Final answer:
Sexuality research during the Victorian period was largely thwarted due to conservative attitudes, but the mid-20th century saw groundbreaking work by Alfred Kinsey, which provided new insights into human sexuality.
Step-by-step explanation:
Most of the sexuality research during the Victorian period was thwarted. The Victorian era was characterized by an austere approach to sex, and medical professionals who were regarded as the leading authorities on sexual matters often lacked the requisite training to adequately address these issues. In contrast, the mid-20th century saw groundbreaking research from the likes of Dr. Alfred Kinsey, whose publications, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, provided a more empirical and open dialogue on human sexuality. His work was revolutionary for its time and sold remarkably well, despite some societies banning the books and Kinsey eventually losing funding for his research. These studies included various findings, such as the prevalence of homosexual encounters among men and the notion that sexual orientations could be measured on a spectrum, which later came to be represented by the Kinsey scale.