Some of his findings were as follows. Almost all men (92-97 percent) masturbated. Masturbation was "the great source of premarital sexual outlet for the upper educational levels. For that group masturbation provides nearly 80 percent of orgasms during the earlier adolescent years, as against little more than half the outlet (52 percent) for the lower educational level" ( 27 : p.552). Some 62 percent of all women masturbated, and women who were college graduates masturbated more frequently than those who had not gone beyond grade school (although the social differences were not as great as among men) ( 28 ). Kinsey claimed that masturbation caused no harm and that it sometimes aided the development of healthy interpersonal sexual fantasies and helped some individuals adjust to marriage ( 28 ).

Premarital heterosexual petting provided orgasms for many more college-level males than for males who never go beyond grade school. "Petting," Kinsey wrote, "is pre-eminently an occupation of the high school and college levels" ( 28 : p.552). College males had much less premarital heterosexual intercourse (about 67 percent) than high school males (84 percent) and grade school males (98 percent) and had intercourse much less frequently than the less-educated groups. College males showed a greater willingness to indulge in oral erotic contacts (kissing and mouth to genitals and breasts) and to try different positions in intercourse than other groups ( 27 ).

About two-fifths of women up to age 25 had experienced orgasm through petting. At age 20-25, some 26 percent of the noncollege females had had premarital intercourse, as against 15-20 percent of the college and graduate school females. By age 25, however, the college-educated women were ahead of the noncollege women by a small margin, because the latter tended to marry earlier and thus be removed from any further possibility of premarital experience. Educational differences were less pronounced among women than among men. Kinsey observed that among married women there was (with some qualification) "a marked positive correlation betweeen experience in orgasm obtained from premarital coitus, and the capacity to reach orgasm after marriage" ( 25 : p. 148 ).

It was shown that over one-third of all males had experienced at least one homosexual contact. College males experienced the least homosexual contacts, high school males the most, and grade school males were intermediate between these two groups ( 27 ). Some 28 percent of all women had had homosexual contacts; these occurred most often among college women and those who had gone on to graduate work, and much less among grade school and high school girls ( 28 ).

The deepest and most enduring impact of Kinsey's work was that it allowed sex to be regarded essentially as a commonplace experience. Kinsey has been called "this century's foremost sexual demystifier" ( 15 : p. 14 ). His work stimulated further scientific investigations of sexuality and helped create varying degrees of tolerance for different sexual practices. A 1960 study, based on interviews with 200 male college students, confirmed Kinsey's findings on the prevalence of masturbation and heterosexual petting and found that students were generally accepting of these practices. The majority of students engaged in "relatively little premarital intercourse"--reserving this for girls they expected to marry--and regarded it as "more acceptable for the male than female (double standard)." Although some students condoned homosexuality, most regarded it with "shame, dread and guilt" ( 32 ). . .

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