It's basically a scale to help describe your sexuality, since It's a spectrum for most people. Basically this is how I describe each number: Kinsey 0: Exclusively heterosexual, would never touch the same sex Kinsey 1: Heterosexual with same-sex curiosities/flexibilities (Heteroflexible) Kinsey 2: Bisexual with an opposite sex preference Kinsey 3: Bisexual with no gender preference Kinsey 4: Bisexual with a same sex preference Kinsey 5: Homosexual with opposite sex curiosities/flexibilities (Homoflexible) Kinsey 6: Exclusively homosexual, would never touch the opposite sex Kinsey X: Asexual, No attraction to any genders
I've wondered how the Kinsey scale works when someone is asexual. It made me wonder if there was another scale for strength of sexual attraction, but as a simplified descriptor, Kinsey X makes sense. I learn something new every day. (!)
Well that's progress! The Kinsey Scale was first devised in the 1940s. Alfred Kinsey's work has been both criticised and revised. Part from anything else, it suggests a simple 'sliding scale' of sexual orientation, which doesn't fit everyone. If people find it useful to locate themselves on a scale, then absolutely fine. But I would suggest it is maybe not as 'scientific' as some may thank. And personally I am just gay, and I couldn't give a damn what score I get on a scale.
It's worth pointing out that Alfred Kinsey thought most people to be somewhere in between 0 and 6, rather than a solid 0 or 6. I'd say I'm above 5.5.
This is true. Although people who are a solid 0 or 6 exist as well. I believe it was stated that 0/6 people are somewhere around 10% of the population. I also think it depends on how people are defining the number system. In my opinion, you need to have sexual or romantic desire for it to count. A kinsey 6 male for example can find women to be good-looking and attractive, but he can never 'budge' when it comes to sex or romance. A kinsey 5 male identifies as gay but enjoys sex with women under the right circumstance and/or can enjoy having a long-term girlfriend as long as this girlfriend is his one true exception, and therefore he is not interested in other women besides her.
I'm a three or four according to that. I'd say I'm a 3.8 on the scale, but it's not the most curate and doesn't cover all sexualities
There is certainly a range of intensity of sexual attraction. Kinsey just addressed the "color" of it, not the intensity, other than indirectly, as a function of which gender you are interested in. Think of it as the "Hue" and "Saturation" controls on your television set. The Hue controls whether you are at the Red or Green end of the color spectrum. The Saturation controls how intense those feelings are, wherever you are along the gender preference scale. You can be in the "middle" (bi), at either end (gay or lesbian), or anywhere in between. If you are Kinsey X, then your Saturation control is set to ZERO so that neither color shows up on your gaydar as being interesting enough to get you off the couch and pursue, so it doesn't matter where the Hue control would be set, because you are not in the hunt; all you see is uninteresting black and white. What you have to be careful about is saying that you are "asexual", because you have no interest in the gender society tells you that you should be interested in, and are too fearful of admitting interest in the gender you actually are interested in. Our minds can play such denial games with us, in a hostile social climate. I know, because I lived there during the last century, for decades, behaving asexually, in denial.
You make a good point about how people define the numbers. I tend to view Kinsey 5 in the way you described Kinsey 6 males. I think there is a place for the scale though and it does help some people when they learn that Kinsey himself considered most people to be somewhere in between 0 and 6.
Yeah, see the main problem I have with the kinsey scale is that people define the numbers differently and can get confused. For example, I consider myself Kinsey 6 female, but yet I can still find men to be good-looking and can even enjoy gay porn from time to time. The difference is that I have zero attraction to the idea of ever being sexually or romantically involved with men, and that's what I personally believe defines my number. I believe a kinsey 5 person has to be at least open to sex with the opposite sex to some degree (though it doesn't make them bisexual, just curiosity). I think about it this way: If someone thinks children are cute and enjoys spending time with them, are they a pedophile? Even if their pedophilia is only around 1-10%? No, not really. There's a difference between admiring kids and how they look without wanting to have sex with them, so why can't heterosexuals and homosexuals feel the same without being on a bisexual scale?
I could be wrong but I think that Kinsey's scale is a tool based on where people's descriptions of their feelings and behaviour are used to position them on the scale. Lots of people are confused about their sexuality (I am anyway) and so the concept of a continuum is helpful. Just be aware that its not an absolute definition. When researchers more recently started putting options like "mostly homosexual" and "mostly heterosexual" many people jumped at that description as a validation of who they were. Perhaps questioning and thinking you need to discover and act on something innate pushes people around on the Kinsey scale? Fallingdown7 has a good point - just because you have an appreciation or a mild attraction - it doesn't mean you act on it or have to explore it to be true to yourself.
The Kinsey Scale is an idea developed by Alfred Kinsey in 1948 that instead of describing people as either homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual, sexual orientation was really a scale from heterosexuality to homosexuality. It uses a scale from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. An additional grade, listed as "X", was used to mean asexuality (no desire for sex at all). Reference - Kinsey scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia