His health records indicate that Kinsey received suboptimal exposure to sunlight (often the cause of rickets, before milk and other foods were fortified with vitamin D) and lived in unsanitary conditions for at least part of his childhood.

Rickets led to a curvature of the spine, which resulted in a slight stoop that prevented Kinsey from being drafted in 1917 for World War I.

Kinsey's senior undergraduate thesis for psychology, a dissertation on the group dynamics of young boys, echoed this interest.

[7] Despite earlier disease having weakened his heart, Kinsey followed an intense sequence of difficult hikes and camping expeditions throughout his early life.

Kinsey's ability to spend immense amounts of time deeply focused on study was a trait that would serve him well in college and during his professional career.

[9][10] In 1916 Kinsey was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society and graduated magna cum laude, with degrees in biology and psychology.

Kinsey continued his graduate studies at Harvard University's Bussey Institute, which had one of the most highly regarded biology programs in the United States.

He traveled widely and took 26 detailed measurements of hundreds of thousands of gall wasps; his methodology was itself an important contribution to entomology as a science.

In 1920 he published several papers under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, introducing the gall wasp to the scientific community and describing its phylogeny.

In his textbook Kinsey laid out the basic facts of evolution in a manner-of-fact matter, as though he were discussing the life cycle of the fruit fly. ...

The original draft of the book was written in 1919–1920, while Kinsey was still a doctoral student at the Bussey Institute, and Fernald was working at the Arnold Arboretum.

He encouraged his staff to do likewise, and to engage in a wide range of sexual activity, to the extent that they felt comfortable; he argued that this would help his interviewers understand the participants' responses.

[26] University of Chicago sociology professor Edward Laumann also argued that Kinsey's work was focused on the biology of sex and lacked psychological and clinical information and analysis.

[26] Kinsey collected sexual material from around the world, which brought him to the attention of the U.S. Customs Service when they seized some pornographic films in 1956; he died before this matter was resolved legally.

[31][32] These allegations have been revived by a political fight inside the Indiana State Senate, but the opposition complained that "These are warmed over Internet memes that keep coming back.

[35] Jones wrote that Kinsey's sexual activity influenced his work, that he over-represented prisoners and prostitutes, classified some single people as "married",[36] and that he included a disproportionate number of homosexual men, which may have distorted his studies.

[40] Bailey et al., in their 2016 review of the sexual orientation literature, stated that Kinsey's survey likely overestimated the frequencies of nonheterosexual attractions and expressions, because his statistics show a higher percentage of the American population as homosexual or bisexual than more modern studies do.

[42] Kinsey focused on in-depth interviews with subjects carried out by himself or highly trained members of his team, and emphasized creating rapport with the interviewee and making them feel comfortable and secure.

[43] Modern interviewers tend to be less thoroughly trained and emphasize scientific detachment, which may make respondents less likely to share sensitive personal details.

[50] The New York Times ran the following editorial on August 27, 1956: The untimely death of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey takes from the American scene an important and valuable, as well as controversial, figure.

Any sort of scientific approach to the problems of sex is difficult because the field is so deeply overlaid with such things as moral precept, taboo, individual and group training, and long-established behavior patterns.

"[55] The first pop culture references to Kinsey appeared not long after the book's publication; "Martha Raye [sold] a half-million copies of 'Ooh, Dr.

'"[56] Cole Porter's song "Too Darn Hot", from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate, devoted its bridge to "the Kinsey report / Every average man you know / Much prefers to play his favorite sport".

[59] The national news magazine featured two articles on the scientist, one focusing on his research, career and new book,[60] the other on his background, personality, and lifestyle.

[61] In the magazine's cover portrait, "Flowers, birds, and a bee surround Kinsey; the mirror-of-Venus female symbol decorates his bow tie.

"[60] A character called "Dr. Kinsey" appeared on the September 15, 1953, television episode of The Jack Benny Program as a bow-tied man interviewing a young woman on board a cruise ship that has left Hawaii.

In 2003 Theatre of NOTE produced the Steve Morgan Haskell play titled Fucking Wasps which followed Kinsey's life from childhood until death.

Written and directed by Steve Morgan Haskell, Fucking Wasps received many accolades, including a Playwriting of the Year nomination from Backstage West.

The 2004 biographical film Kinsey, written and directed by Bill Condon, stars Liam Neeson as the scientist and Laura Linney as his wife.

[67][68] The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,[69] and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.