June 23

Alfred Kinsey's Birthday


Alfred Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gen. His two landmark books,  Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953 reached the top of the New York Time's bestseller list and helped launch the  sexual revolution of the 1960s.

The media went nuts over Kinsey. He was the cover boy for all of the national magazines. Time magazine gushed over Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, and wrote "Not since Gone With the Wind had booksellers seen anything like it."

The first pop culture references to Kinsey appeared shortly after the book's publication. In 1949, Mae West, reminiscing on the days when the word "sex" was rarely uttered, said of Kinsey, "That guy merely makes it easy for me. Now I don't have to draw 'em any blueprints...We are both in the same business...Except I saw it first."

The publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Female prompted even more intensive news coverage and Kinsey even appeared on the cover of the August 24, 1953, The lead article concludes with the following observation: "'Kinsey...has done for sex what Columbus did for geography/"  Just a few months later, the third season of the CBS television series I Love Lucy, featured the episode, 'Fan Magazine Interview'  in which Lucy Ricardo and her neighbor Ethel Mertz pretended to be conducting a poll and wanted to ask a woman some questions. The woman replied, "Say, your name ain't Kinsey, is it?"

Both books stirred to a storm of controversy, primarily from the Christian Right. Judith A. Reisman, head of RSVP America, allegeed that Kinsey and his staff sexually abused children to produce some of the data in the Kinsey Reports. James H. Jones's biography, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life, describes Kinsey as bisexual and experimenting in masochism, and claims that he encouraged group sex involving his graduate students, wife and staff.

The 2000s have seen renewed interest in Kinsey. The musical Dr. Sex focuses on the relationship between Kinsey, his wife, and their shared lover Wally Matthews. The biographical film Kinsey (2004) stars Liam Neeson as the scientist and Laura Linney as his wife. In 2005, PBS produced the documentary Kinsey.  We recommend the pairing this documentary with Sex in a Pan as his birthday tributes. This popular dessert, also known as the Better than Sex Cake. There are some minor variations of this dessert including one called Better than Robert Redford Cake that used chopped Hershey bars instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

Sex in a Pan

 

Ingredients
 
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
 

1 32-oz tub whipped topping,
1 package (4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
1 package (4 oz) chocolate instant pudding
3 cups cold milk, divided
1 square semisweet chocolate, shaved,
 

Instructions
 
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Combine flour, butter, and pecans in a bowl
  3. Press mixture into a 9x13x2-inch greased baking pan.
  4. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.
  5. Combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar and spread over pecan cake.
  6. Spread half of the whipped topping over the cream cheese layer.
  7. Mix package of vanilla pudding using 1&1/2 cups of milk. Spoon evenly over the whipped topping; spread until layer is even.
  8. Mix package of chocolate pudding using remaining 1&1/2 cups milk. Spread on top of vanilla pudding.
  9. Spread remaining whipped topping on top and sprinkle with shaved semisweet chocolate
  10. Refrigerate at least 12 hours
     

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes