Kinsey indeed did the nation a favor when he published his studies of the sex habits of the American male and female and the nation finally got a chance to see what was actually being done sexually versus the repressive conventions of the times that had many people believing that they were sexually abnormal. However, if the facts of the movie are largely true, it seems that Kinsey fell victim to the same basic fallacy as Ayn Rand. Kinsey seemed to believe that just because something - in this case sex - can be described and studied objectively, that it can and should be practiced objectively.
For example, Kinsey plunged into a homosexual affair with his assistant - with his wife's full knowledge - because he wanted to explore a side of himself he felt he had been repressing. His wife seems quite hurt by the revelation, but later she embarks on an affair with the same assistant when he tires of her husband, apparently with Kinsey's encouragement. Maybe this worked for the Kinseys, but for most people this type of behavior would break a relationship. It also seemed odd that Kinsey was as insistent and preachy about adults being sexually liberated as his father had been with the opposite viewpoint, ultimately alienating his own son just as his father had alienated him.
In the long run Kinsey's work was key to decriminalizing all kinds of sexual behavior that had been considered deviant up to that time.
This film was a very balanced and frank biopic of Dr. Kinsey, in my opinion.
For example, Kinsey plunged into a homosexual affair with his assistant - with his wife's full knowledge - because he wanted to explore a side of himself he felt he had been repressing. His wife seems quite hurt by the revelation, but later she embarks on an affair with the same assistant when he tires of her husband, apparently with Kinsey's encouragement. Maybe this worked for the Kinseys, but for most people this type of behavior would break a relationship. It also seemed odd that Kinsey was as insistent and preachy about adults being sexually liberated as his father had been with the opposite viewpoint, ultimately alienating his own son just as his father had alienated him.
In the long run Kinsey's work was key to decriminalizing all kinds of sexual behavior that had been considered deviant up to that time.
This film was a very balanced and frank biopic of Dr. Kinsey, in my opinion.