Alfred Kinsey was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology.
Early life
Alfred Charles Kinsey was born on June 23, 1894, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the son to Sarah Ann and Alfred Seguine Kinsey. Alfred had two siblings and was the eldest. His father was a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology while his mother had rather scarce formal education. Medical care was a problem in Alfred’s family since they were rather poor most of the time. This led to Kinsey being a victim of numerous diseases as a child. He was a member of YMCA and Boy Scouts where he became one of the youngest Eagle Scout in history of that organization.
Education
Kinsey attended Columbia High School, there he devoted most of his time to his academic prosperity and his ambition of becoming a pianist. It was later said that his biology teachers at that school was his biggest influence in becoming a scientist in the first place. After finishing high school, his father insisted that he continues his education at Stevens Institute of Technology. Alfred was not pleased with this pressure but non the less obeyed his fathers wish. At Stevens, Kinsey focused his efforts on English language and engineering, but he soon realized that his ambition regarding biology was being left completely un attended. After finishing his second year at Stevens, Kinsey confronted his father about biology and soon after continued his education at Bowdoin College in Maine. Following his graduation, he continued his post graduate studies at Harvard University where he earned his Sc.D.
Achievements
Kinsey is best known in the world as the first serious pioneer of American sexology, conducting scientific study of human sexuality. 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. Later on sign X was added to the scale by Kinsey’s associates and it represented asexuality. During his research Kinsey published his bestseller books that brought him instant fame. Kinsey Reports was a dual research publication that consisted of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male published in 1948, followed by Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953. There was much controversy regarding his work. Reports ranged from allegations of sexual involvement of colleagues in his experiments to solicitation of children about their orgasms and sexual experiences. These are just a minor part of controversy that engulfed Kinsey’s work.
Later life
Kinsey died on August 25, 1956, at the age of 62 from pneumonia and heart problems.
Alfred Kinsey quotes
“Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheeps and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white.”
“The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform.”
“We are the recorders and reporters of facts – not the judges of the behaviors we describe.”
“We are recorders and reporters of the facts-not judges of the behavior we describe.”