We owe modern sexology …..to wasps

And how is that you ask? Well, I am not an historian so I will spare how it came to be that an entomologist, aka a researcher of creepy crawlies…yikes!... ended up writing 2 volumes that revolutionised the beliefs 1950s Americans had about sex.

I will however share the key tenet of his research method…controversial, yes, biased, yes and a child of its time, yes but let’s give Kinsey a break, it was a revolution in its simplicity.

The aptly named - does what is says on the tin- book ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male’ (1948) created an uproar in more ways than one. Puritan Americans were getting their knickers in a twist because something as lewd as sex was being shared with the public in plain sight.

Mostly however the book flew off the shelf, from Time, April 12, 1948“In the 15 weeks since its publication... [the Male Report] has risen nearly to the top of the bestseller list... Its popularity shows that many a U.S. grownup is just as curious about sex as adolescents are...”

Well, well, clearly Kinsey was on to something. What was it about this book that sparked the public interest to a point of becoming a best seller?

Such was the uproar and hunger for more that Kinsey and his team tucked into the next volume…once again aptly, if unsurprisingly, named ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female’ (1953).

From Time, August 31, 1953K-Day“In London last week, the world's biggest daily, the tabloid Mirror (circ. 4,432,700), got out its three-inch type for a single banner headline: WOMEN... K-day -- the prearranged release date for a summary of [Dr. Alfred Kinsey's] book on Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Time, Aug. 24) -- set off the biggest and raciest commotion the world's press had seen in years...”

Once again, a success and, as expected, a controversy.

Kinsey was an Entomologist, not a medical Doctor, not a Sex therapist, not a Psychologist. His research subjects were bugs, and particularly the gall wasp.

Bugs do not talk, bugs do not lie, bugs are not subject to shame, bugs do not inflate or deflate the truth based on ego or fear. Bugs just are and they live their bug life without constraints.

Kinsey had to rely on statistics and observation and having catalogued over 1 million wasps!, he was amazed at the diversity, no two bugs alike.

Kinsey was therefore primed to believe ‘everybody does everything’ for this reason and he applied the same logic to humans.

Humans are the opposite in this respect, so when answering a question that expects a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, we cannot be relied on because of the weight of social, religious, family conditioning.

Kinsey and Team approached the subject from a statistical perspective, removing judgement, morality and a psychological interpretation of what the research subjects did as part of their sexual behaviour.

And to make it more relevant, the research was conducted on thousands of subjects (about 18.000 people).

In this way the Team collated evidence that normalised behaviours considered ‘deviant’ and ‘immoral’ by the narrow minded of the time.

Kinsey is credited to have proclaimed ‘Everybody’s Sin Is Nobody’s Sin and Everybody’s Crime is Nobody’s Crime’ and one can understand why.

Putting aside the limitations in his research (science has moved on in the 70 plus years since..well …supposedly), the key point remains valid today.

When looking at sexuality, how you feel about it and how you act on it, see it through an observer’s lens. Remove words such as ‘ it should’, ‘I must’, ‘others do’, ‘why do you’, ‘why don’t you’-  terms dripping with other people’s perception, rigidity, intolerance and mostly fear.

Be curious about what you see and hear. How does it make you feel? How does it land in your body? Where does it sit in your emotional state? Be your own researcher, observe, do not judge and just be.

If you want to know more check this link out https://kinseyinstitute.org/index.php