Kinsey Biopic Outrage
27sep04
A FORTHCOMING Hollywood
biopic of Alfred Kinsey, the "father of the sexual revolution", has
been denounced as a whitewash by pro-family campaigners who are calling on the
public to boycott the film. Bill Condon, the director, became fascinated
with the pioneering sexologist's often tormented private life.
Kinsey interviewed 18,000 people about their
sex lives, publishing Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual
Behaviour in the Human Female in 1953. They were huge bestsellers.
In the course of his research he had sex with
many of his male staff and filmed his wife Clara, played by Laura Linney, with
other men. Pro-family campaigners hold Kinsey responsible for precipitating the
post-1950s decline in morals.
Critics are particularly incensed by his
research into child sexuality. It relied in part on the evidence of a Nazi
pedophile, Fritz von Balluseck, who was tried for the rape and murder of a
10-year-old girl in 1956. The two men kept up a correspondence, with Kinsey once
warning him to "watch out" in case he was caught.
It was Kinsey's view that children's sexuality
was restrained only by cultural conditioning, and that "hysterical
weeping" and "screaming" were evidence of their pleasure.
"I'm furious about it," said Schlessinger. "People should boycott
this film if they care anything about the welfare of children."
The radio host joined the campaign against
Kinsey after learning about his methods from Judith Reisman, who has written
extensively about the sexologist. With pro-family groups, they bought
advertising space in Variety, the film magazine, to denounce the biopic.
Variety refused their advert showing a crying
baby next to the headline "Scared of paedophiles getting to your
kids?" on grounds of taste.
"Talk about hypocrisy," said Dr
Reisman. "This is Hollywood and they are worried about poor taste?"
She also said: "Kinsey's father is
depicted as a religious bigot who was uptight about sex and brutalised his son.
There is nothing in the biographies of Kinsey that justifies this
portrayal."
From The Sunday Times in London
Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as the bow-tied scientist who throws off his
repressed childhood to become an advocate of sexual liberation, is already being
tipped as a potential multi-Oscar winner. The Irish star, 52, is said to give
his most powerful performance since Schindler's List.