Lots of people have been studying us lately, probably because they want to sell us something.
A. OkCupid studies self-reported dating/mating habits of homos
OKCupid mined through their 3.2 million members to extract crucial information related to the mating habits and overall personalities of gays on the prowl and their results will not surprise a single homogay but might surprise Maggie Gallagher. Actually probs not.
Here’s the rundown:
1. Gay people aren’t interested in seducing straight people.
(I think the reason homogays visit dating sites is because they are sick of crushing on straight people, amirite? I mean, wouldn’t life be a lot easier if people had to wear “interested in” signs in your women’s studies class?)
2. Gay people aren’t sex-crazed nymphomaniacs
3. Gay people aren’t social deviants, weird, gross, should not be burned at the stake (at least are not any weirder than Indian people, who are awesome and not at all weird or deviant)
4. Turns out we are pretty predictable, though! Have you seen that show with Kate Moennig in it
B. National Sex Survey
Also, the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior came out last week! Some highlights:
Oral sex with a female partner in the past 90 days was rarely reported. The age group with the highest proportion of women who reported oral sex with another woman was the 18- to 24-year- old cohort of which 3.4% (N = 7) reported receiving from and 4.1% (N = 8 ) reported giving oral sex to a woman.
Among men ages 18 to 59, 4.8% to 8.4% reported having received oral sex from another man in the previous year. However, 13.8% of men ages 40–49 years and 14.9% ages 50–59 years reported such lifetime behavior.
C. Studying Footballer’s Attitudes Towards Sexuality Etc
And hey, uh, have you been curious about rugby players at all lately? Male ones? That’s good, because someone studied those too. I know right? Anyways it turns out the future is bright, i.e. traditionally hypermasculine sports are perhaps not as misogynistic and homophobic as one might imagine! (@jezebel)
+ “While there was plenty of banter about which women the players thought were hot and who they hooked up with on the weekend, put downs like “bitch”, “slut” and “fag” were rare – and when they were used, were met with reproach rather than “you go boy” backslapping.”
+ “All the players interviewed – even the two who had been observed using homophobic and sexist language – insisted they’d be totally comfortable playing alongside gay teammates, and several were critical of their coaches’ use of sexist and homophobic slurs.”
+ “It also seems significant that the study was conducted at Cambridge, a university that attracts some of the world’s brightest students, who might be more likely to think critically about gender roles. It’s not clear whether the results signal a generational shift in male sporting culture, or just the views of the next generation of left-leaning intellectuals. It also could just be a British thing – a similar study of American students in 2005 found homophobic discourse was rife amongst college athletes.”
The more you know, eh? THE MORE YOU KNOW.
the perks of being a wallflower!
that is all
I like all of the things on that list. God, we’re all so predictable.
Hilariously/sadly, on that weighted tag cloud? The OK Cupid people note that “The L Word” is actually artificially smaller than it should be, just so it would fit on the chart. Based on its true weighting it should be even bigger.
I’d totally want a poster of that tag cloud. What also made me laugh is “drama” listed in bold.
Also “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Until there’s a poster, it’s settling as my background :)
Goooo stereotypical behaviour!
Also you have that paragraph about rugby under a header mentioning footballers, does not compute.
I LOVE the cloud chart! Now I know who to randomly (but not so randomly) throw myself in front of!
Among Adult Females
93.1 identified as straight
3.6 identified as bisexual
0.9 identified as homosexual
2.3 identified as other
Among Adolescent Females
90.5 identified as straight
8.4 identified as bisexual
0.2 identified as homosexual
0.9 identified as other
There was only 1 adolescent lesbian in this study.
Oh, sorry, I was talking about the “National Sex Survey” not the OkCupid one.
I am loving the article title :)
My favorite part is this:
“4.1% (N = 8) reported giving oral sex to a woman.”
The 8) shows up as a sunglasses smiley face. It makes so much sense.
FIXED
but yeah that was pretty sweet
Dude, do they report how many straight men search gay profiles? Because Even I get more than 1% of my visible profile visits from straight dudes. I don’t even look like a girl.
I think it’s hella interesting that men’s rugby is considered a bastion of sexist and homophobic behavior, but (in America anyways) women’s rugby is considered in the running for the gayest sport ever.
that chart is awesome. full of many of my favourite things, in fact.
how the eff did katy perry make it on that cloud? SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE!
Just look at the bright side: Tegan and Sara are way more popular than Katy Perry.
always the optimist
This.
cloud chart items where i don’t know what they are:
lovely bones
lily allen
the xx
drop dead gorgeous
damien rice
rilo kiley
these things are what i think they are, right?:
the perks of being a wallflower – book
imogen heap – singer
the used – band
i’m not google impaired, i’m just seeing how oblivious i am about pop culture.
Lily Allen – Singer
Lovely Bones – Book by Alice Sebold, now a movie
=)
And it’s okay I don’t know the rest of the things on your list either except I’m guessing Damien Rice is a singer and Drop Dead Gorgeous must be a movie. I guess I’d better Google that.
Don’t worry,
Drop Dead Gorgeous is only the single greatest movie of ALL TIME.
But even I was surprised to see it on the list.
lily allen, the xx, rilo kiley, and damien rice are all singers/bands
you’re correct about the others
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS IS SO GOOD I AGREE YES BEST MOVIE EVER.
what that cloud chart doesn’t take into account is that most are actually saying: i love-hate hate hate HATE love hate hate kind-of-like HATE hate love-to-hate hate-to-love seriously-wtf-was-that-though who-are-these-people that’s-not-the-way-we-live-ahhhh …the L word
this.
I see Harry Potter in that cloud :)
So forget the whole ‘the gays are trying to convert us with their scary agenda’ schtick, its actually us who are being pursued by them- so are we to assume that the agenda is actually on their side??
FYI this is what I would put in my OkCupid profile if I had one:
I want somebody who sees the pointlessness
and still keeps their purpose in mind
I want somebody who has a tortured soul
some of the time
I want somebody who will either put out for me
or put me out of my misery
or maybe just put it all to words
and make me go, you know
I never heard it put that way
make me go, what did you just say?
Do you think I would be asking too much?
I would wink/flirt/im/cuddle with you on OK cupid if I had one and read this.
my conclusions from the tag cloud:
1. by law & order: svu, they actually meant Olivia Benson
2. the lesbians have a monopoly over “favorite color”
3. we’re all kinda random. apparently. it said so.
4. oh yeah, i need to go download more tegan & sara.
5. all the a-holes who keep antagonizing us should back off, because we run with scissors as a collective.
I read that as ‘their results will not surprise a single homogay but might surprise Maggie Gyllenhaal. Actually probs not.’ and got Way Happy. Then realized i read it wrong and it was still funny.
Ok, back to reading the rest of the clever words.
LOVE THIS! it says a lot of who we really are… as not portraited by the media
btw im a chilean engineer/miner http://twitpic.com/2xom7e
and i do not have a mistress xD
that cloud chart is amazing and full of so many things that i love! only thing that would make it better is if “autostraddle” was in gigantic bold letters.
THIS!
I just love the semi-obscure ani references in the autostraddle articles. Will now proceed to reading… :)
“3.4% (N = 7) reported receiving from and 4.1% (N = 8 ) reported giving oral sex to a woman.”
does that number seem seriously low to anyone else?
“7% of adult women and 8% of men identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the proportion of individuals in the U.S. who have had same-gender sexual interactions at some point in their lives is higher.”
So yeah, Leah, that did seem a little low…or otherwise, none of us are getting laid near enough. I’d like to say that I’m one of the chosen few that can say otherwise buuuuuttt…..uh…yeah… … …(sigh).
I like the pic of Beaker. Thanks for that… even though it was a bit of a tease.
Wait, to clarify, I love the article. I just wanted more on Beaker.
I still don’t have it right — that wasn’t a criticism. That was just saying I like the pic of Beaker.
I’m working on my communication skills…
It’s okay – I also occasionally find myself needing three comments(emails, etc.) to explain myself. You know how it is.
ah… am i the only lesbian who hated running with scissors?