The Kinsey scale of sexuality

Have you ever heard that “we are all bisexual“? This was what Alfred Kinsey proposed – already in the last century. This renowned biologist and sexologist, following his study, developed the Kinsey scale of sexuality, based on the idea that the construct “sexual orientation” constitutes a continuum between two poles (pure heterosexuality and pure homosexuality).

From his research, published what is now known as the Kinsey Report. His theory is one of the basic pillars on which studies on sexual orientation are based and represented a “revolution” in those years. Do you want to know more about this famous report and your sexual orientation test? Here we tell you.

Alfred Kinsey

Alferd Kinsey and his theory

Alfred was born in 1894 into a very religious family, which marked his childhood and youth. After his first years, he renounced the religion of his parents and became an atheist. In 1914, Kinsey began his studies in biology, attracted by the study of human sexual behavior..

As a university professor He became even more interested in sexual behavior in humans, realizing that there was not much scientific data on the matter. Therefore, in 1938, he began his own investigation, which lasted more than 15 years. During it, he compiled data from nearly 20,000 face-to-face interviews, which led him to conclude that Classifying us as homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual was old and limited.

Kinsey challenged the traditional dualistic belief that people are differentiated into homosexuals and heterosexuals, depending on our sexual status. He postulated that being purely homosexual or purely heterosexual is rare and that being one thing or another is more a matter of degree than an absolute question, with different nuances between black and white.

Today, it is a statement that we accept willingly, some more than others, as always. However, let us not forget that Kinsey ventured to publish this report in the 40s-50s. Perhaps more than a revolution, as he said, it could have meant the end of his career. However, it was precisely that that made his studies spread very quickly.

Before we delve into the findings… What is the Kinsey scale?

The Kinsey scale establishes seven levels of sexual orientation and includes a category that would include all those people who do not experiment with sexuality (asexuality). The scale constitutes a continuum between the poles “pure homosexuality” and “pure heterosexuality.”

This scale, as the Kinsey Institute advises, is not an official test to measure our sexual orientation, but it can help us place ourselves at some point on the continuum. It is necessary to point out that the dimensional conception of the construct “sexual orientation” is accurate since our tastes, tendencies and preferences can fluctuate throughout our life and our life history.

Kinsey scale levels

In the following table you can see the seven levels established by Kinsey and the percentage of heterosexual and homosexual sexual contacts that were found in each of the levels.

RANGEDESCRIPTION% OF HOMOSEXUAL CONTACTS% OF HETEROSEXUAL CONTACTS0Exclusively heterosexual0 %100 %1Mainly heterosexual, with sporadic homosexual contacts1-25 %99-75 %2Predominantly heterosexual, with more than sporadic homosexual contacts26-49 %74-51 %3Bisexual50 %50 %4Predominantly homosexual, with more than sporadic heterosexual contacts51-74 %49-26 %5Mainly homosexual, with sporadic heterosexual contacts75-99 %25-1 %6Exclusively homosexual100 %0 %XAsexual, without interest in sexual contacts0 %0 %

Kinsey Scale Questions

Some of the questions we can find are the following:

Who are you attracted to? Who have you had sex with (gender of sexual partner)? Who have you had sexual fantasies about (gender of person)? Who do you form strong emotional bonds with? Who do you feel most comfortable with? socializing?Do you like the idea of ​​thinking about having sex with people of the opposite sex/same sex as you?

As you can see, Not all questions refer exclusively to sexual behavior. Most of us create strong bonds with people of the same sex and the comfort of socializing with certain people does not depend on their gender, but on their personality, on the harmony that is created between us.

Thus, it is to be expected that it will be rare to obtain a purely homosexual or purely heterosexual result (as long as the aspect of sexual relations is not only considered).

The Kinsey Report: revolutionary or inconceivable results?

The Kinsey Report, published in 1948, is divided into two publications: “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,” which reflect the following results and statements:

Homosexuality existed at all social and occupational levels. Many people do not strictly define themselves as heterosexual or homosexual due to their tastes and experiences: only 4% showed strictly homosexual behavior throughout his life and already manifests during adolescence.

In the case of men…

Almost the 40% of men had had a homosexual orgasm in their childhood (either through thoughts or consummatory acts with other people). 13% of men felt homosexual desires, without any physical contact occurring; 25% of them had non-incidental homosexual experiences between the ages of 16 and 55; and 18% had an equal number of heterosexual and homosexual relationships for a period of at least 3 years, between the ages of 16 and 55, but only 10% had strictly homosexual behavior for a period of at least 3 years and between ages 16 to 55 years.

In the case of women…

Only 13% of women had experienced a homosexual orgasm since adolescence (compared to 37% of men). 33% of the women interviewed had had some type of homosexual practice in their lives, although only 3% of women had been predominantly homosexual for a period of at least 3 years. Women, in contrast to men, were not usually promiscuous and had homosexual relationships with only 1 or 2 partners in 71% of the cases.

So are we all bisexual?

Perhaps this statement is as bold as stating that there are no “pure” homosexual or heterosexual people. Due to the age and methodological limitations, Kinsey’s work came under harsh criticism.

He was criticized because the sample of participants was not random, but they were recently married students who wanted to do it soon. Therefore, the generalization of the results is complicated. As this is a study on quite private and intimate behaviors, it is to be expected that the responses are quite biased and do not offer a story that is too close to reality.

Drawing conclusions regarding people’s sexual orientation is, to say the least, risky. A test is hardly going to define you. However, Kinsey’s theory does serve to open minds: we stop considering sexual orientation as a dichotomous category and begin to consider it valid to be placed at any point in a space that can have different dimensions.

On a social level, this “openness” greatly relaxes the social pressure on having to fit, no matter what, into one of the two (or three) traditional categories (homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual). In fact, it is increasingly accepted to think that, many times, people are not attracted to a specific gender, but rather to personality (regardless of gender) or intelligence.

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