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RE: Some questions - 5/16/2014 3:38:35 PM

sexhistory

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

I started it but I have a huge problem with studies that assume this is pathological. So much so that I refuse to complete them.

Asking if people are sex offenders for instance. All those questions about people having unsupportive relationships; fear of abandonment, etc.

You're approaching this from the pov that people who do this are unhealthy while claiming to hope to find evidence to the contrary. Yet the DM V clearly states that an attraction to s & m is not a problem overall although it may be in certain people. Such as shoe fetishists who spend all their money on shoes and can't pay rent.

Moreover, I don't know a clinical psychologist who would assume this is ipso facto an unhealthy attraction.

In terms of how the questions go, they seem disjointed. Usually you group them so that all the strongly disagree ones about strength of a relationship are together. Yours are all over the board and it comes across as amateurish.

It is interesting, my intention is not pathologize ( I actually just did a paper on the psychological history of BDSM), yet the is coming off as so. Regardless, I appreciate your willingness to share your views with me.

I could definitely see how the sex offender question would come off pathological, and to be honest, I did not want to put it in there (this is great feedback for me if I ever do a follow up study because I will insist that such questions are not in there). However, my institution very much encouraged me to put it in there, in case of adverse effects for an individual that might be a sex offender (Their view is that if someone was a recovery from being a sex offender, reading erotic literature might not be appropriate). If they do insist, I could certainly reword it and reveal my intention in asking the question.

thanks! :)

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RE: Some questions - 5/16/2014 3:55:35 PM

mnottertail

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one hopes it is the first question in there, up front and clear. If it has to be there.

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RE: Some questions - 5/16/2014 8:11:18 PM

bloomswell

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I tried but the questions after the 'story' didn't make sense to me so after scratching my head for a while I had to bow out. Sorry.

I'm happy to answer questions by pm though.

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RE: Some questions - 5/17/2014 7:34:24 PM

Bhruic

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bhruic

The world respects researchers who are willing to get their hands dirty. Get in to the scene and get your data from experience.

I didn't find this to be true when I was studying Criminology/Psychology and specifically focusing on mass murderers.

Seriously, I think your point is well taken but I also think that if one person does personal research, not only is it limiting the amount of data that can possibly be collected but it tends to get into the realm of "anecdotal".

Screen captures still RULE! Ya feel me?

Fair enough... I'm not sure if the mass murderer example is exactly analogous though.

I wasn't suggesting that she do research solely from the perspective of her own experience of the scene, only that she should actually get involved, or at least tangibly connect, in the social scene she is studying, meet actual people and collect her data that way... That is what I meant from experience. There is a sex club I go to regularly, and a researcher connected with the club management to set up an evening where she invited people to come and talk to her, learn who she was, and learn about her research. I didn't participate, but I respected that approach.

It just seems a bit lazy to me to parachute anonymously in to a BDSM web site and hand out questionnaires. And there is very little control to the research... the OP has no idea whether the people that might answer the questions here have any actual experience of the scene at all... unless the character of BDSM forum dwellers is actually the focus of the research.

Statements in opposition to sexual researchers are becoming a common footnote in people's profiles. Even a little bit of "lurking" research would have revealed that. I guess that is another reason why my response was not positive.

< Message edited by Bhruic -- 5/17/2014 7:43:12 PM >

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RE: Some questions - 5/18/2014 2:43:27 PM

Kaliko

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bhruic

No one likes a creepy voyeur.

Speak for yourself. Team Edward!

:)

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RE: Some questions - 5/18/2014 5:04:06 PM

evesgrden

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FR~

wow... this was on the level! Believe me OP... we've had so many come in here saying they were doing research, and didn't know the first think about scales, questionnaires and so forth. It was always painfully obvious and so of course I expected to find the same thing here.

and here I come across the real deal (yeah, I filled it out from beginning to end).

whoda thunkit

I don't know how much you'll directly glean from it let alone whether you can get a pub out of it, but you should be able to come up with a lot of questions and implications for future research, and that counts for a lot.

good luck :)

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RE: Some questions - 5/18/2014 9:36:21 PM

ivone57

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sorry no answer from me .. been in the scene for over 14 years and have yet to find one of these to be true to their nature and not some wank material... just saying... I may be wrong..

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RE: Some questions - 5/19/2014 12:44:42 AM

AthenaSurrenders

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fr

While I have to say, the preamble was well written and thought out, I've got as far as the stories and I'm confused what the survey is asking me.

For example, I was given a short piece about a mild first-time female domination scene. Then I'm asked to say whether I agree or disagree with statements like 'we will go our separate ways after this encounter' (which makes no sense since the story seems to be about an established couple) and 'he is funny and amusing' (there's no humour in the scene). Also a lot of the questions would make more sense if the story was about a female submitting to a male.

Not trying to be awkward, just can't figure out how I'm supposed to answer those questions. Am I supposed to try and develop a fantasy from this scene and answer whether the guy is smart/loving etc based on that? Is it testing my reading comprehension, since it seems that some of the questions have correct answers? The only explanation given is 'Some questions will address your personal experience and others will reflect your perceptions of the sexual partner' but there's no distinction between the types of question so if I answer that 'he makes me feel sexy', how will you know whether I mean my real-life partner or the imaginary one in the story?

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RE: Some questions - 5/19/2014 6:11:44 AM

mnottertail

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Is this a Tom Sawyer trying to get you to paint the fence deal?

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RE: Some questions - 5/20/2014 4:46:34 PM

sexhistory

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I can respect that, I appreciate your considerations.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ivone57

sorry no answer from me .. been in the scene for over 14 years and have yet to find one of these to be true to their nature and not some wank material... just saying... I may be wrong..

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RE: Some questions - 5/22/2014 8:33:12 AM

BecomingV

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Becoming V to sexhistory

I read this thread and thought, okay, I'll click on the link while waiting for you to provide an academic reference. Now, I have questions... just about the page that comes up when the link is clicked.

1) What is the direct, clear and transparent answer to, "Who is funding this study?" What I read as an "answer" was who is not funding it. It would be accurate to add my name, too, as I'm not funding it... but what about the actual question? This running around the facts makes any confidence in the research project itself... disappear. And, what does Target have to do with this? Who pays for that?

2) Under "BENEFITS of THIS STUDY" you state that "this study helps us learn more how individuals sexual histories relate to the appeal of erotic literature."

Seriously, who cares about that? Hmmm, google, perhaps? Facebook? If I were a web-based, erotic publishing company and I wanted to create a marketing plan, it would be good to know people's sexual histories to tailor the message accordingly. My Gmail uses intuitive something or other to choose which ads I see, based on words used in emails, either sent out, or received. Is something like that going on here?

3) Under the Confidentiality section, it states that information will be shared with government agencies - which ones? Also, that identifying information is kept separately from studies, but it's all kept in a cabinet? Please elaborate for clarity.

4) Why is the sexual assault hotline posted? Anyone who reads the threads knows that I'm all about ending rape - I'm considered militant and extremist in this regard. So, I wonder at the implications set forth when you mix rape education with BDSM "research." It's biased and obviously, someone at the design level has a lot to learn before they are prepared to approach this.

5) Once the link is clicked, the form ends with a choice to either participate or to exit. Either way, once I click on those choices, rather than just close the page, what happens? In other words, now that I've clicked the link to your "survey," was THAT the moment I became a statistic? Or, do I become a part of the statistics AFTER I click on the exit choices at the bottom of the page? Or, do I have to click on agreement to become any part of the statistical data?

6) Last but not least, C'mon... really? Typos. Spelling. Grammar. Just sloppy and disrespectful.

Like other posters here, I've seen this crap before so many times, I may be jaded. What you presented only reinforces my position that research on BDSM cannot be conducted via online, networking websites. So far, only hacks, voyeurs and the religious right seem to show up with these things.

I, like others here, would participate in an unbiased, professional and transparent survey. One just hasn't shown up yet, including this one.

< Message edited by BecomingV -- 5/22/2014 8:45:38 AM >

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RE: Some questions - 5/22/2014 9:52:10 AM

FriendlyMuppet

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Part of the problem of most studies and surveys that are taken about bdsm activity and lifestyle is that almost always they tend to come from one of two places:

1. A clueless outsider who is kind of excited by the activity and hopes that it being taboo might help to sell a research study to other colleagues.
2. Someone who tends to be seeking wanker material under the guise of doing it for academic rationalization.

There is a third possibility, and that's that it comes from someone who is truly interested in examining a scientific question, but as you'll experience, very few of these studies actually ask a scientific question, which immediately sells any interest in the study completely short.

Years back, when I was becoming known in bdsm circles and doing academic work, I had thought of covering a couple of interesting questions about sociological impacts of bdsm, or how certain people might gravitate towards certain identity roles. Both would have been interesting studies, but at the time that I was formulating an idea of this, I came across an EXTREMELY well known bdsm personality who had written basically the quintessential book about bdsm behavior. I was in awe of her, her study and her work in the field. And then I met her at a bdsm party, where I discovered right then and there something I never suspected: She had no idea what was going on in the scene. This was someone who basically introduced me to the "scene", and in one conversation with her I realized she was clueless. I remember her becoming excited because she had run into me, who was a community figure leader at the time, and one of her first questions to me was "I hear there's some kind of movement online with bdsm. Is this true?" I stared at her with those infamous bunny eyes, not blinking once, but a few other sentences out from her told me that this is someone who basically interviewed a bunch of people, wrote a great book and still had no clue what she had just studied.

I lost a lot of respect for researchers in bdsm after that because practically every time since then every time someone tells me he or she is planning to "study" bdsm, the community, or the lifestyle, I'm almost always going to walk away from that encounter wishing I could scrub my brain with bleach.

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RE: Some questions - 5/22/2014 3:07:04 PM

eliseobeys

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I ran into some of the same issues when I was doing the online portion of my thesis work on the history of fetish behaviors.

Which mainly took lots of direct involvement for me in and on the various bdsm sites etc, and reams of live chat interviews. (Which is no problem for me really being part of the lifestyle long before ever going online, I enjoy my time in both worlds just fine).

I found placing surveys on message boards got better results when it wasn't based on experimental criteria or required people to go to another site to participate. Recording objective demographic data on who identifies as D/s and who participates in the R/L community and to what extent or which fetishes they participate in and to what level and such is very non threatening with multiple choice boxes and non leading questions lead to very easy data to gather. Statistics aside however I always gain more insight by communicating in a conversation with people.

Any kind of survey or situation that feels too much like an outsider experimenting on us as individuals or as a community in general I think is frowned upon.

One has too keep in mind that bdsm and many of the fetishes associated with it have in most of the world not only been officially classified as deviant...much of it is illegal to practice still in most of the world mainly imho due to misconceptions fostered on us by the vanilla world. So people are very sensitive in the community about it.

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