At the risk of sounding like Rodney McKay, I have one question.
How did you control for non-respondents?
The reason I ask is that professional polls mark down those who elect not to participate, data which later manifests as percentages of error. LiveJournal doesn't offer that hit count/participation comparison functionality, so you have no means of knowing what your percentage of error is that I can see.
There is a distinct possibility that heterosexual slashers would be less likely to participate in a poll questioning the pollsters' sexuality than their homosexual counterparts. There is a perception out there that only people with homosexual leanings have any interest in gay romance or rights (as I'm sure you know). Therefore a straight woman whose favorite movie is Brokeback Mountain or who writes gay romance can guarantee she'll be called a closeted lesbian on those grounds by someone or someones. While it in no way compares to the flak people who are actually homosexuals catch every day just for being homosexual, it does get old fast. On the other end of the spectrum, straight women catch flak from homosexual men for liking slash all the time, for the very reasons you cited. While it again in no way compares to the flak people who are homosexuals catch every day, it still gets old fast. Any orientation poll is only bound to add more fuel to either undesirable fire and lead to wank a heterosexual slasher has probably heard enough of already.
Without a means to control for that variable, your findings could not be called absolute, merely indicators of a need for further research.
However, if your findings are correct and the majority of slashers do identify as queer, that would be interesting to say the least. It would also make me wonder if there isn't a "birds of a feather" phenomenon going on, where without knowing each others' sexualities the orientations are still managing to "clump" with each other online, leading to a dual perception of majority.
no subject
How did you control for non-respondents?
The reason I ask is that professional polls mark down those who elect not to participate, data which later manifests as percentages of error. LiveJournal doesn't offer that hit count/participation comparison functionality, so you have no means of knowing what your percentage of error is that I can see.
There is a distinct possibility that heterosexual slashers would be less likely to participate in a poll questioning the pollsters' sexuality than their homosexual counterparts. There is a perception out there that only people with homosexual leanings have any interest in gay romance or rights (as I'm sure you know). Therefore a straight woman whose favorite movie is Brokeback Mountain or who writes gay romance can guarantee she'll be called a closeted lesbian on those grounds by someone or someones. While it in no way compares to the flak people who are actually homosexuals catch every day just for being homosexual, it does get old fast. On the other end of the spectrum, straight women catch flak from homosexual men for liking slash all the time, for the very reasons you cited. While it again in no way compares to the flak people who are homosexuals catch every day, it still gets old fast. Any orientation poll is only bound to add more fuel to either undesirable fire and lead to wank a heterosexual slasher has probably heard enough of already.
Without a means to control for that variable, your findings could not be called absolute, merely indicators of a need for further research.
However, if your findings are correct and the majority of slashers do identify as queer, that would be interesting to say the least. It would also make me wonder if there isn't a "birds of a feather" phenomenon going on, where without knowing each others' sexualities the orientations are still managing to "clump" with each other online, leading to a dual perception of majority.
DragonLady