Monday, August 29, 2011

SURVEY: Switch Up!

In August & September we're taking on the topic of role reversal and switching. An awful lot of people explore role reversal at some point or another, and yet it’s not always an accepted practice. In our ‘Labels and Identity’ survey we learned that 68% of the community has switched roles at some point or another. We also learned that 50% of folks see themselves becoming more dominant or submissive into the future.

This survey is closed, you may click here to review data.

September Update

Our transition to blog format is nearly complete. Moving over to blogspot will give you greater control of how you consume our content and eliminate the need for us to rework and repost our surveys and data for multiple formats.

We currently have three surveys up and running. 
  • "Safe Sex" (Closes 8/31) which explores the how people feel about bareback porn. 
  • "Switch Up" (Closes 9/30) which exploring role reversal.
  • "What are you into?" (Closes 10/31) exploring the prevalence of kinks and limits in the community.
We also have posted our data for "What is a boy?" The most interesting tidbit is the following graph.


Can't wait to get the "Safe Sex" data up in the next couple weeks. This is a heated topic indeed!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

SURVEY: What are you into?

In September and October we'll be exploring kinks. This survey will be reposted periodically so we can track fetishes as they change over time.

There is generally "accepted" kinks and "off limit" kinks. In society at large most kinks are rejected as perversion, Why do those in the kink community judge what people are into at all? This is a chance to explore kinks without judgement or shame. Who knows, your "secret fetish" might be more common than you thought.



What is a boy?

We use ‘boy’ as both an identity and as a label. This issue is approached  at  many events by holding panel discussions on the topic; the most useful include other labels/identities so the differences are made distinct. The one major obstacle this approach encounters is that ‘boy’ means something different to everyone.

While there are obvious differences in opinions, the data can be used so that boys/non-boys can better serve each other. Hopefully this information will better define what ‘boys’ want, what is expected of them, and how they’re perceived by those with less experience.

Demographics



Explaining the Data
This survey resulted in 145 submittals and 67 unique words. Many words were well represented and stand on their own. Similar under-represented words were combined.

service oriented (serve, service, accommodating)
dedicated (devoted, Loyal)
playful (playful, energetic,
mischievous, adventurous, young-at-heart)
sexuality & what they wear (sensual, sexy, hot, delicious, horny, clothing, full leather wearing,  gear. leather)
slave like (slave, owned)
Proud (proud, strong, tough)
Attentive (attentive, pleasing)
boy/boi

The remaining words were unique and consequently were difficult to combine. For this reason they were categorized as "other." Many were excellent descriptive words, but represented less than 1% of submitted terms. Words in the “other” category are explored in the two charts below.

boys/non-boys and those who are not sure if they are boys

with/without experience with boys


Data Analysis
As a boy, I’ve noticed that there is often a difference between how boys see themselves and how non-boys see them. Often this problem is simply semantics, but other times it’s a fundamental problem.


The chart to the above shows this problem. We combined non-boys and those not sure (TNS) in red, and boys in blue.

The emphasis on sexuality and what boys wear as a common factor for many boys was particularly interesting. In this survey as many boys thought sexuality, and gear (defined as all fetish wear from leather to sports gear) were as those who thought submission was important. Those not sure saw masculinity and confidence as uniquely defining qualities in boys.


The full details separating boys, non-boys and TNS are detailed in the above chart. You can also examine the un-edited data by downloading the full PDF of this report.



Those with no experience of boys were the only ones to choose confidence as a defining quality of boys. They also see dedication in place of being “service oriented.”



It’s interesting that those who know boys do not see confidence. Perhaps it’s because so many boys seek out mentors to help give their lives direction. In either case it’s a topic worth discussion. 

We also see that those with no personal experience of boys are more likely to see a boy as “slave like.” This means that boys and non-boys alike still have work to do to draw the distinctions between a boy and a slave.

A full breakdown of the differences between those with and without experience with boys is listed below.