This is a gem if only for the way in which it takes us back to a time when ignorance of sex was nothing short of staggering. And as much in adults, as children.
Sex, as Kinsey propounds, is a manifestation of the “biologic command”. We only have so much control over it.
Kinsey takes science into sex and it explodes a lot of myths rooted in religion. And this says a lot about making distinctions between what is construed to be normal and what really is normal. But nothing at all about what ought to be construed as normal.
IMDb:
“Despite containing relatively few depictions of sexual behavior, the MPAA gave the movie the R rating for all the conversations about sex and verbal descriptions of sexual acts. However, according to director Bill Condon, the MPAA members thanked him afterwards, because they had found the movie very educational nevertheless.”
KINSEY
Written and directed by Bill Condon
[b]Minister: Lust has a thousand avenues–the dance hall, the ice cream parlor…the tenement saloon…the Turkish bath. Like the Hydra it grows new heads everywhere. Even the modern inventions of science are used to cultivate immorality. The gas engine has brought us the automobile joyride…and an even more pernicious menace, the roadside brothel. Electricity has made possible the degrading picture show. Because of the telephone a young woman can hear the voice of her suitor on the pillow, right next to her. And let’s not forget the most scandalous invention of all–the talon-slide fastener, otherwise known as the zipper, which provides every man and boy speedy access to moral oblivion.
…
Potential interviewer: How old were you when you first tried to pleasure yourself?
Kinsey [sighing]" No. No. No euphemisms. If you’re talking to a college graduate use ‘‘masturbation,’’ ‘‘testicles,’’ ‘‘penis’’ ''vagina, ‘’ ''vulva, ‘’ ''urination, ‘’ ''defecation. ‘’ With the lower-level male, it’s ‘‘jacking off,’’ ‘‘balls’’ ''prick, ‘’ ''cunt, ‘’ ''piss, ‘’ ''shit. ‘’
…
Boyhood friend: I had one of the old fits again. I tried to stop it.
Young Kinsey [reading from a religious tract]: ‘‘Any habit which causes the sex fluid to be discharged must be resisted. Doctors link it to an assortment of illnesses including insanity, blindness, epilepsy… even death.’’
Friend: What if it happens while you’re asleep?
Kinsey: ‘‘It is said that the loss of one ounce of seminal fluid equals the loss of ounces of blood.’’
Friend: I’m killing myself, and I’m not even awake! What are we supposed to do?
Kinsey: ‘‘Keep your bowels open, read the Sermon on the Mount, sit with your testicles submerged in a bowl of cold water and think of your mother’s pure love.’’
…
Professor Rice: Abstinence poses no difficulty for the college-age male. Men don’t reach their sexual peak until the age of 40. It is the lower-class male, often Negro, who finds it difficult to control his urges. However, perfect inhibition although an ideal to be striven for is not always achievable. Stress and the worries of the day can lead to a weakening of resolve opening the door to temptation. When tense at bedtime I find there are little tricks to relaxing. If I can’t get to sleep I like to close my eyes and think of all theJohns I know. [ muffled snickering from the class] Oh, and not only Johns. Sometimes Peters. [more snickering, chuckling from the class]
The lone “Negro” Student: How about Dicks?
[The class bursts into loud Laughter]
Professor Rice [nonplussed]: I’m sorry?
…
Alfred: Love is the answer, isn’t it? But, sex raises a lot of very interesting questions…
…
Professor Kinsey: Why offer a marriage course? Because society has interfered with what should be a normal biological development causing a scandalous delay of sexual activity which leads to sexual difficulty in early marriage. In an uninhibited society, a 12-year-old would know most of the biology which I will have to give you in formal lectures. So, let’s start with the six stages of the coital sequence.[/b]
Than of course there is the love/lust can of worms. Talk about daseins and “conflicting goods”!
Alfred: It’s not you, Mac. You’re the best partner any man could have.
Clara: I’m just not enough. Is that it?
Alfred: Please, Mac. This is inside of me. To what extent, I don’t know. But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended it wasn’t there. When I took your history…
Clara: Don’t! Don’t!
Alfred: …didn’t you admit to having sexual feelings for other men?
Clara: Don’t use that against me!
Alfred: I’m sorry. But what keeps you from acting on your feelings? Convention.
Clara: No! It’s our marriage! It’s our children!
Alfred: Exactly. Social restraints.
Clara: Did you ever stop to think that perhaps those restraints are there…to keep people from hurting each other? I don’t sleep with other men because I love you…and I don’t want to hurt you.
Alfred: But what if it didn’t hurt me?
Clara: Then I’d be hurt.
Alfred: You’re just afraid that I won’t love you anymore, which is impossible, Mac. The human animal is capable of all kinds of sexual expression. Not all sex has to be sanctioned by love, enriched by emotion. To the Greeks–
Clara: Stop! Stop lecturing, Prok. Stop using science to justify what you’ve done.
Alfred: Listen to me. You’re my girl. You always will be. The bond we have, the life we share-- sex is nothing compared to that.
Clara: I can’t talk about this anymore.
And that is because talk here just sends us going around and around in circles.
[b][Kinsey’s Voice]: Most people think that what they do sexually is what everyone does…or should do. But I might remark that nearly all the so-called sexual perversions fall within the range ofbiologic normality. For example, masturbation, mouth-genital contacts and homosexual acts are common among most mammals including humans. Society might condemn such practices on moral grounds. However, it’s ludicrous to call them unnatural. But based on the first Book of Genesis and according to public opinion there’s only one correct sexual equation–man plus woman equals baby. Everything else is vice.
…
Kinsey [teaching his first class] Who can tell me which part of the human body can enlarge a hundred times. You, miss?
Female Student: [indignantly] I’m sure I don’t know. And you’ve no right to ask me such a question in a mixed class.
Alfred: [amused] I was referring to the pupil in your eye, young lady.
[class laughs]
…
Kinsey [lecturing his class] Why are some cows highly sexed while others just stand there? Why do some men need 20 orgasms a week and others almost none? Because everyone is different. The problem is, most people want to be the same. They find it easier to simply ignore this fundamental aspect of the human condition. They’re so eager to be part of the group that they’ll betray their own nature to get there. If something pleasurable and strongly desired is prohibited it becomes an obsession.[/b]
And not only with respect to sex, eh?
[b]Kinsey: One key to understanding a foreign culture is its pornography. Every culture produces its own peculiar sexual imagery–as distinct as its cuisine. As you can see, Brazil’s imagery tends towards zoophilia while Italy favors nuns and priests. In England, one often sees depictions of the stern headmistress–wankers and spankers. While in the Far East, it’s soft '‘flage’'and light bondage.
…
Kinsey: One of the aims of science is to simplify. The only way to study sex with any scientific accuracy is to strip away everything but its physiological functions.[/b]
Right.
[b]Interviewer: How often do you reach orgasm?
Research subject: Once.
Interviewer: A day?
Research subject: No. Only once. About 20 years ago. I was sitting on a piano stool listening to music.
…
Research subject: I guess I was about nine. One of them old gals caught me out in the field. And she say she was gonna show me a new game called ‘‘puddin’.’’ And, well, I guess I kinda liked it.
…
Clyde: When did you first begin masturbating?
Old Woman: I INVENTED it, son.
…
Wardell: How old were you when you first engaged in sexual activity with a partner?
Research Subject: 14.
Wardell: How?
Research Subject: With horse.
Wardell: [pause] How often were you having intercourse with animals at age 14?
Research Subject: [stunned] It’s true. I fucked a pony. You are genius, how did you know?
Wardell: You just said you had [pause] sex with horse.
Research Subject: Nooo… Whores, not horse, whores.
…
Effete Man in Gay Bar: [referring to Kinsey] Mary here says he’s from the University of Indiana and she’d like to interview me about my “sex history”.
Effete Man’s Friend: Tell him to stick around and watch.
…
Clyde: You know, this thing between Prok and me was fine for a while, but I guess I just really miss sleeping with women.
Alfred: That’s perfectly understandable. It’s clear from your history you have a greater sexual interest in women than men.
Clyde: Good. Then you wont mind if I ask Mac to have sex with me. Only if it appeals to you, of course.
Clara: Would it be separately or together?
Clyde: Oh, no, definitely just you and I.
Clara: I think I might like that. What do you think, Prok?
…
Alfred: The doctors say my heart sounds like a cement mixer.
Clyde: At least they found one.
…
Clyde: You know what amazes me? There’s no relation between how sexy a girl looks and her sex life. The ugly ones seem to get all the action.
Clara: I always thought ugly was an ugly word
…
Reporter: What brings you to New York, Dr. Kinsey?
Kinsey: We’ll be taking the sex histories of artists, writers and actors…including the entire cast of A Streetcar Named Desire.
…
Reporter: Any plans on a Hollywood picture based on the book?
Kinsey: I can’t think of anything more pointless.[/b]
Then the reactionary [religious] backlash:
[b]Herman: Seems that the archbishop of Fort Wayne tipped off the customs board.
Alfred: What is it with these people? They’re simply depictions of man in his natural state.
Herman: I don’t know much about natural states, Prok but here in the state of Indiana we have a problem.
Alfred: We’ll just have to take the customs office to court.
Herman: And who’s gonna pay for that, the Rockefeller Foundation? You’re an inch away from losing your grant as it is.
Alfred: That’s not true. What do you mean?
Herman: J Edgar Hoover is still annoyed that you won’t help him find homosexuals in the State Department.
…
Alfred [reading from an article about him]: “Self-appointed messiah of the sexually despised.” ‘‘Having had his way with the male of the species Kinsey now insecticizes American womanhood.’’
Clara: Did you get any sleep at all last night?
Alfred: How many years do I have to study human behavior before I’m no longer an entomologist?
Clara: Why do you read them, Prok?
Alfred: I’m trying to find out why people hate this book so.
Clara: You told them their grandmothers and their daughters are masturbating…having premarital sex, sex with each other. What did you expect?
…
Alfred: Do you two have any idea what a delicate time this is? Our enemies are watching everything we do. We can’t afford a single slip-up.
Clyde Martin: This has nothing to do with the project.
Alfred: Everything is about the project!
Paul: It’s just a—a misunderstanding.
Alfred: No, it’s not.! You let things get out ofhand with Martin’s wife and now she wants to leave him. Isn’t that right, Martin? [Clyde nods] And what about you, Gebhard? Are you planning to leave Agnes and the kids?
Paul: No, of course not.
Alfred: Then end it.
Paul: I’ve tried.
Alfred: It’s not difficult. Just tell her it’s over. No explanation necessary.
Paul: All right. Clyde, I’m—I’m very sorry about all of this. [Paul leaves the room]
Alfred: I saw this coming. Gebhard should have nipped it in the bud.
Clyde: You are so full of shit! What are we to you, Prok? We’re just lab rats? Is this just another part of the project to prove that sex–No. No, I’m sorry–fucking is nothing more than than friction and harmless fun? Well, let me tell you…that is a risky game, because fucking isn’t just something. It’s the whole thing. And if you’re not careful it will cut you wide open![/b]
Oh, boy. Science meets its own limitations.
[b]Alfred: I thought the rules were clear. No intense romantic entanglements. They only make people’s lives unstable.
Wardell: I guess we all can’t be as disciplined as you, Prok.
…
Kinsey [trying to persuade a more “adult” audience]: The question of marital infidelity remains one of the most complicated issues facing our society today. Reconciliation of the married individual’s desire for a variety of sexual partners and the maintenance of a stable marriage presents a problem which has not been satisfactorily resolved in our culture. The fact is, America is awash in sexual activity - only a small portion of which is sanctioned by society. - [ Whispering Chatter] Sexual morality needs to be reformed… and science will show the way. - [ Whispering Continues ] - Sometimes–I sometimes wonder what this country would look like if the Puritans had stayed at home. What if all the rogues and libertines had crossed the Atlantic instead? [ Constricted Voice ] But the enforcers of chastity are massing once again to dissuade the scientist, intimidate him…convince him to…cease research.[/b]
Flashback…
Clyde: Just, uh, one more question. You’ve just told me your entire history – childhood, family, career, every person you’ve ever had sex with – but there hasn’t been a single mention of love.
Alfred: That’s because it’s impossible to measure love. And as you know, without measurements, there can be no science. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the problem lately.
Clyde: Oh. Problem?
Alfred: When it comes to love, we’re all in the dark.
