Kinsey’s sex research provides answers to taboo questions

From Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, sex is no stranger to the public eye.

However, since the birth of the Internet, access to trusted, non-sensationalized information about sex is something that is hard to find. The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction serves as a source for accurate information for both research and personal health, said Debby Herbenick, associate director for the Center for Sexual Health Promotion and sex educator for Kinsey Confidential.

The Kinsey Institute is a research facility that allows students and researchers access to art, artifacts, film, audio, journals and books all devoted to sexuality. While the institute requires individuals to have some sort of research need to access the collection, Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of art, artifacts, and photographs for the Kinsey Institute, said this requirement is interpreted broadly, pertaining to both visual and written research.

For those who wish to visit the Kinsey Institute for reasons other than research, the art gallery showcases different aspects of the permanent collection at any given time and is free and open to the public. Because the collection relies almost entirely on donations, it includes a variety of items, ranging from art by IU students to erotic photographs, Johnson-Roehr said.

“Getting things almost entirely through donations gives us a broad and unique collection, much more than we could otherwise have,” she said.

The institute also provides a service called Kinsey Confidential, which is centered on answering sexual -health questions.

The Kinsey Confidential blog, which provides sexual-health information from the Kinsey Institute, can be found at www.kinseyconfidential.org.

Jennifer Bass, director of communications for the Kinsey Institute, said this service was originally started to lend the expertise of sexual researchers to benefit students and their sexual health. The Kinsey Confidential Web site largely appeals to students because of its privacy and the ease of finding medically accurate answers for their questions, she said.

Although some people might feel comfortable asking their friends or doctors questions about sex, information from friends might be inaccurate and doctors have not necessarily had sexual health training and may not be able to answer questions,
Herbenick said.

While we live in a world where women get their information about how to please their man from Cosmo, the Kinsey Institute’s research focuses heavily on educating people more accurately about sexual health. By concentrating on identifying reasons for sexual behavior, the Kinsey Institute aims to help people with sexual problems so they can understand the issues a little better, Bass said.

Herbenick said that because most people do not read medical journals, Kinsey Confidential attempts to put the same information about sexual health in a more reader-friendly format with a blog and podcasts that can be downloaded free from iTunes.

“We break topics down and figure out how they matter in our own lives,”
Herbenick said.