A man or a woman?

[olik13]

How much are you a man/ a woman?

When asked “Are you a man or a woman?” most people will easily choose one of the two binary options. But what will be the answer if they are asked how much they are a man and how much they are a woman? Answering this question is the aim of this study, conducted by Tel Aviv University research group.
We would be glad if you fill out the questionnaire in the following link (anonymity guaranteed) and then share it with others. Thank you!
http://qacademics.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0BWfDkB9kX2tpxW

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

How stupid. It makes as much sense to ask, HOW MUCH OF A FIREMAN, PINE FOREST, OR WHITMANS SAMPLER ARE YOU?

 

[oggbashan]

I've completed the survey.

Given the questions, I'm not sure what information they are going to get from the results, if they get anything meaningful.

 

[Bramblethorn]

When asked “Are you a man or a woman?” most people will easily choose one of the two binary options. But what will be the answer if they are asked how much they are a man and how much they are a woman? Answering this question is the aim of this study, conducted by Tel Aviv University research group.
We would be glad if you fill out the questionnaire in the following link (anonymity guaranteed) and then share it with others. Thank you!
http://qacademics.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0BWfDkB9kX2tpxW

Although I'm very interested in this topic, I thought the survey was poorly designed, and this is exacerbated by not allowing respondents to backtrack - there were a couple of areas where I wanted to go back and revise earlier answers after seeing later questions. In case it's useful to anybody else who's considering doing this survey, I've listed the questions here along with some criticisms.

All answers are single-selection multi-choice. Except where noted, answer options are Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never, sometimes with an additional Not Relevant.

Q1. In the past 12 months, have you felt satisfied being a woman?
Q2: ...man

My reaction: ...huh? Are you talking about man/woman as a physical status or a social status? And are you talking about the respondent's satisfaction with the sex/gender they have? Or satisfaction with the experience of being that gender?

For instance, a pre-op trans woman may be dissatisfied with being physically male - but satisfied that living as a woman is the right choice for them - yet dissatisfied with the way women are treated in society.

Q3. In the past 12 months, have you thought of yourself as a woman? (Always-Never)
Q4. ...man

This really needs to be grouped along with questions 9-10 and 13-21, and respondents should be able to view ALL those questions before answering.

Those of us with complicated gender identities are used to answering questionnaires with a mindset of "these options don't adequately describe me, I'm going to have to pick the least bad option". If I know that later on there's a question that gives better options, then I can answer "not relevant" here and use that later question to provide a better description.

Q5. In the past 12 months, have you felt that you have to work at being a woman? (Always-Never, Not Relevant)
Q6. ...man

7. In the past 12 months, have you felt pressured by others to be a “proper” woman?
8. ...man

9. In the past 12 months, have you felt that you were a “real” woman? (Always-Never)
10. ...man

These should be grouped with the other identity questions.

11. In the past 12 months, when you went into a department store to buy yourself clothing, did you shop in a department labeled for your sex? (Always-Never)

How are you going to interpret answers of "never"? Does this mean that the respondent always shops in the opposite-sex section? Or does it mean they don't buy their clothes in department stores?

12. In the past 12 months, have you worn the clothes of the other sex?

What counts? Women wearing trousers? Men wearing My Little Pony T-shirts?

13. In the past 12 months, have you felt more like a man than like a woman?
14. ...more like a woman than like a man?

15. In the past 12 months, have you sometimes felt like a man and sometimes like a woman?

So what exactly does it mean if somebody picks "sometimes" on this one? I guess it means that sometimes they sometimes feel like a man and sometimes like a woman, and sometimes they don't. Whatever that means.

I answered 'Often' on this... and then I got to 16 below, which is a far better description of how I identify, and I wanted to go back and change my answer to 15. This is why people need to be able to see ALL the identity questions before they commit to answers.

16. In the past 12 months, have you felt somewhere in between a woman and a man?

17. In the past 12 months, have there been times when you've felt that you are neither a man nor a woman?

18. In the past 12 months, have you felt that it is/it would be better for you to live as a man than as a woman?
19. ...as a woman than as a man?

20. In the past 12 months, have you had the wish or desire to be a man?
21. ...woman

22. In the past 12 months, have you disliked your body because of its female form?
23. ...male

24. In the past 12 months, have you wished you had the body of the other sex?

25. In the past 12 months, how often did you have erotic fantasies with a man (or men) as the object (or objects) of fantasy?
26. ...woman (or women)

27. How would you rate the level of your sexual attraction to men?
28. ...women

29. In the past 12 months, have your romantic relationships been with men?
30. ...women

If my partner has an ambiguous gender identity, should I be answering "sometimes" to both? And are we talking about identity or physical sex?

31. In the past 12 months, when you had sex, was it with men?
32. ...women

Again: identity or physical sex?

Demography questions:

Sex at birth (male, female, intersex)

It would have been good to put this up front and make it clear that you recognise the existence of intersex folk, because that's not at all clear from the first 32 questions.

Reared as a (boy, girl)

There are people who raise their kids gender-neutral, and there are people who've been raised as both. The questionnaire doesn't have any suitable option for those cases.

Current gender (man, woman, transman, transwoman, transgender, genderqueer, other)

Suggesting that "man" and "transman" or "woman" and "transwoman" are mutually-exclusive choices is not something that's likely to endear you to trans folk. I'd suggest something like "man (non-trans), woman (non-trans), man (trans), woman (trans)" here.

Sexual orientation (exclusively straight/heterosexual, mostly ..., bisexual, mostly gay/lesbian, exclusively gay/lesbian, pansexual, asexual, other)

Age (single-year, min 16)

Country of residence

How would you classify yourself? (racial categories)

Area you currently live in, area where you grew up (urban, suburban, rural)

Religion. Options are:

Christianity
Islam
Judaism
Baha'i
Sikhism
Hinduism
Buddhism
Spiritism
Chinese traditional religion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist
Juche
Primal-indigenous
African traditional & diasporic

This is a weird list - Juche as a "religion", but nothing to cover neopagan faiths, not even an "other" option?

Religiosity level ("not religious" through to "high")

Highest level of education completed (various options)

Do you hold feminist views? (Yes, to some extent, no)

Do you hold queer views? (Yes, to some extent, no)

...er, what are "queer views"? I consider myself genderqueer and I still have no idea what "queer views" involve.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Would you rather be the cherry cordial or the chocolate frosted cocoanut creme?

 

[TxRad]

Ah yes, JBJ the homophobic psychiatrist.

 

[lovecraft68]

This strikes me as a lot of over thinking on the topic. More well spent university dollars

 

[Handley_Page]

Well, I did it and I think something got lost in translation, because I cannot see that being written in native English.
Furthermore, I have a feeling that the coding was not particularly logical (if the answer to a question is "I am a man", I don't expect to see questions about how I feel as a woman).

 

[Stella_Omega]

Bramblethorne nailed it.

There have been badly-designed research surveys since the dawn of research, but these days they can become so public.

Transgendered people are not a separate species.
We are not "transwomen " or "transmen;" being trans is not something we do, but what we are. We are women, or men who happen to be trans. so, it's not transwoman" but "trans woman." Two words, one modifying the other. You know like you are not "israelistudents" but "Israeli students."

 

[olik13]

Thank you for your participation! You comments are important and if you want researchers to know about them, you can send them an email to the address mentioned in the questionnaire.
All the questions are oriented to all the genders. In some of them you have an option to choose not relevant, in all of them you have an option to choose never if you feel that it's not suitable to you in any way.
Who haven't filled it out yet, please do it. It takes no more than 10 minutes, is anonymous and would help us a lot. And once again, every comment is important but if you want let the researches to know what you think about the study, you can use an email mentioned in the questionnaire. It's the only way to let them know. Thank to all of you once again. To those of you who think it's important may share it on facebook, that would be an amazing help.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a question of my own

Isn't this pretty much the definition of spam here? Its an off site link and someone is using the people here to profit themselves.

Or is it just me?

 

[oggbashan]

I have a question of my own

Isn't this pretty much the definition of spam here? Its an off site link and someone is using the people here to profit themselves.

Or is it just me?

It's spam if you think it is spam.

It isn't seeking to sell us anything, or to divert us to another story or sex site, so I would consider it harmless, if academically dubious.

 

[olik13]

I have a question of my own

Isn't this pretty much the definition of spam here? Its an off site link and someone is using the people here to profit themselves.

Or is it just me?

I'm not using people, I've kindly asked for help with the academic study conducted by well-known researcher and this study might help to move us further towards equality and freedom in expression one's own individuality. You don't have to participate if you don't want to but why to be so negative?

 

[Stella_Omega]

heh, I just answered each question as it came up-- which meant that a lot of my answers will seem contradictory, but that's their lookout not mine.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm not using people, I've kindly asked for help with the academic study conducted by well-known researcher and this study might help to move us further towards equality and freedom in expression one's own individuality. You don't have to participate if you don't want to but why to be so negative?

Because you're being paid by a university to do this (I will assume you do not work for free) or maybe you're a student working on this for a project.

What I have against it is your ass being too lazy to do any work so instead you go fishing on web-sites and let others do it for you.

I am willing to bet this survey is on more sites than just here.

Also I did look at your questionnaire and hope you are a student because whoever put this together obviously never made it much past a basic sexual psychology course if they got that far either that or you're just a paper asshole with no clue which is why it would benefit you to actually walk your ass out of your cubicle and ask people these questions in person so you'd actaully understand better what you think you're looking for.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Lovecraft is a shining example of the proudly ignorant.

 

[olik13]

Because you're being paid by a university to do this (I will assume you do not work for free) or maybe you're a student working on this for a project.

What I have against it is your ass being too lazy to do any work so instead you go fishing on web-sites and let others do it for you.

I am willing to bet this survey is on more sites than just here.

Also I did look at your questionnaire and hope you are a student because whoever put this together obviously never made it much past a basic sexual psychology course if they got that far either that or you're just a paper asshole with no clue which is why it would benefit you to actually walk your ass out of your cubicle and ask people these questions in person so you'd actually understand better what you think you're looking for.

I see that something is really making you angry here and I don't know what the reason is. If it's something on the questionnaire that hurts your feelings, you can send an email with your comments to the research group, they would love to take it into consideration.
Nobody pays me for help in distribution and this is not my project. I'm doing that for free because I think that it's important to better understand people general experience of gender beyond determined sex/ gender. I think that it could break some boundaries and let everyone of us to be a unique individuality. Equality and freedom to be yourself are the values that are very important to me.
The main researcher is a well known neuroscientist who studies sex, brain and gender. You can google her.
If it's something in the questionnaire that hurts your feelings and bothers you, once again, you can send an email to the research group.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well, I did it and I think something got lost in translation, because I cannot see that being written in native English.
Furthermore, I have a feeling that the coding was not particularly logical (if the answer to a question is "I am a man", I don't expect to see questions about how I feel as a woman).

This survey is specifically interested in people who might identify as both/neither/different things at different times or in different contexts, so I can see why they might not have wanted to make that assumption. (Also, surveys that skip questions based on previous responses - "smart sequencing" - are harder to implement, and I'm not sure whether their platform includes that functionality.)

 

[TE999]

This seemed to me to be a pretty straightforward survey, if reasonably amateurish, and I had no problem with the questions; probably because I didn't read a lot into or over think them.

Not knowing within what time frame this survey is being conducted, how large a survey sample is being sought, through what sources answers are being solicited outside the internet and websites like this one, what the surveys initial premise would be and other things; it would seem that gender uncertainty or confusion, preferences in sex partners and overall sexual orientations is/are the data/datum being sought.

I'd be interested in the results.

 

[SevenSquared]

What a godawful survey. And the worst thing is that in a few months time it will probably pop up on a news channel somewhere that "research conducted by the University of Tel Aviv has found that..." making it sound like something actually has scientific validity.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Bramblethorne nailed it.

There have been badly-designed research surveys since the dawn of research, but these days they can become so public.

Transgendered people are not a separate species.
We are not "transwomen " or "transmen;" being trans is not something we do, but what we are. We are women, or men who happen to be trans. so, it's not transwoman" but "trans woman." Two words, one modifying the other. You know like you are not "israelistudents" but "Israeli students."

Official translation: WE'RE CONFUSED.

 

[TxRad]

Official translation: WE'RE CONFUSED.

Official translation: JBJ is a homophobic asshole.

 

[Handley_Page]

What a godawful survey. And the worst thing is that in a few months time it will probably pop up on a news channel somewhere that "university conducted by the University of Tel Aviv has found that..." making it sound like something actually has scientific validity.

One might hope that in addition to knowing what questions they want to ask, they learn how to ask them in an intelligent manner.

 

[olik13]

Thank you for the additional responses. I'll tell it once again that all the comments you might have, are important and you have an option of sending en email to the research group.
The goal of the study is to better understand how people perceive and experience their gender beyond a determined one and if the experiences are similar or different within different people.
Thank you.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Thank you for the additional responses. I'll tell it once again that all the comments you might have, are important and you have an option of sending en email to the research group.
The goal of the study is to better understand how people perceive and experience their gender beyond a determined one and if the experiences are similar or different within different people.
Thank you.

I wouldn't worry about explaining any further, olik13.
Forums like this one are like a virtual barroom. Anyone who talks about it here is conversing with their fellow posters -- to impress each other with their wit and erudition or, possible, the depths of their butthurt.

You might try posting this survey in our GLBT Chatter forum