How disappointing...

[cjandre]

Well, I have formally withdrawn my permission for my pseudonym and any comments I've made to be used by Ogi Ogas in his research. The LJ he was using seems to be blocked off now, and I don't know exactly why that is, but oh, well

Comments

[droolfangrrl]

I think he came into this with an idea of how things were and learned it wasn't quite so.

They're young and don't know better?

[cjandre]

Yeah - young and don't know better is fixable, but misrepresentation and playing fast and loose with ethics is less fixable.

*sigh*

Hopefully this will be a learning experience for all - certainly it has been for me!

[droolfangrrl]

Hm... I find that I tend to judge someone that I consider to be part of my group than someone that I don't. That old walk a mile in another shoe bit, I guess. So I'm betting any fan who had their phd is feeling extra annoyed at these two.

[cjandre]

Yes, I think you are probably right.

I still don't feel as angry as some of the posts I've seen - I just don't feel confident in the ethics behind the project anymore.

[snarryfool]

I honestly thought, right up until I saw the post today that first used the word "trannies," later edited to "she-males" (!!!), that they might just have been naive, ill-informed, wandering off their brain-science turf. Radical sexual politics can be kind of a minefield when you first venture into it -- unless you've been pushed into it by your own sexuality, and unless you're used to that mode of thinking, you're gonna blunder. Huh, even then.

But there's good-faith blundering, and then there's not troubling to learn the very first thing about the community you're drawing data from, including its touchy spots, *even if you think they're unreasonable.* It's just ... boorish, is what it is.

[cjandre]

Yes, you pretty much sum up my feelings about the survey questions and discussion.

*sigh*

Oh, well - on to the next kerfluffle?

[elfwreck]

This post has been included in a linkspam roundup.

[cjandre]

Thanks!

[cjandre]

I am really interested in what people find sexy, and why - not just slash, or m/m - but generally. And one of the things I found really interesting in some of the discussions I had with Ogi and some that read in other places, were the differences and overlaps of what men and women found arousing. It's the thing I've often seen: "men are aroused visually, women are aroused emotionally." but saying that doesn't really explain it - and honestly, I was interested in this research because I thought it was going to explore the underpinnings of those kinds of differences. In which case, looking at slash (both m/m and f/f) and gay erotica/porn would make for very interesting data to add to straight erotica/porn and erotic romances.

Alas, I fear it will never be.

[ivy03]

I also thought the project was interesting! Heck, I probably would have bought the book. Because I have also contemplated the differences (and they are different) between slash, yaoi, and gay erotica created for gay men. But exploring that requires a subtle touch, an open mind, and real insight into perspectives other than your own. So...yeah. Swing and a miss, here.

[ivy03]

I think what this shows, though, is that what is interesting about fandom to people outside of it (for example, their veiled questions trying to determine, in some Freudian way, if women identify with penetrator or penetratee) is not only not what people inside fandom are interested in but is so far away from what participation in fannish culture is like that it is both irrelevant and offensive.

It's kind of like when my aunt came out and I immediately wanted to know if she called her spouse her wife and if she planned to adopt kids. To my aunt, that? Besides the point. It was just me trying to put her into the (heteronormative) frame I recognized.

I think because of this, though books have and will continue to be published about fandom, they won't ever be given the type of big book deal, big platform, and big promotion this book is getting. Cause it's easy to sell a wide audience titillating stereotypes. It's hard to sell them issues of relevance to fans. Because if those issues interested the wide audience...they'd also be fans.

[cjandre]

*sigh*

Exactly.