It doesn't deal with the complexities that arise from the inclusion of those who don't necessarily fit within a binary conception of sexual orientation and gender. Third, it doesn't address what counts as homo- or heterosexual in the first place. Secondly, it places sexuality on this hetero/homo binary - making it seem as if these are the only options and anything else is just another version of those categories. For one, there is always the criticism that the Kinsey scale was supposed to measure sexual behavior and not desire. However there are some concerns when dealing with it. On first glance, this might seem to be a good measurement system. Although, originally the scale only applied to sexual experiences and not desires, it was easily adapted to allow people to plot their orientation on a number scale going from 0 to 6 with 0 being exclusively heterosexual and 6 being exclusively homosexual.Īn example of the Kinsey scale for human sexuality (Asexual was not originally included)
After conducting countless interviews, he came up with what is now called the Kinsey scale. For anyone unfamiliar with it, Alfred Kinsey is credited with being one of the first people to study human sexuality and create a scale to measure it. For anyone who is even remotely familiar with the study of sexuality, the name "Kinsey" should ring a bell. In honor of National Coming Out Day I thought I'd write about a new method thats been surging around the internet for identifying your sexual orientation.