Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Scale
Sexual Orientation and the Grey Area Between Gay and Straight
Apr 2, 2009
Alfred Kinsey and his associates made "sexology" history in the 1930's when they came up with a system that ranked sexual orientation as a sliding scale between completely heterosexual and completely homosexual. Kinsey made shock waves by suggesting – for the first time in popular culture – that most humans, male and female, belonged somewhere in the middle, with sexual attraction to both men and women.
What is the Kinsey Scale?
The Kinsey scale is a scale from 0 to 6 that describes a person's sexual orientation. On this scale, 0 means completely heterosexual while 6 represents purely homosexual.
Sexology researchers Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin developed this scale after extensive surveys and interviews on people's sexual experiences and preferences. Their research began to suggest that human sexuality exists not as a polar "yes/no" kind of characteristic, but in a spectrum.
They found that few of their subjects identified as exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual. Instead, the majority of people seemed to exist on a scale between the two… and their position on that spectrum was subject to change at various points during a lifetime.
Number Rankings on the Kinsey Scale
On the Kinsey scale, the following numbers were assigned to represent each of the possible places on a spectrum of sexuality:
- 0 – Completely heterosexual
- 1 – Predominantly heterosexual
- 2 – Mostly heterosexual
- 3 – Bisexual, equally heterosexual and homosexual
- 4 – Mostly homosexual
- 5 – Predominantly homosexual
- 6 – Completely homosexual
- 7 or X - Asexual
There is no test to identify a person's position on the Kinsey scale. Finding your number on this scale is completely subjective, and depends on past and present thoughts, desires, and sexual experiences.
What Does This Mean About Sexual Orientation as a Concept?
Instead of labeling people as heterosexual or homosexual, gay or straight, the Kinsey scale forces people to consider a range of shades of grey in sexual orientation.
What's more, Kinsey said that people's sexual orientation on the scale changes over the course of their lives – challenging the assumption that sexual orientation is something you're born with that will never change.
The Kinsey Scale on the Oprah Winfrey Show
A recent Oprah Winfrey Show, "Women Leaving Men for Other Women," focused on women who have left long-term marriages to begin lesbian relationships. In an interview with Dr. Lisa Diamond, author of Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire, the Kinsey scale was raised in a modern context.
After describing the Kinsey scale, Dr. Diamond made a connection that explained why so many women are seeking emotional and physical intimacy in the arms of other women. "For women, those categories in between— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5—are actually more common," she told Oprah.
In fact, Kinsey said the same thing about men: most people have some attraction to both their own and the opposite sex, no matter their sexual preference.
Response to the Kinsey Scale
The Kinsey scale has been hotly contested, and even outright discarded, particularly by religious groups and the homophobic. But there is something about the idea that is intriguing and accurate for many people, and the concept lives on, challenging assumptions and inspiring conversation about sexuality and relationships.
Sources
The Kinsey Institute, "Kinsey's Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale," KinseyInstitute.org, 2009.
The Oprah Winfrey Show, "Living Without Labels," Oprah.com, 2009.
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