The Man Who Mainstreamed Perversion

Susan Brinkmann has written a small gem of a book, encapsulating the life and influence of one of the most negative characters in American history: Alfred Kinsey. Based largely on the work of Judith Reisman, The Kinsey Corruption initially was serialized in the Philadelphia archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times. As a solid journalistic series, it is written clearly and to the point, with only occasional repetition.

Brinkmann suggests that without the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the credibility of his position at Indiana University, Kinsey’s "scientific work" likely would never have been published.

I agree. It is unthinkable that 1950s America would have looked kindly on data collected by a bisexual pedophile recounting the sexual experience of convicted sex offenders, prostitutes, serial rapists, and other prison inmates. It certainly would not have accepted such data as representative of the normal population, let alone as the basis for rewriting American sexual laws.

But so it happened. Brinkmann works the story chronologically, following Kinsey from his "repressive" Christian upbringing through his coming of age as a homosexual and his apparently respectable marriage to a female sexual adventurer with whom he had four children.

Brinkmann, following Reisman’s lead, places great stress on the sordid elements of Kinsey’s story. For example, two of his "co-investigators" were serial rapists: Rex King, convicted of 800 counts of child rape involving both sexes, and Fritz von Balluseck, an ex-Nazi convicted of the rape-murder of a ten-year-old girl in Berlin. For years, both men submitted written accounts of their various boy and girl rapes to Kinsey for inclusion in his database.

Brinkmann mentions, without comment, the fact that a 1998 BBC documentary linking Kinsey to von Balluseck has yet to air in the United States; one wonders why not.

Brinkmann cites Susan Brownmiller’s quote of Kinsey on rape: "The only difference between rape and a good time depends on whether the girl’s parents were awake when she finally came home."

Such views were hardly mainstream in the 1950s, nor were they part of Kinsey’s public image, which was that of the impeccably neutral scientist.

Sordidness defined Kinsey’s personal and professional life. His sexual history questionnaires were extremely intrusive, and they provided Kinsey with fodder for blackmail. So did his filming of Kinsey Institute orgies, which apparently included wife swapping, group sex, sadomasochism, and other sexual permutations; participation was mandatory for Kinsey Institute staff and spouses.

Brinkmann suggests that judicious use of blackmail helped Kinsey defend himself against those who might have impeded his agenda, which was nothing less than destroying Judeo-Christian sexual ethics. Kinsey was a fanatical religious bigot, inflamed with hatred for Christians, Jews, and traditional morality. He was also a fervent racist, which put him on the same page as his friend and close associate Margaret Sanger. Together, they imposed their morality on American society.

Ever wonder why rape is seldom prosecuted or why pornography, sodomy, fornication and adultery are no longer illegal? Perhaps you are curious why cutting-edge legal philosophers contemplate the legalization of pedophilia and incest? Or why the right of "privacy" and the "right" to abortion have become the law of the land? Or why pornographic sex ed is now the norm, even in Catholic schools?

Brinkmann very concisely links it all to Kinsey, making a convincing case that Kinsey was the father of both the sexual revolution and abortion on demand.

Kinsey "proved" through his "scientific studies" that most men have raped women or children, committed adultery, or frequented prostitutes, and that women were almost equally depraved and highly prone to illegal abortion. Those being the alleged norms, Kinsey and his colleagues composed a Model Penal Code for dealing with sexual issues, which decriminalized practically every known behavior. After all, if everyone is doing it, why make it a crime?

Why indeed.

The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University eventually lost its Rockefeller Foundation funding due to severe criticism from English medical authorities who questioned the idea that norms could be based on the behavior of sexual criminals. But Playboy, Penthouse, and Planned Parenthood came to Kinsey’s aid.

Together, they established the school sex-education industry through their subsidiaries, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) and the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS), which together write most of the curricula used for elementary and secondary school sex education and certify most sex-ed teachers.

Whoever said one man can’t make a difference?

Brinkmann’s book is small, but it’s well worth reading. It very efficiently gives the reader all he needs to know to understand the roots of modern America’s moral crisis.

Who knows? Perhaps in debunking Kinsey, Brinkmann and Reisman may have begun pushing the pendulum back toward decency and a truly human vision of sex. So we pray.

—Robin Bernhoft

The Kinsey Corruption: An Expose on the Most Influential "Scientist" of Our Time
By Susan Brinkmann
4 stars
Ascension
80 pages
$5.95
ISBN: 1932645712