Less
From the 1930s to the 1950s, scientists, academics, and technologists were portrayed as “heroes” working to make the world a safer, better place. In most recent years, such films have tended to offer a warts-and-all depiction, interweaving the academic prowess of their subjects with complex emotional stories. This chapter examines two films that feature men working in academia during the same period: Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey (2004) and John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001). Kinsey focuses on the period leading up to the publication of Kinsey's 1948 study Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, through to his death in 1956. The film covered the darker sides of Kinsey's character, including his bisexuality, masochistic and voyeuristic practices. A Beautiful Mind depicted how Nash dealt with and overcame his schizophrenia.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s ideas about masturbation and sexual precocity, the first of his four distinctive criticisms of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male ...
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This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s ideas about masturbation and sexual precocity, the first of his four distinctive criticisms of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM). It describes the exchange between Kinsey and Terman wherein the former identified psychologist G. Stanley Hall as an important resource of anti-masturbation influence in early twentieth-century American culture, and analyzes Hall’s influence on Terman and Terman’s view on the masturbation of gifted children.Less
This chapter examines Lewis Terman’s response to Alfred Kinsey’s ideas about masturbation and sexual precocity, the first of his four distinctive criticisms of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (SBHM). It describes the exchange between Kinsey and Terman wherein the former identified psychologist G. Stanley Hall as an important resource of anti-masturbation influence in early twentieth-century American culture, and analyzes Hall’s influence on Terman and Terman’s view on the masturbation of gifted children.
Allan V. Horwitz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190603243
- eISBN:
- 9780190603281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190603243.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This chapter turns to the question of what may be considered natural or unnatural sexual behaviors. The biological and cultural approaches sharply diverge in their answers to this question. Although ...
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This chapter turns to the question of what may be considered natural or unnatural sexual behaviors. The biological and cultural approaches sharply diverge in their answers to this question. Although biological approaches regard heterosexuality as the driving force of evolution, desirable and undesirable sexual behaviors show extraordinary variability across cultures and over time. This chapter focuses on the views of Alfred Kinsey, who believed that virtually all forms of sexuality were natural so that unnatural sexual proclivities, except perhaps celibacy, do not exist. Moreover, Kinsey held that people were naturally pansexual and in the absence of repressive cultural norms would enjoy all forms of sexuality. The chapter surveys sexual behavior subsequent to Kinsey to determine what sorts of sexual activities actually emerge when cultural norms permit individuals to choose a wide variety of sexual orientations.Less
This chapter turns to the question of what may be considered natural or unnatural sexual behaviors. The biological and cultural approaches sharply diverge in their answers to this question. Although biological approaches regard heterosexuality as the driving force of evolution, desirable and undesirable sexual behaviors show extraordinary variability across cultures and over time. This chapter focuses on the views of Alfred Kinsey, who believed that virtually all forms of sexuality were natural so that unnatural sexual proclivities, except perhaps celibacy, do not exist. Moreover, Kinsey held that people were naturally pansexual and in the absence of repressive cultural norms would enjoy all forms of sexuality. The chapter surveys sexual behavior subsequent to Kinsey to determine what sorts of sexual activities actually emerge when cultural norms permit individuals to choose a wide variety of sexual orientations.
Peter Hegarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226024448
- eISBN:
- 9780226024615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024615.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the normalization of sexuality and intelligence. It explains Lewis Terman’s view on the sustained Queteletian normalization of children and sexuality, and discusses theories ...
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This chapter focuses on the normalization of sexuality and intelligence. It explains Lewis Terman’s view on the sustained Queteletian normalization of children and sexuality, and discusses theories about reproductive strategies which show that high intelligence is a necessary prerequisite for the enactment of sexual morality. The chapter also considers the legacy of Alfred Kinsey’s sexology and highlights the fact that the surveying of sexual behavior remained a heterogeneous low science after Kinsey.Less
This chapter focuses on the normalization of sexuality and intelligence. It explains Lewis Terman’s view on the sustained Queteletian normalization of children and sexuality, and discusses theories about reproductive strategies which show that high intelligence is a necessary prerequisite for the enactment of sexual morality. The chapter also considers the legacy of Alfred Kinsey’s sexology and highlights the fact that the surveying of sexual behavior remained a heterogeneous low science after Kinsey.
Mark McLelland
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520293373
- eISBN:
- 9780520966673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293373.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter examines popular sexology in Japan during the period 1945–1970 by focusing on the career of Takahashi Tetsu, one of the country's most prominent sexual scientists in the post-World War ...
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This chapter examines popular sexology in Japan during the period 1945–1970 by focusing on the career of Takahashi Tetsu, one of the country's most prominent sexual scientists in the post-World War II era. Takahashi promulgated a liberal version of Freudianism, particularly his acceptance of the ubiquity of “sexual perversity,” and collected, published, and thereby helped popularize a wide variety of information about sexuality. After providing an overview of Takahashi's prewar influences and activities, the chapter considers the spread of sexological knowledge during the time of Occupation (1945–1952). It then shows how Takahashi mobilized the works of Alfred C. Kinsey and other Western sexual scientists in the early 1950s and attempted to synthesize them with what he saw as an indigenous Japanese approach. It concludes with a discussion of Takahashi's legacy in the field of sexual science.Less
This chapter examines popular sexology in Japan during the period 1945–1970 by focusing on the career of Takahashi Tetsu, one of the country's most prominent sexual scientists in the post-World War II era. Takahashi promulgated a liberal version of Freudianism, particularly his acceptance of the ubiquity of “sexual perversity,” and collected, published, and thereby helped popularize a wide variety of information about sexuality. After providing an overview of Takahashi's prewar influences and activities, the chapter considers the spread of sexological knowledge during the time of Occupation (1945–1952). It then shows how Takahashi mobilized the works of Alfred C. Kinsey and other Western sexual scientists in the early 1950s and attempted to synthesize them with what he saw as an indigenous Japanese approach. It concludes with a discussion of Takahashi's legacy in the field of sexual science.