A partial replication of Kinsey's graffiti study

Abstract

In the early 1950's, Kinsey collected wall inscriptions from a number of public bathrooms, hypothesizing that sexual graffiti provided a great source of information on the extent and nature of the suppressed sexual desires of men and women. Data were analyzed in terms of gender, heterosexuality, homosexuality, types of erotic contact, and types of non‐erotic references to love. The present study is a partial replication of Kinsey's study, investigating and comparing changes in American human sexuality as manifested by wall inscriptions in public bathrooms. The results show an increase in the percentage of erotic graffiti made by women and a decrease in the percentage of homosexaul graffiti made by both sexes. A discussion of these results is presented at the end of this paper.