What is the Kinsey scale?

Traditionally it has been considered that there are Two great sexual orientations, homosexuality and heterosexuality being one the denial of the other.

Content

• Expanding horizons
• Scale origins
• What is the scale
• So are we almost all bisexual?
• The importance of the Kinsey scale
  • Bibliography

Expanding horizons

The study that the biologist was carried out between the 40s and 50s of the 20th century Alfred Kinsey denies this statement. From this study it was when bisexuality and other options began to gain importance and for the first time monosxuality was displaced by diversity and it was recognized that Most people have a greater or lesser degree of bisexuality In sexual behaviors and that the percentage of people located at the ends of the scale is very small.

Scale origins

The Kinsey scale was created from the report made to thousands of volunteers of both sexes in the late 40s and early 50s in the United States. This report and the consequent scale could be made thanks to the change of attitudes towards sexuality that caused Freud's ideas in North America who pioneered openly about the various sexual problems that can affect people.

From interviews with more than 5000 Americans about their sexual practices, Kinsey wrote two books "Male sexual behavior"(1947) and"Women's sexual behavior”(1953) his study concluded that Biological sex is not always linked to emotional sex. He also defended that the sexual behaviors that are considered deviated are normal considering abnormality to be exclusively heterosexual and that this occurs as a product of social conditioning and cultural inhibitions. Thus, he concluded that this dichotomy was too limiting, since there were many people who did not fit in either of the two poles, but that The intermediate states were much more abundant than expected, there is a whole range of sexual orientations.

Although his study was criticized for using a biased statistical methodology, a novel contribution of Kinsey and his collaborators was that they quantified heterosexuality and homosexuality on a continuous scale from 0 to 6, based on the heterosexual and homosexual experience and reactivity of each subject of each subject. 0 on this scale was assigned to individuals whose contacts and sexual experiences took place exclusively with individuals of the opposite sex and 6 to exclusively homosexual individuals.

What is the scale

This scale measures The degree of homosexuality based on certain features of personality and sexual habits.

The scale has 7 levels ranging from heterosexuality to purest homosexuality. A section is also included for those who are asexual.

These would be the items of the scale.

1. Exclusively heterosexual. He has never maintained homosexual relationships and even considers it.
2. Predominantly heterosexual, but accidentally homosexual. At first they are heterosexual And they do not think about maintaining relationships with people of the same sex, but they feel curious and can manifest some homosexual experience throughout his life.
3. Predominantly heterosexual, but more than accidentally homosexual. Repressed homosexuals, feel a great attraction for their own sex, although their love relationships are used to be with people of the opposite sex.
4. Equally homosexual and heterosexual
5. Predominantly homosexual rather than accidentally heterosexual. Homosexual people who lead a heterosexual lifestyle and who can feel curiosity or maintain sporadic relationships with people of the other sex.
6. Predominantly homosexual, accidentally heterosexual. Homosexual person with some type of heterosexual relationship throughout your life
7. Exclusively homosexual.
8. No sex or asexual relations. They do not feel sexual attraction for either sex.

So are we almost all bisexual?

As we can see according to the Kinsey scale, It is very common to have some degree of bisexuality, This is more common than heterosexuality or homosexuality in its purest form.

The Kinsey scale at the time of its appearance was a different perspective on human sexuality since it broke with the dichotomous and closed idea of ​​man-woman, with their associated gender roles.

This scale has meant the inspiration in regard to gender studies because it exceeds the idea of ​​heteronormality, and does not place heterosexuality in the center of social behaviors.

In short, thanks to this scale, Heterosexuality as normal will be considered a social construction too simplified. This heteronormality has been seen as an excuse to exert social pressure to minorities that are outside this standardized sexual orientation.

The importance of the Kinsey scale

Doubting the traditional concepts of hetero and homosexuality, Kinsey generated a great controversy but, at the same time, allowed many people who did not fit into the binary classification, began to accept their sexuality, which until then was considered abnormal.

Perhaps in some future to the Kinsey scale loses validity, leaving place to an understanding of much broader and more variable sexuality, until then this scale is a way of claiming sexual diversity.

Bibliography

https: // www.Kinseyinstitute.Org/Research/Publications/Kinsey-Scale.PHP