KINSEY

One look at the slogan of the movie and u've surely raised your eyebrow, right? I've watched the trailer for the movie a long time ago, and it caught my attention straight away (click here for the trailer). Finally, something that deals with human sexuality with an honest and direct approach, unrestrained by politeness and such. It's about time. Come on, don't all of us have questions about sex but nv seemed to have the courage to ask them aloud due to all the taboo surrounding it? It's funny how society thinks that by making sex a taboo, this can actually suppressed unwanted sexual acts and such when in reality, these are happening everywhere while people juz pretend to be ignorant about it.

Once, I used to thought that people used to be more decent than nowadays, that sex with minors, homosexuality, masturbation etc are incredibly rare in the past before the 60's "cultural revolution". The movie proved me wrong. The only reason we know more about all these rampant immoral sexual behaviour among us is because we're aware of it now. Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, the pioneer in human sexual behaviour research, come out with this rather shocking conclusion in his time through countless interviews all over the US.

But I'm going ahead of myself. Let's talk about Alfred C. Kinsey. Originally a biologist studying gall wasps, he later began his research on human sexual behaviour. Realising that no one can say whether a sexual behaviour is normal or abnormal since there never was a study on human sexuality in the past, he began to gather infomation by interviewing thousands of ppl, and later on in his research, using rather immoral methods, such as encouraging his research staff to have sex with each other's wife etc (He argues that infomation in science is gathered through observation). As quoted by his biographer:

Kinsey felt he could only study [sex] by stripping away all but its physiological functions, first removing moral judgments, second, even harder, emotions and feelings. For both he was ideally equipped psychologically and for both he was savagely criticized.

At first, his research is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, and his 1st book, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, was an instant success and he became famous throughout the US. But after the publication of his 2nd book, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, he was vehemently criticized by religious bodies as well as conservative groups, and was accused for "insectisizing American womanhood". The fund was withdrawn, and he's finally forced to stop his research.

Of cuz, there are other aspects in the movie that I've not mentioned about, such as Kinsey's conflicted but ever loyal wife, his estrangled relationship with his religious father, and his bisexuality. U could watch the movie if u're interested in knowing all that. Now, some of u might have think that this must be some kind of porn movie or such, but it really isn't. This is how one critic described it: It should be said that Kinsey is not a masturbatory movie. It's broadly sympathetic while maintaining a clinician's conscientious detachment. I find it to be a rather moving biopic and also a rather interesting scientific brief, but this show is definitely not for everyone. For a movie that deals with sex, nudity and sex scenes are unavoidable. But in no way are these scenes gratuitous, they're juz necessary elements for such a movie.

In many ways, I can relate to Dr. Kinsey. It's sad to see how much social restraints are imposed upon him in his research (though some of them are justified, many aren't simply bcuz society is unwilling to accept the truth). That's not to say that I agree with his methods (some of them totally conflicted with my principles and belief), but I understand his frustration when ppl "disguised morality as a fact" (as quoted from the movie). For example, juz bcuz homosexuality is morally wrong doesn't mean it's a rare sexually-deviant behaviour and ppl with these disorder are "less human". It must be brought to light and be dealt with. Inappropriateness shouldn't be an obstacle to bringing turth to the light, for nothing can be solved thru ignorance.

However, it's sad that after the sexual revolution in the 60's, ppl with homosexual tendency are encouraged to be proud of it and accept their sexuality without any hesitation by so called gay-rights group and such. Perhaps if this matter has been dealt with appropriate in an open minded, more gays and lesbians can go thru "rehab" to become normal heterosexuals, or at least abstinence... After years of suppression and persecution, it's easy to understand why once they "liberated" from all these negative treatment, they burst with such freedom they became proud of their (no offense) abnormal nature.

Kinsey is definitely one of the best movie I've watched, and I challenged those with an open mind to watch it and decides for themselves wat they think of human sexuality and society's view towards it. One thing I've learned after watching the movie is how impossible it is to totally exclude morality in our sexual behaviour, as much as Dr. Kinsey tried to do so in order to obtain the appropriate data. It's really tragic to see how such wonderful gift from God has been so twistedly perverted by Man...

One last note on the movie: in one of the scene, it's clear to see the director's own sexual orientation. One of the character thank Kinsey for showing her that homosexuality is not as rare as everyone think it is, and she finally embraced her sexuality. Although I dun believe in persecution of homosexuals, neither do I believe that one should accept their abnormal sexual orientation and, u know, "to hell with morality I'll juz do wat I want so long as me and my partner are happy so mind ur own business" thing. But I guess we can't enforced standards of morality of our beliefs upon others who do not share the same faith as us, eventhough it IS wrong. All we can do is try to help them, and definitely, pray for them.