"Changing Views of Human Sexuality: An Overview of Alfred C. Kinsey's Research and its Impact on Society in the United States"

Victoria Dunsmore Faculty Mentor: Tom Pierce Center for Gender Poster Session ~ 4:30 - 5:30 pm ~ Heth 022

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and the 1970s had a tremendous impact on how Americans view and think about sexuality. Up intill then many people would not openly discuss topics such as contraception and masturbation, but would rather keep that information at home. Influential figures such as Margaret Sanger and Masters and Johnson, brought these topics to the public eye as well as into the laboratory. This public shift towards embracing research into sexuality did not come lightly, however. The history of sexuality in the United States consists of Victorian-Era beliefs such as waiting until marriage to engage in sexual intercourse. The actual sexual behaviors individuals engaged in was brought to light by Alfred C. Kinsey who conducted multiple nationwide surveys on the sexual behaviors men and women engage in. These two surveys produced the books Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” (Brown & Fee, 2003). The current proposal aims to explain the nature of these studies, how they were conducted, what Kinsey found, as well as the backlash that ensued in a time where conservative beliefs about sexuality were held by the nation.

Keynote forum Speaker

Center Home  Psychology   Women's & Gender Studies  College of Humanities & Behavioral Sciences  Radford University

Web page:  w. andrew     Last update September 15th, 2019