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Signal boost
Aug. 31st, 2009 05:30 amThere are a lot of very valid objections to the fanfiction survey going around that are described here.
The basic problem is that the researchers are approaching it with a specific goal of proving that sexuality is hardwired, rather than influenced by culture, and that men and women are biologically different, and the questions are designed with certain assumptions and misconceptions in mind about slash and sexuality.
There have been a number of criticisms of their methods in addition to their goals but my personal favorite is that when they received objections that their questions were based on certain incorrect assumptions, they changed the questions - which would ordinarily be a fine thing for a researcher to do, except, you know, not halfway through the survey process when a bunch of people have already taken the survey.
The basic problem is that the researchers are approaching it with a specific goal of proving that sexuality is hardwired, rather than influenced by culture, and that men and women are biologically different, and the questions are designed with certain assumptions and misconceptions in mind about slash and sexuality.
There have been a number of criticisms of their methods in addition to their goals but my personal favorite is that when they received objections that their questions were based on certain incorrect assumptions, they changed the questions - which would ordinarily be a fine thing for a researcher to do, except, you know, not halfway through the survey process when a bunch of people have already taken the survey.