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Virginia E. Johnson, a writer, researcher and sex therapist who with her longtime collaborator, William H. Masters, helped make the frank discussion of sex in postwar America possible if not downright acceptable, died on Wednesday in St. Louis. She was 88. Her son, Scott Johnson, confirmed the death, The Associated Press reported. Dr. Masters was a gynecologist on the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis when he began his research into human sexuality in the mid-1950s. Ms. Johnson, who joined him in 1957 after answering an advertisement for an assistant, worked alongside him for more...

“Never make judgments.” That’s what scientist Alfred Kinsey tells his research assistant very early in the new film about his life. Kinsey, as you know, was all about nonjudgmentalism. Throughout his career researching the sexual habits of Americans, his goal was to free society from the constraints of what the movie calls “morality disguised as fact.” And like its subject, the film attempts to be nonjudgmental—or, at least, that’s the ploy. Three scenes exemplify the supposed nonjudgmentalism. In the first, Kinsey tells his wife, nicknamed “Mac,” that he’s had sex with one of his male researchers. Though she’s devastated, he...

http://www.illinoisleader.com IL MEDIA UNSPUN: Kinsey & Ebert, At the Movies Friday, November 19, 2004 By Arlen Williams, media critic (arlen.williams@unspun.info) Alfred Kinsey's life is featured in a new film, "Kinsey," released this weekend.   The Chicago Sun Times' film critic Roger Ebert is a native of Downstate Urbana. Warning: This column is not suitable for children, nor some adults. OPINION -- A movie is now being shown that promotes one of the most evil and destructive figures in the 20th Century. The setting: not Berlin, nor Moscow, nor Peking . . . but Bloomington, Indiana. People of informed conscience...

The unending 50-year war over Alfred Kinsey and his sex research is about to flare up once again, thanks to the new movie Kinsey. The film manages to be fairly faithful to the biographies of Kinsey while sliding by or simply omitting a lot of negative material that might interfere with a heroic view of the man.

In a bizarre week as polarized as the national elections, Kinsey, a movie about sex, is a masterpiece, while The Polar Express and Finding Neverland, a couple of Christmas trifles for children, are so full of sugar they could rot your teeth. If this is what they mean by "moral values," drop me off in Sodom and Gomorrah. More about Kinsey, the stunning, exhilarating and phenomenal biography of legendary, earth-shattering, scientific sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, down below. First, the G-rated family fluff: With all the talk about the revolutionary cinematic technology with which director Robert Zemeckis "created" The Polar Express,"manufactured"...

The unending 50-year war over Alfred Kinsey and his sex research is about to flare up once again, thanks to the new movie Kinsey. The film manages to be fairly faithful to the biographies of Kinsey while sliding by or simply omitting a lot of negative material that might interfere with a heroic view of the man. Kinsey was a highly intelligent, fearless man and an unusually skilled interviewer whose question-and-answer techniques heavily influenced the way polls and surveys are done today. Conservatives seem quaint when they argue that Kinsey’s two reports, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and...

Alfred Kinsey has been dead for 48 years, and he still makes people mad. "Kinsey," a movie inspired by the life of the sex researcher, hasn't even opened, and here is an AP story about "indignant conservative groups" who think it is propaganda for the sexual revolution. ----------------------------------------------------- BY ROGER EBERT Sun-Times Film Critic / Nov 14, 2004 Alfred Kinsey has been dead for 48 years, and he still makes people mad. "Kinsey," a movie inspired by the life of the sex researcher, hasn't even opened, and here is an AP story about "indignant conservative groups" who think it is...

Fox Searchlight's first-run feature film on the controversial "father of the sexual revolution" opens in select "blue state" theaters today to the protests of traditional-family defenders who regard the late Indiana University professor Alfred Kinsey as a fradulent scientist who, more than anyone else, bears responsibility for bringing acceptance of promiscuity into the mainstream. Liam Neeson in "Kinsey" (Courtesy Fox Searchlight) On the latter point, the star of "Kinsey: Let's Talk about Sex" agrees. "Kinsey did release the genie from the bottle -- and you can't put the genie back in the bottle," Liam Neeson told Variety magazine. The film...

Homosexuality in Perspective. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979. Brief Description: Between 1968 and 1977, the Masters and Johnson Institute worked with 67 clients and their opposite-sex partners who came to them for the treatment of "homosexual dissatisfaction." Stated Goal of Therapy/Treatment: Conversion or reversion to heterosexuality. enabling clients to function heterosexually, so they can then choose how they want to live. No specific attempt was made to reduce or eliminate homosexual behaviour, desires or fantasies... Length of Treatment: 2 weeks, with daily therapy sessioons. ... At the time of publication, follow-up ranged from 1 to 5 years. While the...