non-science

[rm]

Sorry, new and improved version. I left out some important options.

I realize this is entirely non-scientific and because LJ skews towards women even more unscientific for that. But I tend to think these little exercises still have their uses and least when it comes to reminding people about privilege (or I may turn out to be totally wrong).

ETA:

to answer some frequent questions:

1. Unwanted contact from a person you are in a relationship with should be read as a sexual overture (possibly entirely appropriate but you weren't in the mood) was made that you rejected, BUT the rejection was then not heeded in a fashion that you feel harmed you/violated your person/rights.

2. I know, I left out a choice for boss/coworker/clergy member/teacher/professional relationship/person in position of authority -- please put it in the acquaintance category. This was noticed too late to redo the poll and I'll note it when I do the results summary post.

3. If you are trans, genderqueer, etc. and want to answer in more than one category based on how you were presenting at the time, that's fine.

4. The way LJ shows the answers to this isn't actually that statistically interesting to what I'm trying to capture, and I will eventually make a post about some other things I'm seeing somewhat buried in the numbers.

5. Yes, your answers are viewable to everyone. There's a point to that too that will be discussed later as well.

6. Feel free to link to this in your own journal.

7. THANK YOU.


[Poll #1175760]

Comments

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Would you mind if I directed people to this?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not at all. The numbers only approach being meaningful if lots of people respond to it. And very few people have been upset by it, which gladdens me, although it's been stressful.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Done.

I admit, I hesitated. And I very nearly didn't fill it out. I doubt I'll ever be comfortable speaking about this.

"Stressful" is a good word for it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I am glad you did, as it is meaningless if I can't get lots of responses from men as well.

I will eventually post a summary about what's going on with it (but I think it might not hit critical mass of responses for another day or two), as

- the thing that is statistically interesting isn't well represented by the bars.

- there was a lot of thought that went into making it entirely public, that relates to both the shame that often comes with having dealt with unwanted sexual contact and the peer pressure issue inherent in the OSBP.

- I have had both very negative reactions and very positive reactions from people to it that deserve noting the themes of.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Well, for the record, my only negative reaction to the poll is that I'd have personally preferred if it weren't public. I wonder if embarrassment and stigma will prevent some folks from answering.

But I do understand your reasoning. It's hard to conduct a statistical analysis online when the results aren't public. And making the poll results only available to friends would probably have prevented more folks from answering than keeping the poll entirely public.

As for a negative reaction to the OSBP, the only real reason I haven't posted a huge rant against it yet is I've been emotionally volatile and my judgement has been dismal over the past 24 hours. (Lots of real-life stress.) But I will say that my personal, negative assessment of theferrett's character hasn't changed at all from this.

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

my only negative reaction to the poll

Yet another interesting point for me. I read the comments (from, apparently, females) mentioning that filling this out was stressful, but for me, it was just a bunch of clicky-clicks. Again, I'd guess that's related to the pervasiveness issue. The events (with two exceptions) didn't really register deep into my memory because they were minor and rare (e.g., having somebody grab my ass while they walked by... I'm sure it's happened, but I couldn't give you details).

[zarq.livejournal.com]

For me, the incidents in question were traumatic. There's discomfort in revisiting them, as well as putting them into the public eye. Even in this very limited way.

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

Ah. I'm sorry to hear that, and sorry for the inappropriate generalization.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

No worries. It wasn't inappropriate -- it's your subjective experience, which is as valid as anyone else's.

[spherissa.livejournal.com]

For me ticking boxes wasn't stressful (and I clicked all of them except for the never had box) on the other hand sitting down and writing about some of the experiences those boxes represent would be Quite stressful. Particularly actually the one about current partner, because said person is my current partner, and I do love him, but our current relationship is a mess and the Event which was not rape but was Something-- has put a dint on how I am able to express myself around him now. Meh.

I guess I am saying that the events registered for me, well not all of them, but some of them, but ticking ticky boxes didn't make me want to weep.

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

Found via zarq.

Another way I would have made this different is to have a frequency scale. I'm pretty sure I've gotten unwanted intimate contact from every group on your list, but I doubt it's anywhere near as frequent for me as it is for females.