Survey about asexuality, gender expression, and partner preference

[Lord Happy Toast]

The following survey has been approved for posting on AVEN by the Project Team. For more information on what this does and does not mean, please see the explanation of our rules for researchers

My name is Rachael McCrosky, and I am a second year Master's student in the Sociology Department at the University of Central Florida. I am conducting a study on asexuality and gender.

Past research

has raised questions about the impact a lack of sexual desire may have on gender expression and gender of partner preference. DeLuzio Chasin (2011:716) stated "It is possible that sexual attractiveness standards govern gender presentations and behaviors, and

that without the desire to attract a sexual partner, asexual people may have more freedom to explore their own genders".

It is my hope to explore the possible connection between sexual desire and gender expression by researching the gender expression and partner preferences of asexuals.

Survey Link: https://ucfcos.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eX89fa096x5kUaV

[Guest]

I did the survey, but the repetitive questions made it very awkward. Why ask 5+ times if I would be troubled by being seen as gay, if I like being around children, if I want to lose weight etc etc?

Very Very awkward...

[Vega91]

I did the survey, but the repetitive questions made it very awkward. Why ask 5+ times if I would be troubled by being seen as gay, if I like being around children, if I want to lose weight etc etc?

Very Very awkward...

I was wondering the same thing. They weren't even phrased differently, it was pretty much the same question over and over. "I like taking risks" was also asked about 5 times,as was "violence is never justified"

If the author was going to ask about gendered preferences or personality traits, I'm sure there were other things they could've asked for.

[JDP]

I didn't like the one about terminology, either. i gave up about a third of the way through it.

[sound_the_bugle]

I did the survey, but the repetitive questions made it very awkward. Why ask 5+ times if I would be troubled by being seen as gay, if I like being around children, if I want to lose weight etc etc?

Very Very awkward...

The repetitiveness was an issue. I'd also have liked an ambivalent or an I don't know answer. Mostly an ambivalent answer.

[Vega91]

one more thing I forgot to mention.. at the very first page, when the survey asks "What gender/sex do you want your sexual/romantic partner to be?".. there should really be a "none" option.

[sound_the_bugle]

Or a N/A option

[Guest]

one more thing I forgot to mention.. at the very first page, when the survey asks "What gender/sex do you want your sexual/romantic partner to be?".. there should really be a "none" option.

I put "Other" and wrote "I don't want a sexual partner". :)

Still finishing the survey!

[Vega91]

one more thing I forgot to mention.. at the very first page, when the survey asks "What gender/sex do you want your sexual/romantic partner to be?".. there should really be a "none" option.

I put "Other" and wrote "I don't want a sexual partner". :)

Still finishing the survey!

Yeah, I ended up doing that as well, it just seems funny that in a survey about asexulity, "none" is not an option lol.

[Guest]

Okay, just finished it. Yes, some questions seem a bit overkill, but others actually have nuances - such as "violence is never justified" vs "violence is almost never justified". I actually answered them differently.

Anyway, it was fun to take. Good luck with your studies! I can't wait to see the results published, both for this one and the previous two ^_^

[sound_the_bugle]

Okay, just finished it. Yes, some questions seem a bit overkill, but others actually have nuances - such as "violence is never justified" vs "violence is almost never justified". I actually answered them differently.

Anyway, it was fun to take. Good luck with your studies! I can't wait to see the results published, both for this one and the previous two ^_^

I agree, some of them were a bit nuanced and I answered them differently because of that, but for the most part, I just felt it was redundant

[SpadeofAces]

I did the survey, but the repetitive questions made it very awkward. Why ask 5+ times if I would be troubled by being seen as gay, if I like being around children, if I want to lose weight etc etc?

Very Very awkward...

Messen,

The same questions must be asked repeatedly for internal survey validity and answer consistency. Say you accidentally answered yes one time and no another time on the same question. This causes validity and interpretation problems for the researcher. There are more than just these reasons for asking the same question multiple times....for example, to make sure a person is not lying about something. Also, answers change slightly with the same question asked in different ways.

As for the other people who took the survey and had issues with it, the good researcher will take all of these issues and survey limitations (e.g. no "None" option) into account. If the researcher does not do this, then his/her research is shaky indeed.

It's all very complicated.

[Guest]

Messen,

The same questions must be asked repeatedly for internal survey validity and answer consistency. Say you accidentally answered yes one time and no another time on the same question. This causes validity and interpretation problems for the researcher. There are more than just these reasons for asking the same question multiple times....for example, to make sure a person is not lying about something. Also, answers change slightly with the same question asked in different ways.

As for the other people who took the survey and had issues with it, the good researcher will take all of these issues and survey limitations (e.g. no "None" option) into account. If the researcher does not do this, then his/her research is shaky indeed.

It's all very complicated.

I dont know how important it is for them to know about my weight "issues" (as they try to make me say that I have), my views on men being dominant to women (as if they want to make a point?), how I view violence, if I dislike being seen as gay (having this question multiple times make it seem like they want to get somekind of message into my head) etc, how are these relevant to "asexuality, gender expression and partner preferance"?

I dont get it. If these questions were ment to be that repetitive they should of made them all the same, since these tiny changes in the sentence might confuse someone who is not a native english speaker (like me) which might cause them to answer them differently.

Also... To ask alot of sexual questions to someone who is asexual (note: survey that is mostly made for asexuals) with no clear option that is just a "no, I dont have sex/dont want sex" is quite frustrating.

[praetorius]

My take on the (highly repetitive) selection of question topics is that these are all items that correlate strongly with societal gender role stereotypes: "women care a lot about their weight and appearance; men are violent and want to dominate women and have lots of sex"; etc. So, the topic of the study seems to be how strongly asexuals align themselves with gender role stereotypes compared to the general population (I'm guessing there have been very similar studies already to determine how the broader mostly-sexual population answers these questions; perhaps explaining why a lot of the questions seem poorly posed for asexuals).

[Vega91]

My take on the (highly repetitive) selection of question topics is that these are all items that correlate strongly with societal gender role stereotypes: "women care a lot about their weight and appearance; men are violent and want to dominate women and have lots of sex"; etc. So, the topic of the study seems to be how strongly asexuals align themselves with gender role stereotypes compared to the general population (I'm guessing there have been very similar studies already to determine how the broader mostly-sexual population answers these questions; perhaps explaining why a lot of the questions seem poorly posed for asexuals).

I just feel that there are more varied stereotypes that could've been included.

Editing:

There was another problem with the questions. For example.. "You would only have sex with a close partner" or whatever the wording was.

I, as a repulsed ace, would not have sex with ANYONE. So, of course I clicked on "strongly disagree"...making it look as if I might be open to sexual relations with anyone.

[Notte stellata]

My take on the (highly repetitive) selection of question topics is that these are all items that correlate strongly with societal gender role stereotypes: "women care a lot about their weight and appearance; men are violent and want to dominate women and have lots of sex"; etc. So, the topic of the study seems to be how strongly asexuals align themselves with gender role stereotypes compared to the general population (I'm guessing there have been very similar studies already to determine how the broader mostly-sexual population answers these questions; perhaps explaining why a lot of the questions seem poorly posed for asexuals).

Yeah, I think so too. Some of the questions look familiar to me. They seem to be from some gender role norm questionnaires I've read about before. But I agree that it's better to modify or delete those questions about sex for asexual participants. I doubt any asexual would say they like to have casual sex or have many sexual partners.

[praetorius]

But I agree that it's better to modify or delete those questions about sex for asexual participants. I doubt any asexual would say they like to have casual sex or have many sexual partners.

Given that studying asexuals as a distinct group is a fairly new field, I think it's useful at this point to confirm even "obvious" suspicions (e.g. "asexuals generally aren't keen on promiscuous sex hookups"), to establish clear baseline values of the extent of differences from the general population (and, it's still possible for some small fraction of asexuals to desire one-night-stand hookups for libido release without sexual attraction). Modifying questions for just one group makes meaningful comparisons against other groups practically impossible (without introducing horrible biases from assumptions). Ideally, new forms for questions (incorporating the possibility of asexual perspectives) will eventually be developed for surveys of both sexual and asexual populations.

[Notte stellata]

Given that studying asexuals as a distinct group is a fairly new field, I think it's useful at this point to confirm even "obvious" suspicions (e.g. "asexuals generally aren't keen on promiscuous sex hookups"), to establish clear baseline values of the extent of differences from the general population (and, it's still possible for some small fraction of asexuals to desire one-night-stand hookups for libido release without sexual attraction). Modifying questions for just one group makes meaningful comparisons against other groups practically impossible (without introducing horrible biases from assumptions). Ideally, new forms for questions (incorporating the possibility of asexual perspectives) will eventually be developed for surveys of both sexual and asexual populations.

Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking the study is probably going to compare the responses of male and female (and possibly other genders) participants, so those casual sex questions likely won't yield much gender difference, but it's because asexuals don't care for casual sex anyway, regardless of their gender or attitudes toward gender roles. But I guess the researcher will take that into consideration during data analysis.

[Kingsaucy_Malika]

i did struggle to answer some questions because there was no in-between or n/a option but overall i enjoyed the survey and the repetitiveness did not bother me

[SpadeofAces]

Messen,

The same questions must be asked repeatedly for internal survey validity and answer consistency. Say you accidentally answered yes one time and no another time on the same question. This causes validity and interpretation problems for the researcher. There are more than just these reasons for asking the same question multiple times....for example, to make sure a person is not lying about something. Also, answers change slightly with the same question asked in different ways.

As for the other people who took the survey and had issues with it, the good researcher will take all of these issues and survey limitations (e.g. no "None" option) into account. If the researcher does not do this, then his/her research is shaky indeed.

It's all very complicated.

I dont know how important it is for them to know about my weight "issues" (as they try to make me say that I have), my views on men being dominant to women (as if they want to make a point?), how I view voilence, if I dislike being seen as gay (having this question multiple times make it seem like they want to get somekind of message into my head) etc, how are these relevant to "asexuality, gender expression and partner preferance"?

I dont get it. If these questions were ment to be that repetitive they should of made them all the same, since these tiny changes in the sentence might confuse someone who is not a native english speaker (like me) which might cause them to answer them differently.

Also... To ask alot of sexual questions to someone who is asexual (note: survey that is mostly made for asexuals) with no clear option that is just a "no, I dont have sex/dont want sex" is quite frustrating.

Well, maybe it's not a well written survey.

[jmitch1481]

I took it, I didn't think it was to bad. I did wish there was a middle of the road or n/a. Some things I could care less about and you cant show that with a agree or disagree answer. The picture with the genderbread man was cute. Wish I would have saved it lol. But it was HARD! You have to really think about.

[Bauer]

Hey everyone,

A second year Master's student of Sociology at the University of Central Florida asked me to spread the word about her survey on Asexuality and the Influence of Sexual Desire on Gender Presentation and Partner Preference.

If you have the time to fill it out, please do. It will help us represent ourselves in academic research.

https://ucfcos.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eX89fa096x5kUaV

There are some standard questions that do not pertain to us as Aces, but help distinguish us, and it may seem like questions are repeated - that is common in academic research surveys.

Here's a bunch of info from her:

My study is titled "Asexuality and the Influence of Sexual Desire on Gender Presentation and Partner Preference."

Past research has raised questions about the impact a lack of sexual desire may have on gender expression and gender of partner preference. DeLuzio Chasin (2011:716) stated "It is possible that sexual attractiveness standards govern gender presentations and behaviors, and that without the desire to attract a sexual partner, asexual people may have more freedom to explore their own genders".

It is my hope to explore the connection between sexual desire and gender by researching the gender expression and partner preferences of asexuals. This study will not collect legal names. Participants must be over 18 and no participants will meet with the researcher in person.


Personal Note:

I use previously established conformity to gender norm scales in my survey. This isn't because I think measures developed and tested on a sexual population are the best fit for an asexual population, it's because they are the best we have at the moment. While all measures have certain shortcomings, I chose what I saw as the best of available and validated gender scales.

There are a few questions about sexual desires in these scales, and I can't take them out even though they are not applicable to asexuals because it would invalidate the measure. The fact that certain questions are not applicable is, to a large extent, actually the point of the research.

[Leelian]

Is this the same survey that popped up on the Asexual Awareness Week facebook page? The survey appears to be the same, so I don't want to ruin the results by doing it twice.

[The Scrabbler]

This was also already posted on AVEN: http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/89995-survey-about-asexuality-gender-expression-and-partner-preference/

[Alkamar]

I completed the survey.

[Grumpy Alien]

Done.

[Lady Girl]

Moved from Census to Announcements to be merged with the original post.

Lady Girl, Moderator

[skenasis]

And on that note, the two topics have been merged.

skenasis

Temporary Announcements moderator

[RageKing]

They asked alot of the same questions...

[yeukelduck]

I found the American styled questions were a bit hard to answer, like the one about level of high school. I know we have a different name for it in my country, so I just wrote a few words that indicate the level. And the one after it about a high school diploma or GED, I don't even know what they are, so I felt I may have answered the wrong one without even knowing. I also found it hard to understand whether the questions mean in general or to me personally, for example the ones about violence, I was answering that there is rarely a need for violence, but I would never be violent myself. Hopefully this doesn't translate to contradictive answers, but means that I believe violence has its place, but not from me. That sort of thing. I would have liked an optional box on each question to explain if you felt you hadn't covered it in the button answer. But overall, I hope it helps to broaden the understanding of asexuals.