With conservatism at something of an apex in its push to own America, lock, stock, and barrel, both a novel and a movie about Alfred Kinsey come into being. To me, it almost feels like a cosmic reminder: Don’t forget what we freed ourselves from — those moralistic, repressive post-WW II constraints.

It started whenKinsey published his two volumes of sex research, a effort that resonated with the public conscious, perhaps even being a “right thing at the right time.” After all, sexology manuals were available to the American public since the 19th-century days of American free thinkers.

Maybe Kinsey’s books resonated because they weren’t simply “here’s your body parts, get to know them” manuals. Instead, they documented enmass what kind of sexual activities Americans had engaged in. And most mometously, he dared to document and publish volumnous material about women’s sexual experiences, behaviors, and preferences.

Hey, when a book like Sexual Behavior in the Human Female got coverage in Redbook*, you knew something big was happening. (Note the other cover topics for a glimpse into 1950s American mores.) One wonders how much further taboos and prudery might’ve weakened had Kinsey lived to publish a volumn on same-sex practices. The data was there, the possibility of a book was talked about, but Kinsey’s heart and the Rockfeller Foundation’s and the National Research Council’s courage gave out too soon.

Well, as long as we have John Waters doin’ his stuff, I guess we’re OK.

And while I’m sliding into a light note:Jeb Bush, you ol’ rascal you! Now if you’d just get rid of minority voter suppression in Florida, you might be alright in my book.

*Note the subtitle of the magazine. Back then, we treated young adults as if they were mature enough to handle information. Today, conservative forces don’t allow us much differentiation between children and adults. You’re either one or the other, determined more by your marital state than your chronological age. And, yes, I might scan and post the Redbookarticle in the near future. Today’s a tad too busy for it.