Evening star., 1953-09-03
Kinsey Says Women
Talk Frankly During
Interviews on Sex

WI ~"
DR.. Alfred c. Kinsey, the sex
StatiStician, says women can, and
do, tell the truth about their
love lives-at least while talking
to scientific investigators.
DR.. Kinsey told the Women's
National Press Club he found no
evidence that the traditional
reticence of American women
prevented his getting a true
story from the women he inter-
viewed for his latest book, Sex
ual Behavior in the Human Fe-
male"
He discussed the problem at
a press club luncheon that at
tracted so many guests-more
than 300-that it had to be
moved from a moderate-sized
dining room to the ballroom of
the Mayf1ower Hotel.
State Laws Attacked.
DR.. Kinsey-himself paunchy,
gray and 59-jarred the women
and their guests with a frank
talk that probably only DR.. Kin
sey could make acceptable.
He attacked State laws that
make widely practiced sex acts
illegal even between spouses; he
thanked the public for what he
said were indications that they
were willing to accept scientific
investigation in the sex field.
and he told parents who favor
sex education in the home and
church to do something about
it,"
DR.. Kinsey said that, of the
persons he and his staff have in
terviewed, not per cent had re-
ceived any appreciable sex edu-
cation from their homes or
churches. Parents and institu-
tions who hope to educate Chill
dren in sex matters must act
while the children are at an
early age. because they learn by
themselves while still very
young.
DR.. KinSey said Census Bu-
reau figures indicated 40 per
cent of marriages ended in di-
vorce. But so per cent of mar
riages actually break up, DR..
KlnSey said. He said the official
figures failed to count common
law marriages, or the marriages
that end in separations but not
formal divorces.
Sexual MaIadjuStment.
Sexual maladjustment, he
said, is one of the factors con-
tributing to rs per cent of mar
riage failures.
When a question period be-
gan, Ruth Montgomery of the
New York Daily News questioned
whether mice" women gave him
answers as freely as "our So
called sisters of the street." DR..
Kinsey drew a loud laugh with
a comment that scientist does
not use those terms.
But he said he found no evil
dence that the traditional reti-
cence of women made their
stories less reliable. He said he
had interviewed husbands to
check the accuracy of the stories
of their wives. And he has in
terviewed wives to check the ac-
curacy of the reports from their
husbands.
The data, DR.. Kinsey said, in
dicated that husbands and wives
were equally truthful while
being interviewed by scientific
investigators.
DR.. Kinsey said he did not
know how surplus weight af-
fected sex life: neither could he
offer advice on whether to send
young girl to a girls school
or a school with boys-a choice
which DR.. Kinsey jokingly de-
Scribed as lying between "a
heterosexual or a homosexual
school,"
No Specific Proposals.
DR.. Kinsey felt his study OF
women, and an earlier work on
men, could offer guidance on
social problems. He emphasized.
however, that he was Offering
no specific recommendations,
and his books did not mean to
do so, regardless of how strongly
his statistical evidence might
point toward a particular solu-
ton.
He said the problems of sexual
adjustment of youths are par
ticularly acute and he would be
very much pleased If our data
on youth should be helpful in
establishing public policy" But
even if it isn't, he said, his work
still would have been worth
while even as an excursion into
pure" science without imme-
diate application.
He said he found sexual be-
havior to be less we'll understood
than any other aspect of human
affairs" He said man knew
more about his digestion, his
respiratory process or even the
sex life of animals than he did
about his own sex life.
Social adjustment" he said,
depends on men understanding
women and upon women under
standing men. Maybe we have
contributed to that end"
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