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Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey on Time magazine cover, 1953 by BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF –

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Alfred Kinsey

Alfred Kinsey was a biologist, professor of entomology and zoology, and sexologist. In 1947, founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. He is best known for writing the Kinsey Reports which are Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). He also worked on the Kinsey scale. Kinsey’s research on human sexuality was foundational to the field of sexology and it provoked controversy in the 1940s and 1950s. His work has influenced social and cultural values all over the world. 

For nearly two decades, Alfred had devoted himself to sex research, working at a feverish pace and with a single-mindedness that left everyone who knew him in awe. Together, he and his coworkers had interviewed over 18,000 people, compiling more data on human sexual behavior than any scientists before them. This was the public part of his research, the work known to the world. 

In this article, we look at the top 10 unbelievable facts about Alfred Kinsey

1. Kinsey had a slight stoop from having rickets that prevented him from being drafted for WWI

Kinsey’s parents were poor for most of his childhood, often unable to afford proper medical care. This led to Kinsey receiving inadequate treatment for a variety of diseases including rickets, rheumatic fever, and typhoid fever. 

His health records indicate that Kinsey did not receive optimal exposure to sunlight which is often the cause of rickets. He also lived in unsanitary conditions for at least part of his childhood. Rickets led to a curvature of his spine, which resulted in a slight stoop that prevented Kinsey from being drafted in 1917 for World War I. 

2. Alfred considered becoming an engineer and a concert pianist

Alfred Charles Kinsey taking part in a press conference during an airport stopover –

In high school, a career in human biology wasn’t always what Kinsey had in mind for himself. When in high school, he was a dedicated piano player and even dreamed of becoming a concert pianist as an adult. 

His father had other aspirations for him: He insisted his son go to college to study engineering. Alfred complied but never warmed up to the idea of working as an engineer full time. Even as he was earning his degree, he entertained the idea of going to work for the YMCA after finishing school.

All of these plans fell through when he ultimately switched his educational focus to entomology, the study of insects and biology.

3. Kinsey was raised in a religious family

  Kinsey’s parents were devout Christians. His father was known as one of the most devout members of the local Methodist church. Most of Kinsey’s social interactions were with other members of the church, often as a silent observer, while his parents discussed religion. Kinsey’s father imposed strict rules on the household, including mandating Sunday as a day of prayer and little else.

Kinsey’s upbringing did little to dissuade him from publishing sex research later in life that directly contradicted the conservative principles he learned in Sunday school.

4. Alfred was a well-respected biologist before beginning his work on human sexuality

Kinsey entered Bowdoin College, where he studied entomology under Manton Copeland. He continued his graduate studies at Harvard University’s Bussey Institute, studying applied biology under William Morton Wheeler, a scientist who made outstanding contributions to entomology.

In 1919, Kinsey was awarded an ScD degree by Harvard University, and he accepted an academic post in biology at Indiana University. In 1920 he published several papers under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, introducing the gall wasp to the scientific community.

Kinsey wrote a widely used high-school textbook, An Introduction to Biology, which was published in October 1926. The book endorsed evolution and unified, at the introductory level, the previously separate fields of zoology and botany. 

5. Kinsey collected millions of wasps as species for his thesis

The Gall Wasp Genus Cynips: A Study in the Origin of Species, by Alfred Kinsey –

Kinsey wrote his doctoral thesis on gall wasps, zealously collecting samples of the species. He traveled widely and took 26 detailed measurements of hundreds of thousands of gall wasps; his methodology was itself an important contribution to entomology as a science. 

He studied the reproductive habits of gall wasps. The two subjects have some major differences: As just one example, gall wasps breed by embedding eggs into plants, causing growths to form that offer shelter and nourishment to their young.

Kinsey collected 7.5 million wasps during his time as an entomologist. Today, in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology of the American Museum of Natural History, of the more than 18 million insects in the museum’s collection, some 5 million are gall wasps collected by Kinsey.

6. Alfred obtained research funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, which enabled him to further study human sexual behavior

Kinsey’s research helped pave the way for a deeper exploration into sexuality among sexologists and the general public, as well as liberating female sexuality. He had been studying the variations in mating practices among gall wasps. During this time, he developed a scale measuring sexual orientation, now known as the Kinsey scale, which ranges from 0 to 6, where 0 is exclusively heterosexual and 6 is exclusively homosexual.

In 1935, Kinsey delivered a lecture wherein he attacked the widespread ignorance of sexual structure and physiology. He promoted his view that delayed marriage which is, delayed sexual experience was psychologically harmful.

The Rockefeller Foundation which is an American private foundation took a keen interest in Kinsey’s study and funded him which enabled him to expand his scope on studying human sexual behavior.

7. Kinsey filmed sexual acts involving co-workers as part of his research

Kinsey Institute for Sex Research translation staff by Smithsonian Institution from United States –

Kinsey’s research went beyond theory and interview to include observation of and participation in sexual activity, sometimes involving co-workers. Kinsey justified this sexual experimentation as being necessary to gain the confidence of his research subjects. He encouraged his staff to do likewise, and to engage in a wide range of sexual activity, to the extent that they felt comfortable. He argued that this would help his interviewers understand the participants’ responses.

Once all the data had been gathered, Kinsey was able to break down sexual trends by age, socioeconomic status, and religion to assemble a portrait of human sexuality. The study demonstrated that some practices like homosexuality, that were considered socially unacceptable were actually quite common.

8. Alfred Kinsey had an open marriage

Kinsey was bisexual having affairs with both men and women during his lifetime. As a young man would punish himself for having homoerotic feelings. He married Clara McMillen in 1921 and they agreed that both could have sex with other people as well as with each other. Kinsey had sex with other men, including his student Clyde Martin.

In an era when divorce and premarital sex were judged harshly, Kinsey veered from the norm in his own life. He encouraged the scientists who worked for him to have open marriages, leading by example.

9. The Kinsey Scale inspired other ways to measure sexuality

Kinsey’s scale of heterosexual and homosexual responses –

Kinsey was one of the first scientists to suggest that sexual identity exists on a spectrum. According to his scale, people are either a zero (totally straight), a six (totally gay), or some number in between based on past socio-sexual interactions. 

The scale was radical for its time, but in the years since, many sexologists have taken the concept and expanded upon it. In 1980, psychologist Michael Storms introduced a two-dimensional grid that includes asexuality. Even more, variables were introduced with Fritz Klein’s sexual orientation grid, including erotic fantasies, emotional preferences, social preferences, and self-identity.

10. Alfred Kinsey was inducted into the Legacy Walk in Chicago

The Legacy Walk is an outdoor public display on North Halsted Street in Chicago, Illinois, which celebrates LGBT contributions to world history and culture. According to its website, it is “the world’s only outdoor museum walk and youth education program dedicated to combating anti-gay bullying by celebrating LGBT contributions to history.

Kinsey was also one of the inaugural fifty American pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history.