The Kinsey Institute by Judith A. Allen

Author:Judith A. Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.5. The summer symposia provided the source material for several edited collections from the Institute between 1982 and 1994. Photo courtesy of Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections.

Many feared that the column would enmesh the Institute in controversy. Others saw it as a welcome source of public sexual health information, with support letters received far outweighing criticism. Editors of newspapers carrying the column reported that readers overwhelmingly hoped to keep the column running in their daily press. All of these good reports on the Institute column told Reinisch and the research team, as well as sex researchers worldwide, that the public was looking for scientific and factual sexual health information. Even with the rise of the New Right and a renewed conservatism gaining in politics during the 1980s, any fears about a public backlash toward the Institute or Indiana University were allayed.34

This Institute outreach brought research from a wide array of scientists and scholars to a global public. “The Kinsey Report” reached thirteen million readers a week in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Iran, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. In the United States the column was syndicated in Anchorage, El Paso, Baton Rouge, New York City, San Francisco, Detroit, and, of course, Bloomington, Indiana.35

By 1992, the column’s writers had answered more than 2,600 reader questions. Meanwhile, each year thousands of letters arrived, analysis of which revealed that most readers were seeking information about basic aspects of sexual and reproductive health and function rather than more unusual aspects of sexual behavior. Letters from readers helped influence the focus of the column. Approximately equal numbers of men and women ranging in age from eleven to one hundred wrote with their sexual health questions. “Regular analyses of the letters received reveals, not surprisingly, that female readers are most concerned about sexually transmitted disease and female genital problems,” Reinisch reported, “while males most often are concerned with erection problems and the appearance and size of their penis and testicles.”36

The newspaper column not only provided the public with scientific sexual health information but also gave researchers at the Institute a pool of letters and contacts that could serve as a source of information about the public’s concerns about sexuality. Like other outreach undertaken by Reinisch and the Institute’s team, the column demonstrated the public’s interest in sexuality despite cultural and political opposition to public discussion of sexuality and sexual health.

That public interest was to be served further by a popular sex education book. The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know to Be Sexually Literate, or KINROS, as Institute researchers called it, was an updated version of the original Kinsey Reports. The book utilized a question-and-answer format, with over 650 questions. New advances in sexology told against simply reusing the newspaper columns. New writing and rewriting would be required to incorporate the latest research.

The book reflected early 1990s sex research transformations. It provided an increased focus on public health and an integration of sexual health with other components of health and well-being.

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