Kinsey Institute leads in sex research

Placed right in the center of campus sits a collection of pictures, films and piles of research surrounding the subject of sex. It includes art so erotic, visitors must receive permission to gain access to the library.\nBut through an hour-long tour offered occasionally throughout the year in Morrison Hall, there are many materials still available to the public eye. One of the key pieces in the tour is a hand written letter by Sigmund Freud himself, replying to a woman concerned that her son might be gay.\nAfter passing through dozens of framed erotic pieces hung in narrow hallways, there comes an art gallery home to spectacular artifacts from both the past and present. A favorite piece of many tourists is a cowboy head condom that sits next to other condom creations. Some pieces can be fooling to the unsuspecting eye, like the small porcelain figurines from China. The dainty looking Chinamen and women look like an average couple lounging around, but when you turn them upside down, they suddenly flash you and you realize what they're actually doing.\nEven though it was sometimes labeled as a "sinful act," Alfred Kinsey, a professor educated at Harvard, voyaged into the uncharted cosmos of sex some 60 years ago, according to the Kinsey Institute Web site.\nBut sex wasn't exactly his focus -- it was gall wasps. When women at IU started pushing for a class on marriage, Kinsey was the first to be asked to teach it. From the start, Kinsey's classes were full of questions about relations of the male and female. Kinsey soon realized there was no data to answer these questions -- and so the research began.\nThe charismatic and daring doctor began his research questioning un-daring individuals about their sexual appetites and relationships. Kinsey would engage a conversation with such charm, that even as early as the 1930s, men and women began describing their sexual behaviors to him with full confidence.\nJennifer Bass, head of information services at the Institute, said people are often surprised to find out that the Institute's erotic collection is in Indiana.\nAs a sophomore, Heather Goble said she was surprised to find out the private collection is held at the university she now calls home.\n"I never knew that we had that (the private collection)," said Goble, a transfer student from IU-South Bend.\nBass said Kinsey was very lucky to have had Herman B Wells as the IU president. She said without his confidence and belief in sexual research, there would have been little chance for it at the University.\n"There are two reasons why the Institute exists: one is Alfred Kinsey and the other is Herman B Wells," Bass said.\nProfessor of Gender Studies Linda Hoke-Sinex added the research was extremely important even when it wasn't exactly socially applauded.\n"We had this veil put over us and we didn't look at certain things associated with sexuality because it wasn't socially acceptable to do that."\nEven though our culture is now more sexually comfortable, the Institute still faces daily criticism.\n"We are used to the controversy here," Bass said. "There are conservative groups who think that Kinsey's research started America on the road to moral decay, or that sex is too private or sacred to be studied or talked about. Obviously we disagree."\nHoke-Sinex defended the Kinsey research. \n"You shouldn't mask any type of research, because you may not learn something that is valuable to know," she said. \nGoble acknowledged she is not fully educated about the research and said it is important for the well-being of people having sex.\n"Sex is a big part of everyone's life, and I think we should study it to help us better understand ourselves," she said. "I mean, if people are going to do it, they might as well be more knowledgeable about it."\nAnd so the Kinsey Institute does just that, remaining as one of the world leaders handling sex research and its criticism.\nBut Bass doesn't let that get in the way of what's important to the research.\n"We like being the only one," she said. "We like being the world-renowned Institute and a unique center for scholars studying all aspects of human sexuality," she said. "There's no (other) place that combines research with such extensive collections of historical, scientific, cultural and artistic material. Here it's all housed under one roof."\nAt the end of the tour, a black and white portrait of Kinsey backed into a corner bids visitors farewell.\nAccording to tour guide and Development Assistant Dara Eckart, the location of Kinsey's portrait could represent the intense criticism and scrutiny he faced during his life.\nStill, the portrait shoots a grin of what could be interpreted as pride.\n-- Contact staff writer Aishah Hasnie at ahasnie@indiana.edu.