I feel like Dude's contributions weren't really in the form of number and facts, but in the form of, you know... talking about sex and acknowledging that sex is awesome, and people have sex differently and it's all still right, and so on and so forth.
Aaaand that's the point of one of my half-finished fics that I keep puttering away at, but which has been pushed to the background by the MASSIVE AU that's owning my brain...
hehe, it's kind of combination of the movie and the documentary (I watched them both within a month of each other and they're both called Kinsey, which is frustrating.
And I agree - he broke a huge wall down in our culture and in many European cultures. Unfortunately, he broke it down in colleges. People are still really touchy about sex ed in high schools or for younger children. I wish, at the very least, that people would explain to younger children that just because your body is ready for sex doesn't mean your mind or heart is. There are more than a few people I know who had actual sexual experiences (usually giving oral) at the age of thirteen. And they probably didn't even know they were being taken advantage of.
It's one thing to have this massive guilt and shame hovering over the act as a whole, but quite another to teach kids what places other people shouldn't be touching and that if someone does, tell people. :/
That's a large part of why I think the idea of masturbation should be taught to kids in late elementary/middle school. Of course, the very idea that schools would encourage any kind of sexual behavior is so terribly shocking that no one would allow it.
And seriously-- I made it to fifteen before having any sort of sexual experience at all, and I still was barely ready! I feel so bad for young teens who just have no idea how to deal with anything they're feeling because there's no information provided for them.
I kind of wish someone had taught me how to masturbate. Or at least that I got some kind of confirmation that, yes, this is normal.
I was pretty ready for what I got at fifteen (honestly, I didn't get that much out of it, but I like making people happy), but being a nineteen-year-old pretty-much-a-virgin is more of a nuisance (not so much the virginity as the not having someone who I'm in that kind of relationship with) than a "oh, I'm waiting for the right time/person/place/stars aligning..."
I agree that the best parts of the legacy are the rough guidelines and the idea that it can be a good thing -- and a worthy academic endeavor! -- to talk about sex. Also I can never remember which end of the Kinsey scale is which, which is okay because I'm pretty sure I'm right in the middle of it. :)
Nice precis of Kinsey's bio. I keep meaning to rent the movie, but always forget to.
I've some reason to be thankful to Kinsey, as I'm reasonably certain that at least one of my nurse grandmothers owned his studies. And that those studies were the reason my grandmothers made a point of taking the grandkids aside and explaining all the sex stuff. By "explain," I mean teaching that masturbation was natural and acceptable, how to use birth control, and that no, men did not "have" to have sex so if someone uses that excuse on you, kick him in the family jewels and run, Liesel. Funny part was that both of them were devout Catholics. For a certain value of devout.
Comments 13
I feel like Dude's contributions weren't really in the form of number and facts, but in the form of, you know... talking about sex and acknowledging that sex is awesome, and people have sex differently and it's all still right, and so on and so forth.
Aaaand that's the point of one of my half-finished fics that I keep puttering away at, but which has been pushed to the background by the MASSIVE AU that's owning my brain...
Reply
And I agree - he broke a huge wall down in our culture and in many European cultures. Unfortunately, he broke it down in colleges. People are still really touchy about sex ed in high schools or for younger children. I wish, at the very least, that people would explain to younger children that just because your body is ready for sex doesn't mean your mind or heart is. There are more than a few people I know who had actual sexual experiences (usually giving oral) at the age of thirteen. And they probably didn't even know they were being taken advantage of.
It's one thing to have this massive guilt and shame hovering over the act as a whole, but quite another to teach kids what places other people shouldn't be touching and that if someone does, tell people. :/
Reply
And seriously-- I made it to fifteen before having any sort of sexual experience at all, and I still was barely ready! I feel so bad for young teens who just have no idea how to deal with anything they're feeling because there's no information provided for them.
Reply
I was pretty ready for what I got at fifteen (honestly, I didn't get that much out of it, but I like making people happy), but being a nineteen-year-old pretty-much-a-virgin is more of a nuisance (not so much the virginity as the not having someone who I'm in that kind of relationship with) than a "oh, I'm waiting for the right time/person/place/stars aligning..."
Reply
(PS Thanks. :)
Reply
I agree that the best parts of the legacy are the rough guidelines and the idea that it can be a good thing -- and a worthy academic endeavor! -- to talk about sex. Also I can never remember which end of the Kinsey scale is which, which is okay because I'm pretty sure I'm right in the middle of it. :)
Reply
Reply
I've some reason to be thankful to Kinsey, as I'm reasonably certain that at least one of my nurse grandmothers owned his studies. And that those studies were the reason my grandmothers made a point of taking the grandkids aside and explaining all the sex stuff. By "explain," I mean teaching that masturbation was natural and acceptable, how to use birth control, and that no, men did not "have" to have sex so if someone uses that excuse on you, kick him in the family jewels and run, Liesel. Funny part was that both of them were devout Catholics. For a certain value of devout.
Reply
The movie is a little more interesting than the documentary, but the documentary has a lot more facts packed in.
Reply
Oh, I know all about Kinsey, I just really want to see Peter Sarsgard seduce Liam Neeson. ::blush:: Never said I wasn't shallow.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment