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Kinsey's View Of Eugenics

Decent Essays

In the article, author Vern L. Bullough provided an in-depth look at the research done by sexologist Alfred Kinsey and explaining the contributions he made in the field. The article claimed how Kinsey studied taboo topics and interviewed his students about their lives, a practice never conceived of being done before. The author explained how Kinsley’s controversial work was challenged by Thurman Rice, a, “bacteriology professor who had written extensively on sex, primarily from the view of eugenics” (Bullough 56). These claims were meant to display how society viewed sex as a topic that was not an area of interest for many, but the research done by Kinsley helped push the boundary on the topic and inspire other sexologists to pursue the field. …show more content…

This gave the reader a sense of where sexology was at the time before he began studying that field. The two most prominent names in sexual research were Havelock Ellis, a physician who received his medical degree to safety study sex, and Magnus Hirschfield, a physician who would later be classified as a sexual historian. The two physicians had a hands-off approach to their research where a large portion of their findings were, “usually interpreted in terms of traditional views and were supplemented by historical materials or reports of anthropologists” (54). This quote was meant to describe how the practices of early sexologists were flawed in that their research based more on philosophies rather than actual contact with people. Kinsey took a much different approach and was not afraid to ask anyone about topics ranging from female orgasms to masturbation, as he, “gathered his data wherever he could find it, but he also reported the source of his data” (59). The quote previously mentioned by Bullough provided an effective argument for the claim that Kinsey was able to push the boundaries on sexuality by sampling anyone he could about the topic, which went against the previous how researchers went about gather material since …show more content…

By using the findings from other professionals in the field, he made his arguments more convincing since he could point to where his logic came from. In one instance, he used a citation from psychiatric Karl Menninger to display how his views were scrutinized by others. Menninger believed that Kinsley’s, “compulsion to force human sexual behavior in zoological frame of reference leads him to repudiate or neglect human psychology, and to see normality as that which is natural in the sense that it is what is practiced by animals” (58). This was the only quote directly from someone in the field, but it was effective in displaying how Kinsley’s theories were revolutionary to how the study was sexuality was approached. The evidence used in the article was both convincing and relevant to the topic at hand. Bullough knew how to effectively use praise and criticism for Kinsley’s actions to describe how his practices were viewed as a

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