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The Effects Of Sexual Behavior On The Human Male

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As scholarly reviews started to trickle in, it became clear that there were problems with Kinsey 's work. Reviewers complained that he ignored love, emotion, and the complexities of culture. However, the most damaging critiques focused on his sampling method; questioning whether the enormous number of people, he interviewed, were a true representation of the American population. Indeed this was not an idle question, given Kinsey 's predilection for recruiting college students, prostitutes, and prison inmates to participate in the study. He rigorously interviewed thousands of Americans about their sexual histories and practices. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was published in 1948 (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948). Sexual Behavior in the …show more content…

More than that, he realized how deadly such ignorance could be. Despite an epidemic of venereal disease, unwanted pregnancies and dangerous illegal abortions, ‘abstinence only’ was being taught in the ‘marriage courses’ (euphemistic forerunners of sex-education) at the University. The link between his earliest, work and his latest, work is his focus on methods of mass data gathering, classification of that data, and the knowledge that classification can generate. Some advocate the perpetuation of our ignorance because they fear that science will undermine the mystical concepts that they have substituted for reality. There appear to be more persons who believe that an extension of our knowledge may contribute to the establishment of better marriages (Kinsey, Pomery and Martin). Failure to recognize these differences in the needs of the two sexes for a regular sexual outlet may be the source of a considerable amount of difficulty in marriage (Brady). Many papers included complimentary copy, ranging from interviews with ‘common people’ about their attitudes toward ‘the new sex book’ to sermons that eluded to the fact that Kinsey was the equivalent of the devil himself. Some papers argued for the merits of Kinsey on the grounds of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Speculations on his reasoning include boredom, a desire for wider fame and renown,

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