Editing Alfred Kinsey (section)

=== The Kinsey Reports ===
{{main|Kinsey Reports}}
[[File:Front row (left to right)- Cornelia V. Christenson; Mrs. Leser; Clyde E. Martin. Arranged on steps (left to right)- Mrs. Brown; Paul H. Gebhard; William Dellenback; Alfred E. Kinsey; Wardell B. (5493916199).jpg|thumb|Kinsey (center) with staff of the Institute for Sexual Research, later renamed the Kinsey Institute]]
Kinsey is widely regarded as the first major figure in American sexology; his research is cited as having paved the way for a deeper exploration into sexuality among sexologists and the general public, as well as liberating female sexuality.<ref name="Irvine">{{cite book|title=Disorders of Desire: Sexuality and Gender in Modern American Sexology|isbn= 978-1592131518|publisher=[[Temple University Press]]|year=2005|pages=37–43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIJXT7ZCTCsC&pg=PA37|author=Irvine, Janice M. }}</ref><ref name="Zastrow">{{cite book | author= Charles Zastrow|author-link=Charles Zastrow|title = Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare: Empowering People | publisher =[[Cengage Learning]]|year= 2007|pages=227–228| isbn = 978-0495095101 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tco4YjyZab4C&pg=PT248}}</ref> For example, Kinsey's work disputed the notions that women generally are not sexual and that female orgasms experienced vaginally are superior to clitoral orgasms.<ref name="Irvine"/><ref name="Zastrow"/> He initially became interested in different forms of sexual practices in 1933, after discussing the topic extensively with a colleague, Robert Kroc. Kinsey had been studying the variations in mating practices among gall wasps. During this time, he developed a scale measuring [[sexual orientation]], now known as the Kinsey scale, which ranges from 0 to 6, where 0 is exclusively heterosexual and 6 is exclusively homosexual; a rating of X for "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions" was later added.

In 1935, Kinsey delivered a lecture to a faculty discussion group at Indiana University, his first public discussion of the topic, wherein he attacked the "widespread ignorance of sexual structure and physiology" and promoted his view that "delayed marriage" (that is, delayed sexual experience) was psychologically harmful. Kinsey obtained research funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, which enabled him to further study human sexual behavior.<ref>, Jones, James H. Alfred C. Kinsey: A Life WW Norton New York, New York pages 441–445</ref> He published ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'' in 1948, followed in 1953 by ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female'', both of which reached the top of the bestseller lists and turned Kinsey into a celebrity. These publications later became known as the Kinsey Reports. Articles about him appeared in magazines such as ''Time'', ''Life'', ''Look'', and ''McCall's''. The Kinsey Reports, which led to a storm of controversy, are regarded by many as a precursor to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.