Science, y'all.

[melannen]

ETA early morning jan 18: a short follow-up with more poll numbers + things /ETA

I was going to wait and post this later, with a much more elaborate stastistical work-up, population variables and meta-analysis - because I think it's interesting in its own right - but the ongoing conversation I'm seeing, and the extremely clear result I'm getting, is making me think it's more important to get the facts out there, than to make them pretty.

So: Are slashers straight?

I spent an afternoon and evening finding all of the polls & surveys of slash demographics I could that included a question on sexuality. Some I already had bookmarked, some I found through google, delicious, and following citations in academic papers. I'm sure there are more out there, and if you have links to more more polls I would love to add their data to my analysis. But you know what? The results of the ones I've found are pretty consistent, across a large range of survey population. And it is, to be quite honest, not the result I was expecting, even as a slasher who does not herself identify as straight, and is used to finding people like her in fandom.

Are slashers straight?


I present to you the raw numbers on sexuality for the 10 polls & surveys I could find results for, plus several more I could only find references to.

You'll note that there are a variety of categories used for sexuality; for the purposes of the meta-analysis, I am counting as "straight" any poll answer that was straight, heterosexual, primarily heterosexual, heteroflexible, or direct equivalent. I am using "queer" as shorthand for everybody else, including people who self-identified as bi-leaning-straight, questioning, and asexual. (You'll also note that the polls that included options beyond gay, straight, and bi had *significant* numbers of participants choosing them, something you might want to consider in general when talking about fans' sexuality. Just fyi.)

I only listed gender statistics for a few of the polls. That's because I'm lazy, and the way LJ polls work, separating out the responses by gender wouldn't have been terribly meaningful without a lot of annoying hand-collating anyway, so for the record: any poll with no gender statistics here either had no gender question, or over 90% self-identified women respondents. As this analysis is mostly meant to address the question of slashers' sexuality, I'm leaving gender identity unexamined for the quick'n'dirty version. (Though I'll note that only one of the polls had options specifically involving non-gender-binary people and orientation. Other possibilities, fandom: they exist.)

http://www.libraryofmoria.com/jsr/part2.html#21
2003
Library of Moria, a LOTR fic archive
Participants: 275
Heterosexual: 124
Mostly Heterosexual: 39
Bisexual: 84
Mostly Homosexual: 0
Homosexual: 10
Undecided: 6
Non-sexual: 2
Percent identified as queer: 37%

http://rushlight75.livejournal.com/38193.html
2003-10-14
Pre-metafandom, but widely distributed through its precursors
Participants: 1000
Male: 26
Female: 974
Only result available is an average Kinsey Scale rating: 1.8
(which kind of comes out to 40% queer, but not really)

http://idroppedarice.livejournal.com/59133.html
7-28-2004
Harry Potter slashers, by way of Fiction Alley Park
365 participants
straight: 173
bi: 119
gay: 22
undecided: 49
Percent identified as queer: 52.7%

http://lavinialavender.livejournal.com/179885.html
4-28-2005
locked, but currently available through Google's cache; mostly HP and anime slashers
participants: 203
straight: 85
gay: 8
bi: 73
Confused: 36
Percent identifying as queer: 54.6%

http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/242137/results
2006-2-13
posted by Proserpina "For the yaoi girls", but I have no idea where it was linked/promoted.
total: 43
heterosexual: 23
homosexual: 1
bisexual: 11
pansexual: 2
asexual: 1
unsure: 5
Percent identifying as queer: 53% 47%

http://hederahelix.livejournal.com/259632.html
6-29-2006
Mostly the metafandom crowd; specifically slash-focused.
Participants: 402
Heterosexual: 35
Heterosexual but slasher: 62
Bisexual, but heterosexual in practice: 102
Bisexual: 128
Bisexual, but queer in practice: 26
Lesbian, gay, queer, etc but slasher: 30
Lesbian, gay, queer, etc: 19
Percent identified as queer: 76%

http://wisdomeagle.livejournal.com/931805.html
February 2, 2007
Mostly the metafandom crowd; not all slashers - includes het & gen fans.
469 participants
straight women: 206
bi/omni/pansexual women: 186
lesbians: 56
asexual: 30
Straight men: 10
bi men: 5
Gay men: 3
Percent participants who identify as queer: 59.7%

http://jadelennox.livejournal.com/265022.html
Feb 7, 2007
A small poll of one fan writer's circle, not specifically fandom-focused:
Participants: 35
straight: 8
gay: 1
bisexual: 10
sligtly bisexual (kinsey 1 or 5): 9
other: 5
Percent participants who identified as queer: 71%

http://sailorptah.dreamwidth.org/11270.html
Feb 13, 2008
Mostly the metafandom & anime crowd, but not specifically fandom-focused; a freeform survey which emphasized complex & fluid sexuality
Total participants: 71
Identified as some subset of queer: 60
Percent participants who identified as queer: 84.5%

http://kleenexwoman.livejournal.com/248586.html
2-12-2008
Mostly the metafandom crowd, but with some exposure outside it
Participants: 577
gay: 25
bi-leaning-gay: 47
bi: 62
pan: 76
bi-leaning-straight: 84
straight: 192
asexual: 37
other: 23
no labels: 31
Percent identifying as queer: 66.7%

Polls whose results are not included in this analysis:

There are two other polls on FAP, but they were free-response threads and I'd've had to collate the results by hand, which I didn't have time for: http://forums.fictionalley.org/park/showthread.php?s=f041f722f3998ddd1bfbc6055d650507&threadid=19455&highlight=slash+survey and http://forums.fictionalley.org/park/showthread.phps=f041f722f3998ddd1bfbc6055d650507&threadid=133998&highlight=slash+survey

...it's on my list.

blnchflr ran a poll through metafandom sometime in early February, 2007, which was deleted, originally at: http://skuf.livejournal.com/132143.html . The only data I could find was a reference that it was "running closer to just 35% saying they are "strictly het".

I found several fandom demographics polls pre-dating 2003, but none of them had a sexuality question, which is interesting in its own right. (I suspect that the farther you go back in slash's history, the less likely it is that we would have even dared to ask these questions, and the less likely we would have gotten accurate answers, if we did. And in a time when fanfic was getting a *lot* of flak from the straight world, presenting an image to outsiders of "ordinary housewives" was important. I think the time when we need that protective image is fading.)

Finally, Wikipedia's reference for saying that "polls claim most slashers are heterosexual women", which has propagated everywhere, is Anne Kustritz's paper "Slashing the Romance Narrative", first published in the Journal of Amercan Culture in 2003, available in pdf here: http://www.laurientaylor.org/research/sources/slashfic.pdf . She, in turns, cites three informal fandom essays in her fandom demographics section, which is only a small part of the paper - those three essays are no more or less rigorous or inclusive than the 11 I have analysed here, note. The first is a clearly parodic essay on the Sith Academy, http://www.siubhan.com/sithacademy/criticalintro.html , which uses no poll or survey data, and does not even touch on the question of slashers' sexuality (despite Kustritz' citation implying it does.) The second is given the URL http://www.apps4.vantagenet.com/zpolls/count.asp?rlt=91221204045&id=91221204045 , which was a poll of the Darth Maul Estrogen Brigade in 2000. It is no longer available online, nor can I find any other references to it remaining online. The second was at http://www.sockii.com/ma/criticalintro.htm ; it is also no longer online, and I can find no details on it whatsoever except the date given of 1999, though the URL + the other references in the paper strongly imply that it was limited to TPM fandom, like the others.

(I will also note, because it seems worth noting, that the demographics section of that paper was very strongly trying to make the point that slashers are NICE WELL-ADJUSTED WOMEN WHO ARE NOT DEVIANT OR SCARY, so I am inclined to think the author had a bias toward categorizing slashers as heterosexual, especially as she uses the phrase "mostly to totally heterosexual" in the passage with the citation, but does not qualify heterosexual anywhere else. There is a lot of wiggle room in "mostly", as the variety of categories in the polls I listed above demonstrate. ...also, I @#$%&^@$ hate wikipedia's goddamn paternalistic notability and citation rules, since it means those two ten-year-old Phantom Menace polls somehow turned into GOSPEL TRUTH on the way to the printing press.)

So, over 9 polls, in a variety of slash subfandoms from the late-teens yaoi set to the mid-thirties meta fans set, dates ranging over 7 years. Only onetwo polls had less than 50% queer participants, and that wasone of them the earliest one, and even they were at 37% and 47%. The median percent of queer participants was 59.7%, and the mean was 61.5% 60.8%.

SO when people say things like "slash fans are appropriating queer experience", what THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER hear is either "you aren't queer enough, your queer identity isn't real" or "male voices are the only ones qualified to speak for the queer community."

I think the question of how queer women can appropriate queer men's identity, and the damage that can be done when gay men speaking about themselves are drowned out by women, are valid discussion topics, and worth addressing. That is not a conversation that is going to happen as long as THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER, are being erased from the discussion. fyi.

And SO when people say things like "slash is a legitimate way for straight women to express their sexuality", what THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER hear is either "you aren't queer enough, your queer identity isn't relevant" or "straight voices are the only ones qualified to speak for the slash community".

I think the question of how straight women's sexuality interacts with queer sexuality, and the ways straight women's sexuality defines slash, are valid discussion topics, and worth addressing. That is not a conversation that is going to happen as long as THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS, WHO IDENTIFY AS QUEER, are being erased from the discussion. fyi.

Can I say that one more time? I like saying it. Science makes me happy.

THE MAJORITY OF SLASHERS IDENTIFY AS QUEER.

ETA: People in comments have pointed out math errors that change the numbers slightly: I've added corrections in the relevant places. The conclusions still stand, however (for now.)

ETA 2 early morning jan 18: a short follow-up with more poll numbers + things /ETA 2

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I might repeat the slash community involvement section four times, one for each gender category (I identify as ___ as defined up above and...), with a bonus "This question does not apply to me (no need to tick this going through, but if you accidentally voted in the wrong place, you can unvote by editing your results and voting here)" question. This would also allow for accounts that span multiple gender identities, such as a single individual who identifies as both male and female (at once or at separate times), a shared account belonging to a man and a woman in separate bodies, or a shared account belonging to a body with more than one personality.


To the disclosures: Risks: Answering this discloses personal information to me, and while you have my assurance that I won't share, it's still up to you to choose whether to trust me. Participating in the comments, which are not screened, discloses whatever you share in those comments to current and future readers of those comments. Participating in the comments runs the risk of other people mouthing off to you, though I will endeavor to moderate the discussion should it get out of hand (I am not anticipating it will but you never know).


Performance art is probably also worth a mention.


Slash community involvement: creation. (It is not necessary to have shared these creative works with the public or with anyone else.)

I create or have created slash and consider myself a slasher (regardless of whether I also create heterosexual-gender-binary and general works, and/or other same-sex and/or other non-heterosexual-gender-binary works that are not slash).
I occasionally create or have in the past created slash, but would hesitate to describe myself as a slasher.
I create or have created same-sex and/or other non-heterosexual-gender-binary romantic/erotic works, but I would not describe any of them as slash.
None of my creative works contain slash or same-sex/other non-heterosexual-gender-binary-romantic/erotic content, or it is so very minor that I do not consider it to count.
I do not generate creative works.


The sexuality portion of this survey is influenced in structure by the Klein Grid, which I took one look at and fell in love with, because I'd been independently trying to develop something like that.

I'm of two minds about the sexuality portion of the survey. On the one hand, this is aimed at female consumers and creators of slash. On the other hand, it would be Very Interesting to see data from male/other/decline to say portions. The question here is the screen space to devote to it (maybe an aux survey?) rather than do-we-want-to-avoid-knowing-this.

So, from whatever group we're asking about sexuality:


The number-scale questions seem like the thing here, using Kinsey's numbers (0 = exclusively opposite-sex, 6 = exclusively same-sex), and a bonus question for "this does not apply to me" - hmm, maybe radio buttons? I would so very like a nice numerical-grading scale with a "WAIT NO THIS IS NOT ME" built in.

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I identify (overall) as:

0, heterosexual only
1, heterosexual mostly
2, heterosexual more than homosexual
3, equally heterosexual and homosexual
4, homosexual more than heterosexual
5, homosexual mostly
6, homosexual only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer


I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I am/have been attracted to:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer


For romantic groupings involving more than one person, consider the internal one-to-one relationships between the parties and take an average. A MFM triad with internal F/M and F/M pairings would be composed of opposite-sex pairings; if it also contained an M/M pairing it would be mixed opposite and same sex pairings.


I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I have had consensual sexual contact with:

(Technicalities: if you think it counts as sex, it counts as sex.
If you were assaulted, it grieves me to hear that, and answer as best you see fit; you need not count it unless you want to.
If your side of the sex was consensual but the other party's side was not, please seek counseling soonest if you have not already.)

0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Only or mostly people who do not fit neatly into the gender binary in relation to me
X, No one or only myself (various forms of chastity, masturbation, and/or visits from time-traveling future versions of yourself)
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer


I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about personally having sex with:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Only or mostly people who do not fit neatly into the gender binary in relation to me
X, No one or only myself (various forms of chastity, masturbation, and/or visits from time-traveling future versions of yourself)
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer


...and here's where it gets into the fanfic. Finally.

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about:
0, opposite sex pairings only (F/M)
1, opposite sex pairings mostly
2, opposite sex pairings more than same sex pairings
3, same and opposite sex pairings equally
4, same sex pairings more than opposite sex pairings
5, same sex pairings mostly
6, same sex pairings only (F/F, M/M)
*, Only or mostly pairings that do not fit neatly into the gender binary in relation to each other
X, No pairings at all or only solo/self sexual activity (time-traveling future versions, clones, etc. -- finally, a question that this particular specification actually *fits*!)
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer


I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about (checkboxes):
Pairings involving someone of my own gender, that are the same as my own sexual orientation
Pairings that involve my own gender, but are opposite from my own sexual orientation (bisexuals, this just plain doesn't apply to you)
Pairings that involve my own gender, and are the same as my *other* own sexual orientation (bisexuals, here, this one's for you)
Pairings that do not involve anyone of my gender, but I would consider their gender as a sexual partner.
Pairings that do not involve anyone of my gender, and I would not consider their gender as a sexual partner.
pairings that do not fit neatly into the gender binary in relation to each other

X, No pairings at all or only solo/self sexual activity (time-traveling future versions, clones, etc.)
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer

[azurelunatic]

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I am/have been emotionally attracted to:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer



I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I am/have had intimate emotional/romantic relationships with:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer



I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about personally emotionally/romantically connecting with:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer



I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about emotional/romantic connections between (checkboxes):
Pairings involving someone of my own gender, that are the same as my own romantic preference
Pairings that involve my own gender, but are opposite from my own romantic preference (bisexuals, this just plain doesn't apply to you)
Pairings that involve my own gender, and are the same as my *other* own romantic preference (bisexuals, here, this one's for you)
Pairings that do not involve anyone of my gender, but I would consider their gender as a romantic partner.
Pairings that do not involve anyone of my gender, and I would not consider their gender as a romantic partner.
pairings that do not fit neatly into the gender binary in relation to each other
X, No romantic pairings at all (can you even have solo romance?)
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer




I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I fantasize about emotional/romantic connections between (checkboxes):
men and women
women and women
men and men
people who do not fit neatly into either of those categories
anybody without regard to gender

[azurelunatic]

Please to rate how important the following factors are for you in your selection of fannish entertainment:

Someone of the same gender identity as me
Someone of the same gender identity and sexual orientation as me
A character I find physically attractive
A character I find emotionally attractive
A pairing where I find both/most/all characters physically attractive
A pairing where I find both/most/all characters emotionally attractive
A pairing where the characters are well-suited to each other with little to no further development or changes from their source material
Familiar source material
Familiar pairing
Familiar/trusted author
Familiar tropes evident in prompt/summary

[grey_bard]

No offense, but if I were reading a survey about being a slasher and it asked me who I fantasized personally having sex with, um. I would find it a little unnerving. I swear I'm not trolling you, just honestly curious, what is the purpose of this question?

[azurelunatic]

The idea I'm going after here is: "The people you like slash about, would you actually consider boinking them (if they existed), or do you think the concept of you boinking them is hot, or are they only hot to you in slash?"

One of the toxic tropes of observers to the fic world is that "Fangirls only like Character X because they want him themselves". However, I have noticed in myself that there are pairings where I would not like either/any of the participants myself, but think they work well together. Neither McKay nor Sheppard really makes me say "hi I would like to take one of you home with me" to myself, but I think they have excellent chemistry together, and I really like that.

And "what the hell" questions about my proposed questions here are totally cool. I am used to rigorous debate over far less personal proposed changes in LJ Suggestions, so it's only reasonable that questions about intensely personal stuff should raise eyebrows.

I do plan on having a "hi, not sharing that thanks" option for every question where it's remotely reasonable. (Questions like "I am taking this survey", for example, would be a question where a "decline to answer" option would possibly be silly ... though you probably could learn things from how many people came through, looked at the thing, and just ticked that.)

[grey_bard]

That makes sense. Perhaps if there was some non-audience biasing way you could let people using the survey know that you're trying to find the intersection between personal and fictional desires?

Okay, so looking at these questions...

[grey_bard]

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I am/have been attracted to:

Does this mean "I find these people hot" or "I would actually like to have sex with these people"? Because these are two different things.

And....


I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I have had consensual sexual contact with:

does not take into account people who *would*, but have not had the opportunity yet, or people who are sexually interested in XY or Z but would not seek out sex with them for whatever personal or pragmatic reason (also interesting data).

So perhaps adding another question like:

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and given a suitable opportunity would have consensual sexual contact with:

Because just because you're not experienced at the moment doesn't mean you wouldn't act on it. And just because you identify as something doesn't mean, in the life you live, you feel comfortable acting on it or acting on all of it.

[faith_girl222]

I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I identify (overall) as:

0, heterosexual only
1, heterosexual mostly
2, heterosexual more than homosexual
3, equally heterosexual and homosexual

really rubs me the wrong way, as someone who identifies as bisexual. i already have to deal with the twin feelings of a) not being considered queer enough to have a right to the designations "homosexual" or "gay" or sometimes even just "queer" and b) putting myself back in the closet anytime i describe myself as something that translates into "not queer", so i'm really not comfortable checking off a box that would mean using "heterosexual" to describe myself.

oddly, i did not have this reaction to the description of possessing two romantic preferences. i'm still trying to puzzle that out, but i think it might have to do with: i don't identify as 50% homo and 50% hetero, i idenity as 100% bi. but romantic preference seems to imply "how much of the time am i romantically interested in X," which is quantifiable. my sexual orientation isn't based on the frequency with which i find other human beings, of any gender or physical sex, sexually attractive.

also:

Please to rate how important the following factors are for you in your selection of fannish entertainment:

Someone of the same gender identity as me
Someone of the same gender identity and sexual orientation as me

why isn't there an option for "someone of the same sexual orientation as me" separate from gender identity? i find that a more necessary point of identification, and i would imagine this must be true for at least some other slashers given the number of female- and queer-identified slashers writing about male- and queer-identified (at least in the fic) characters. also, re-reading the question: is "someone" supposed to refer to the primary character(s) in the story, or the author? because one of those things is usually a lot more obvious than the other.

[stellar_dust]

... I'm not sure about using the word "fantasize" in every question? I think in most cases you mean "enjoy (and/or get turned on by) reading/writing fiction/fanfic about," but in some questions it seems to mean "have personal sexual fantasies about," and those are not necessarily the same. Right? At least, they're not the same for me, and I wouldn't be sure how to answer this as it's phrased right now.

Although, as I think about it more, I might be changing my mind. IDK. Does anyone else have a thought on this?

[azurelunatic]

Hmm, I think you are right, that generating your own fantasies is different than enjoying/going along with something someone else has structured and shared, though generating your own fantasies has a lot in common with the creation process.

So one would possibly say: fantasize about for the sex with oneself
Fantasize about (generating one's own fantasies) a pairing
Enjoy/get turned on by fic about a pairing
(Perhaps even revisit (rehash in one's own memory or re-read) a fic for personal pleasure (no need to get too detailed, either mental pleasure or "I'll be in my bunk"))
Transcribe personal fantasies about a pairing to fic
Generate fic that is then pleasurable to read
Generate fic for the pleasure of others, but that one is personally not pleased/turned on by

[stellar_dust]

Yes, something like that! There can also be a difference between getting turned on while writing a scene, and the things one imagines in (shall we say) the heat of the moment, I think. But it's a tricky distinction -- & separating fic-fantasy from sex-fantasy might be sufficient for poll purposes? I dunno.

[azurelunatic]

I'm not sure how far to inquire! I do like the distinction between fic/fantasy for entertainment purposes, and fic/fantasy for pleasurable purposes, but I'm sort of uncomfortable inquiring too specifically about heat-of-the-moment stuff (without bundling it in with other stuff so it's not just that) in a survey that isn't really intended to be specifically about sex, and moreover, a survey where (if I do this as a DW poll) I could see identifiable answers. That just ... I'm not comfortable with knowing that, and I don't think the general fannish public would be comfortable with me knowing specifically that.

[carmarthen]

For romantic groupings involving more than one person, consider the internal one-to-one relationships between the parties and take an average. A MFM triad with internal F/M and F/M pairings would be composed of opposite-sex pairings; if it also contained an M/M pairing it would be mixed opposite and same sex pairings.

For some questions this would work, but I would consider asking some questions related to polyamory, since that is a huge part of some people's sexual orientation (and there's a related question that may touch on a different question of appropriation--is polyamorous fic mostly being written by polyamorous people? I personally doubt it).

Anyway, there's a HUGE difference for me conceptually as a reader and a poly person between a triad and two F/M couples or whatever.

[edenfalling]

When you say,

"I am a $GENDERCATEGORY and I am/have been attracted to:
0, opposite sex only
1, opposite sex mostly
2, opposite sex more than same sex
3, same and opposite sex equally
4, same sex more than opposite sex
5, same sex mostly
6, same sex only
*, Pansexual, sapiosexual, and other sexual attractions without regard to gender (Kinsey "YES")
X, asexual, nonsexual, and other forms of Kinsey "NO"
?, none of these options come close
_, decline to answer"

how are you defining attraction? Sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or non-romantic-non-sexual-yet-on-the-same-level-of-intimacy attraction? Because all three exist, and they are not the same thing (though they may often overlap).

[azurelunatic]

In that question, I meant sexual; there was a romantic question further down. The Klein Grid also made mention of non-sexual, non-romantic intimacy, and I was thinking about including a question or two about that in this, but I don't know if it would really be ... ok, hi, I'm facepalming and getting smacked with my sexual privilege as I write this. Of course it would be very immediately relevant to people who have neither a sexual nor romantic drive. So some questions about that, then.

[erratic]

Well, I'm probably biased, but the Klein Grid looks to me like the pinnacle of sexual privilege. Seriously, not even the "sexual behavior" questions merit a "no one" option? (I'd add it to all the questions, but assuming people need to have had sex on the last 12 months to figure out their sexual orientation seems crazy to me). I can't fill that thing without lying on half of my answers, and I don't even identify as asexual! I go with queer or "bi", my sexuality is fluid across the Kinsey spectrum and the sexual-asexual spectrum.

[acrimonyastraea]

Your definition would include yaoi in the definition of slash, and yet one of the frustrations I've experienced in this whole discussion is that yaoi has pretty much either been not considered, or has been dismissed as those silly little fangirls are the real homophobes, don't look at us slashers.

I think it's worth considering how you want to deal with yaoi, whether you want it to be included or you want to look at it separately.

[azurelunatic]

Hmm! I suppose that hinges on how you define "fandom". Since my personal experience of fandom does not really include yaoi circles, that's a blind spot of mine.

Since there are enough people with the "yaoi != slash" viewpoint, it's probably worth explicitly covering that rather than implicitly.

Probably worth getting some separate questions and if there's to be any lumping, to do it on purpose.

I'm wondering about some "I consider myself primarily a ___ fan, but I also like:
x
y
z"
questions, too, like het, gen, mixed, yaoi.

[acrimonyastraea]

What definition of fandom would exclude yaoi? I'm a little confused by that comment.

The funny thing is when people talk about slash my first instinct is to identify as part of that group, but the more details come out the less I feel included. It just seems worth specifying exactly what community you intend to reach with the survey. Info on Yoai would be very interesting to see.

[azurelunatic]

There's science fiction and fantasy fandom (which excludes commonly-slashed things like House), there's Western media fandom, there's comics fandom (which may or may not include anime and manga depending on how you slice it), there's fandom-as-the-stuff-that-my-greater-circle-of-friends-are-fannish-about, there's anime and manga fandom, and goodness knows what fannish groups I'm not even thinking of.

I have a personal blind spot a mile wide about anime and manga fandom, despite being into Death Note and Trigun and having had anime and manga fannish roommates, and I'm still examining why this is. I'm wondering if for me it's not that in my high school the anime and manga fandom was very much a boys' club, my best friend the anime fan is male, and my perception of "Fandom" is a female space.

I don't want that blind spot to get echoed in the survey.

[azurelunatic]

Note: it is not necessary for you to have had sex in order to hold an orientation identity. I knew I was bisexual a good few years before I had sex, and you don't have to abandon your sexual orientation if you happen to be monogamous.

[fanficforensics.livejournal.com]

Word. I feel a bit unsure about the purpose of the sexual experience question, actually. But I have no survey-making experience, so maybe it's just because that question made me flash back to all the times I've heard people claim that actual sexual experience = orientation.

[azurelunatic]

Experience is but one dimension of orientation, but as a dimension, I think it would be incomplete and therefore unfair of me to leave it out. I do not specialize in stats, survey design, or LGBTQ studies, but my first inclination would be to weight the orientation that someone identifies as, as the highest, and then go with their attraction, ... and oh dear, I seem, if we're to be looking at this more completely, to have gone straight from attraction to sex, and left out physical expressions of attraction that are not actually sex (daring hand-holding under the desk in class to the sort of heavy petting that's not sex because someone found a technicality) and also both short and long term partner-bonding.

I want to be as complete as possible so that ten years down the road, someone who comes across the survey will not have the opportunity to curse me for being imprecise and leaving stuff out. I want to play with the survey such that someone can answer one or two questions and satisfy the original reason (so how about those not-straight-female slash fans then?), then submit it and head off, or go through and answer a whole tl;dr set for let's-shake-the-data-and-see-what-else-falls-out purposes.

[scrollgirl]

Slash community involvement: creation. (It is not necessary to have shared these creative works with the public or with anyone else.)

Hmm. I may have misread your comment above, but it seems you're defining slash community as only those who have created fan works (whether public or in drawer-fic/art)? I'm hesitant to define slash fandom (or fandom at large) to only those who create fan works when plenty of us get involved in fandom in other ways.

[azurelunatic]

I believe you have mis-read, and it looks like the questions will definitely need clarifying. My questions above (and there are a lot of them) define three points of membership in the slash community, and your comment just now has inspired me to realize that there should be four.

1) Do you believe you are a member of the slash community?
2) Are you part of the audience for slash works?
3) Do you create slash works of your own? (The question you noticed here)
4) (thank you for inspiring this) Do you associate with other members of the slash community? (because hi, *community*.)

These are not "all these points must be met to be a slash fan" points of membership, but rather "any of these points may be met to be a slash fan" points.

(I subscribe to a rather geeky methodology of hammering out problems with a drafted concept, so I'm attaching very little selfhood to the survey design, so I'm not in any way insulted when people are finding problems here. Stuff found here is less stuff that causes a problem in the finished version.)