Alfred Charles Kinsey: Homosexuality In The Twentieth Century

Alfred Charles Kinsey altered the way in which people of the twentieth century understood homosexuality. This created a great deal of discussion and controversy that became an enduring part of American culture, which introduced the world into viewing homosexuality as customary. Historian Dagmar Herzog supports Alfred Charles Kinsey’s findings by observing Europeans reactions to Kinsey’s report in comparison to Americans reactions. Historian Dagmar Herzog argues what Kinsey accomplished was phenomenal, he took ordinary people and the rage and intensity of their sexual longings and the diversity of their actual sexual practices seriously as no one had done before (Herzog, 2006). Therefore, Kinsey influenced the way the world viewed homosexuality

Alfred Charles Kinsey brought homosexuality into the public forum. Alfred Charles Kinsey and his colleagues enquired detailed questions regarding research participants sexual backgrounds, with these results Alfred Charles Kinsey published two books: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). From these research findings Alfred Charles Kinsey and his colleagues Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin created The Kinsey Scale (also known as the Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale) in 1948, in order to account for the research findings that showed people did not fit into neat and exclusive heterosexual or homosexual categories (“The Kinsey Institute – Kinsey Sexuality Rating Scale,” n.d.). The publics’ reactions ranged from admiration and gratitude to horror and disgust. Some proponents believed that Alfred Charles Kinsey’s work would benefit humanity because increased knowledge of our sexual natures could only improve people’s lives, while opponents called the research ungodly and amoral (“The Kinsey Institute – Kinsey Sexuality Rating Scale,”