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What is the relationship between intelligence and sex? In Gentlemen’s Disagreement, Peter o
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Hegarty enters this debate by recalling the disputes between Lewis Terman—the intellect r
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who championed the testing of intelligence—and pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. n c
Through a fluent discussion of intellectually gifted onanists, unhappily married men, queer tl te
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geniuses, lonely frontiersmen, religious ascetics, and the two scholars themselves, Hegarty
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shows how intelligence and sexuality have interacted throughout the history of American e 4
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psychology. n c
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“Peter Hegarty is the first scholar to examine seriously and systematically the connections d r
between the discourses of intelligence and of sexuality, both of which were being refash- is
ioned in important ways in the United States. Hegarty’s use of Lewis Terman and Alfred a m
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Kinsey to build his analysis is original and compelling.” r te
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John Carson, author of The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the s
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French and American Republics m u
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“Peter Hegarty has crafted a fascinating history of the intersectionality of sexuality and n r
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intelligence in the social sciences. Hegarty masterfully weaves together queer theory, t s
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history, and psychology to examine how what many in the social science community have p ta
defined as normal is constructed and mutually constitutive. Gentlemen’s Disagreement e n
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sheds new light on Alfred Kinsey and Lewis Terman, but just as important, it offers insight e s
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into how these human science discourses of sexuality and intelligence developed and how r ay
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they continue today to shape modern psychology’s understandings of (and assertions lewis terman, f
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about) normality. ” Thomas A. Foster, editor of Documenting Intimate Matters: Primary g t
Sources for a History of Sexuality in America a
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“Peter Hegarty’s highly original study of the relationship between sexuality and intelligence
in the twentieth-century American human sciences focuses on their most celebrated stu- L sexual politics
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dents, Alfred Kinsey and Lewis Terman. By analyzing their personal biographies, training, S
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disciplinary outlooks, and use of the conventions of contemporary science, Hegarty is able
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to construct a fascinating cautionary tale about unacknowledged subjectivity, mislead- O
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ing methodologies, and the politics of intelligence testing and human sexuality that will
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inform both practitioners and historians of the human sciences.” I peter hegarty
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Robert A. Nye, editor of Sexuality G
Peter Hegarty is Reader and Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey.
Cover design: Isaac Tobin.
Cover image: Niederle et al. / George Glazer Gallery (vintage print),
Lauren Nassef (illustration).
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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-02458-5 h
ISBN-10: 0-226-02458-X Chicicago
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the university of chicago press
www.press.uchicago.edu 9 780226 024585
Gentlemen’s Disagreement
peter hegarty
Gentlemen’s
Disagreement
Alfred Kinsey, Lewis
Terman, and the Sexual
Politics of Smart Men
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
Peter Hegarty is Reader and Head of the School of Psychology at
the University of Surrey.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2013 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-02444-8 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-02458-5 (paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-02461-5 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hegarty, Peter (Psychology professor)
Gentlemen’s disagreement : Alfred Kinsey, Lewis Terman, and
the sexual politics of smart men / Peter Hegarty.
pages. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-02444-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)—
isbn 978-0-226-02458-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-
02461-5 (e-book) 1. Men—Sexual behavior. 2. Men—
Intelligence levels. 3. Kinsey, Alfred C. (Alfred Charles),
1894–1956. 4. Terman, Lewis M. (Lewis Madison), 1877–
1956. I. Title.
hq28.h443 2013
155.3′32—dc23
2012039521
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Blasphemy has always seemed to require taking things very
seriously. I know no better stance to adopt from within
the secular-religious, evangelical traditions of United
States politics, including the politics of socialist feminism.
Blasphemy protects one from the moral majority within,
while still insisting on the need for community.
Donna Haraway
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 A Gentlemen’s Disagreement? 1
2 Why the Gifted Boy Didn’t Masturbate 25
3 Less Than Ideal Husbands 45
4 Queer Individuals: Their Nature and Nurture 67
5 Gentlemen and Horse Traders 91
6 Ancient Ascetics and Modern Non-Americans 113
7 Frontier Living, by Figures Alone 131
8 Normalization Now 151
Notes 161
Works Cited 183
Index of Names 215
General Index 221
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the imagination, encourage-
ment, and insight of many people. For example, Doug Mitchell imagined
a version of the project years before I could even articulate it. The British
Academy supported initial archival work in 2003 at Stanford and Indiana
Universities, and Simon Ford, Katie Cumiskey, and Robin Garber all pro-
vided warm hospitality as I went. Linda Anderson made possible a later trip
to the Yale archives. I’m particularly grateful for the help of several archi-
vists, notably Daniel Hartwig at Stanford, Lizette Ann Royer at Akron, Re-
becca Hatcher at Yale, and Shawn Wilson at the Kinsey Institute.
Two previous Heads of the School of Psychology at Surrey deserve par-
ticular thanks; Jennifer Brown approved a term of sabbatical leave in 2007
that gave me the space and time to dig deep into this work, and Annette Sterr
put up with my continued efforts and distracted attention as I acted as her
Deputy Head from 2008 to 2011. Abigail Stewart invited me to Michigan
in 2006 for a pivotal visit that allowed me to explore my initial ideas with
both psychology and women’s studies students. Don Brown, Bill McCeachy,
and Mel Manis shared valuable memories of their own lives in the history of
psychology. Their memories of psychologists E. Lowell Kelly, Lewis Terman,
and Dana Bramel particularly informed my thinking.
At various times and places, scholars who know more about diverse areas
of scholarship than I do have read drafts of some of these chapters, provided
me with opportunities to talk about this work, offered their refl ections and
criticisms of it, and pointed me down new unexpected directions. Often
their intellectual gifts were not obvious to me at the times of our conversa-
tion, but I owe particular debts to Stephen Algelides, Naomi Andre, Gavi
Ansara, Meg Barker, Peter Baxter, Betty Bayer, Toni Brennan, Karl Bryant,
ix
