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Statue Honoring Controversial Sex Researcher Alfred Kinsey Draws Criticism

   DailyWire.com
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A new bronze statue commemorating the controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey was erected at Indiana University (IU) last week.

IU released a press statement on its website on Friday praising Kinsey’s pioneering research in human sexuality, but critics believe data he gathered involving the sexual abuse of children make him unworthy of celebration. 

The life-size sculpture was commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of the Kinsey Institute, a sex and reproduction research facility at IU. According to the press release, the statue’s installation on the Bloomington campus demonstrates the “ongoing commitment to equity regarding sexual diversity established by Kinsey’s research.”

“Dr. Kinsey left us with the extraordinary legacy of his endless scientific curiosity, his unwavering commitments to academic freedom and his passion for understanding humanity’s sexual diversity,” said Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute. “This spectacular sculpture honors Kinsey’s international scholarly and public impact, reminding us of the importance of the ongoing research, education and historical preservation occurring daily at today’s vibrant Kinsey Institute.”

But not everyone views Kinsey as a figure worthy of accolades. Dr. Miriam Grossman, a child psychiatrist appearing in The Daily Wire documentary, “What Is a Woman,” opposes the statue honoring Kinsey. “That paradigm of depravity, lies, and sickness? I want to say I don’t believe this but sadly, I do,” Grossman told The Daily Wire.  

Several of Kinsey’s published works have been the subject of controversy decades after their release. Two books on human sexual behavior, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” (1948) and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” (1953), contain data on pre-adolescent orgasms from children as young as two months old. Tables 30 through 34 of the male volume, in particular, have drawn concerns of child abuse. Table 34, titled “Examples of multiple orgasms in pre-adolescent males,” includes the notation, “Duration of stimulation before climax; observations timed with a second hand or stop watch. Ages range from five months of age to adolescence.” 

Some believe that the data collection could have only been obtained by direct observation or participation in child abuse, mainly because of the mention of a stop watch or second hand on a clock to record the time it took for each child to reach orgasm. 

The Kinsey Institute reportedly had denied these claims on their website, “[Kinsey] did not carry out experiments on children; he did not hire, collaborate, or persuade people to carry out experiments on children.” 

John Bancroft, the former director of the Kinsey Institute, contends that all of Kinsey’s data concerning children and adolescents came not from experimentation but from a single pedophile who kept a diary of his experiences with 317 pre-adolescent boys. Bancroft said in an interview in 1995, “the material in the tables came from one man, an extraordinary man with incredible numbers of sexual experiences on which he kept very careful notes.”

Despite all of the controversies surrounding Kinsey, Dr. Kenneth Zucker, an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist, believes his body of research as a whole is worthy of a tributary statue. “Kinsey conducted ground-breaking research in the field of sexual science,” Zucker told The Daily Wire. “Did the man, as Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) might say, have his limitations? Sure. But who doesn’t? I don’t understand what the concern is.”

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