A Note From The Senior Editors: Yesterday, this post and its survey were published on this website, and, due to various miscommunications within the Senior Editors Team and it being a day off for our Editor-in-Chief, it was published without going through the traditional Autostraddle Survey screening process. That process usually involves Riese (aforementioned EIC) looking through it and editing it, often a resident scientist with research experience looking at it, and then 3+ team members taking it and giving feedback. None of that was done this time. We messed up and did not set Nora up for success! Which is awful because Nora is so great and this project is so exciting! We are so very sorry!
When Riese returned to the world at 1am and saw a survey-related post had been published without going through those channels of approval, we chose to take the post down until the survey and post had been edited.
All comments on this post prior to August 3rd reference the original post and survey. Presently, the body of this post and the survey it links to are an edited version of the original. If you took the original and you’ve got the time to take this new one too, that would be great!
Hi!
We’re in the very preliminary stages of possibly putting together an online storefront of thrifted & secondhand clothes to fill various voids in the present market. This survey is intended to help us in this project!
Typically, Autostraddle Reader Surveys exist for one or both of the following reasons: 1. To gather data about the queer community for research purposes consequently shared in Autostraddle posts, 2. To gather data about Autostraddle readers in order to help us plan content for Autostraddle Readers.
This survey isn’t like those other surveys! Info from this survey could definitely be useful for content planning and maybe even a listling, but that’s it’s off-label usage, not its mandated and FDA-approved intention.
For this survey, we’re asking about your personal style, your shopping habits, and more. Are you more Annie Clark or Lena Waithe? Petite or extra tall? An online shopper or strictly IRL?
Whatever the case, take the Autostraddle Reader Style Survey by next Friday, August 11th and let us know what’s up! Thanks, love you, bye!
Work is so slow right now that I actually did think “YES! A SURVEY!”
Same! I mean, I know that these invoices are not going to check themselves but…
Sometimes you just have to take a survey break ;)
dooooooooooooooope i love yall
I don’t use any of those platforms so I had to click eBay and then un lick it in order for the OK button to appear. Just an observation
Had the same prob! :(
I’m on an iPhone and it let me just manually scroll past that question
I just scrolled past that question (and a couple others that I had no answer for).
So, funny story. On Sunday my mom tried to describe me as a lipstick lesbian (this was while she was assessing all the more butch looking women surrounding us at the Melissa Etheridge concert). After me protesting a bit, she then thought for a minute and said “No, you’re actually more like a Hannah Hart.” I’ve never been so happy in my life, since she is my celesbian style icon.
Not to be annoying but the call for only “celesbian” style influences was kinda meh. Autostraddle has great content for non-lesbian queer women like myself but I’d love for it to be seen in the fabric and language of the site.
Other than that I’m super excited about this survey! I really love y’alls fashion coverage and inclusion of plus-sizes in articles :-)
Just took the updated survey, it was a lot better! I could definitely sense the original survey was sent out quickly so I didn’t really comment of the vagueness but the new survey was a lot better!
The linked size chart doesn’t specify what an XS is, but it’s an option on the survey. Should I just extrapolate another 5 inch difference in measurements compared to a S, since that’s how the size chart seems to work? Also, do I put the size that matches the measurements or the size that I would probably buy, since I prefer a looser fit for shirts?
I was surprised there was nothing about undies in there!
Ooh good call. Maybe a separate undies survey?? ?
When you say undies do you mean solely underpants?
Cause I know some people who use that word to encompass all undergarments. ALL of them.
Yup, all undergarments is what I meant :)
Blast, just when you think you know somebody…
Also tho I just love the word underpants so much
I put down undies for some of it though (I’d feel weird buying them online or second hand).
Hm is my family the only one that describes all underpants as knickers (or panties i guess in the states) regardless of style or size or owner? It’s not a transphobic thing either, mum calls my stepdads boxers his knickers.
I know this cos we share laundry duty & do it all collectively, I’m case anyone’s thinking it’s odd that I know all this. Shell be like ‘I got your knickers and his mixed up’ and it will be a pair of boxers…
Liam my mum would do that about all underwear for anyone under the age of about 10. After that everything is just pants.
But you saying that reminds me that when my brother was 2 he had pants with a fire engine on that he called his nee-naw knickers. Which is a story i forgot and i am so glad you reminded me, thank you.
Lol. Nee naw knickers.
And I love how it’s still not gendered after 10 as well. Age defined rather than gender defined. (unless it’s pants vs underpants. Is that a uk thing or just English?)
Thing is we all used to call them pants then we met him & he calls his ones knickers so we switched to knickers. It’s just so much easier to have one word. ‘everyone’s socks and knickers are dry/ready, the rest is in ironing’.
We do it too, that’s in Australia. Though some people call’em underdaks too.
The questions were simple, but the topic is complicated. I would dress very differently – much more masc. I think – if I had a body that was closer to the one I wanted. As it is, it’s just too hard / I feel too “sloppy” in the clothes that look super sharp on other people.
I’m the same, except my problem is not wanting to stand out. At work, most of the women are VERY feminine in appearance and dress – leggings (despite this being against the dress code), dresses, skirts, heels (which I just typed as hells, lol), ballet flats. I already stand out wearing basic black trousers and a plain top every day. But this little lesbian just wants to dress like Ellen.
oh my god, cosigned 10000% – my body looks best in Executive Lesbian (thank you eddie izzard for finally naming my …look?) but I want to pull off something less AND ALSO MORE aggressively femme. But also queer-coded. I just???
Executive Lesbian
Oh. My. God. That’s me
THIS THOUGH.
Wow, you totally read my mind – or my survey answers
Same. I’ve gained loads of weight over the years (and am really top heavy)and having a fat hourglass figure makes masc style really difficult. When I was younger I wore loads of masc/punk 80s styles and I would love to return to that look, but I’m pretty much relegated to girly femme styles due to my figure. It’s not the worst, I love being femme,but it does trigger some body issues that I can’t dress more andro/tough without it looking sloppy and ill-fitting. Not having the clothes I want does make me feel more uncomfortable with my body (I have cried in dressing rooms more times than is probably healthy).
That was… like a foreign language. I don’t know why I expected to feel less completely alienated by this than other style content, just because it’s on Autostraddle. It’s weird. I spend a lot of time thinking about style, and the wardrobe I’m building, but then other people talk about these things and I can’t relate to any of it – that’s not something I wear, that’s not how I shop, that’s not how I think about clothes or money. At all.
It’s definitely not a problem with the writing or the direction AS is taking, though. It’s more of a genre thing. Like how I don’t get anything out of money tips and tricks, even though I spend a lot of time on money, budgeting and the future, because the basic idea is to give up things I don’t spend money on to start with or to save money I never had.
You might like the podcast Bad with Money, it specifically takes marginalization and income inequality into account!
I actually listened to the episodes about dark money, evil banks and queering money last weekend – they were quite interesting! I really like how Gaby takes marginalisation into account, as you say. I’m going to give some of the older episodes a chance too.
I’m not in the US, though, so the practical details I’ve gleaned so far have been pretty useless to me as someone whose money and life is tied up in western Europe and Scandinavia.
Ah yeah I hear you. I live in Australia and somehow I know more about the American credit system than the Aussie credit system ><
Man I wish some of these were checkboxes instead of multiple choice bubbles. So hard to pick just one answer! ?
Same – menswear isn’t made to fit me, and ALSO it’s too expensive. How do I pick?
This was great!
Honestly, my boobs are the bane of my existence when it comes to leveling up my fashion. Loose fitting or flowy makes me look boxy and shapeless, fitted is often more revealing than I’m comfortable with (especially business attire). I’d love to emulate the looks on all the small breasted models I saved to my pinterest but I don’t know how to adapt the look or where to shop to make it work for me. If my chest were two sizes smaller I would be so much happier style wise.
I feel the same way
HARD. YES. SO MUCH THIS.
What is the biggest barrier to my style? BREASTS
Why don’t I buy things on-line- the models don’t tell me if it’ll look awful on my boobs
110% THIS
So.. done.
But in the future for those of us who tend to shop in menswear a bit more choice would be swank. Like, IDK how to translate my waist/inseam into women’s sizing since I promise you, my weird ratio doesn’t seem to exist in womens. Also? Shoe size? I had to find my one pair of heels to figure that out, I buy mens shoes and they size differently.
Dunno, this just didn’t seem to have the usual thoughtful care attached to it surveys seem to have with clarity or enough explanation options for when we’re not quite one answer or another.
I get you. I used a lot of “other” answers to further clarify my choice, because I felt like a lot of answers could have a lot different reasons why someone would choose that answer.
Thanks for asking.
I have a *really* hard time finding clothing that fit how I like to express myself, so I’m excited to explore some new options.
I see people wearing clothes that I like (on the internets) but I have no clue wear to find those clothes, especially something that fits a petite woman like myself.
Hmm, maybe I’m not enough of a style person but that survey was really tough. I wish there was an ‘explain’ option even if you picked one of the regular options because I wanted to explain so much. Would echo commenters above that the survey could have felt more inclusive (especially the ‘celesbians’ bit)?
So, I took this a few hours ago, and I responded to all of the comment boxes sincerely. There was a moment tho when I was (and I’m de-anonymizing myself here maybe?) entering in some of the text and it dawned on me that using my wardrobe as a coping mechanism for post-election anger and rage kindaaaa makes me a weirdo.
But I usually wear eShakti fitted basic black A-lines when out and about or Uniqlo airism when lounging in my apartment. Loungewear is a class unto itself in my minimal wardrobe because I change out of work/outdoor clothes right when I get home.
That was short and sweet, just the way I like surveys. My style is more wishful thinking style and comfort of whatever is at hand :)
I wish I could say I am fatigued of AS surveys but I absolutely love completing these. Here’s hoping for relevant guidance.
two MASSIVE quibbles:
1) are these mens or womens shoe sizes/why can’t it be a checkbox question with sizes like 4-14? I’m US8-10 womens depending on the brand, so…no good choice for me there, hashtag sadface
b) “What’s a reasonable price range for casual clothing? Office-appropriate duds?” like….for an entire outfit? for a single shirt? for a kicky tie? MORE SPECIFICS PLEASE
(and then the tiiiiniest of sub-quibbles: leggings aren’t on the Heavy Rotation list? once the first leaf flirts with orange-ness, I live in those stretchy fuckers .___.)
Literally came here to comment on that question too!!
Id appreciate maybe more relating to masculine clothing? Idk, I just couldn’t relate to a lot of questions/answers
Oh and maybe questions about underwear and hair??? Hair is an important part of my Style.
I don’t see how hair would fit the purpose of the survey though, since the goal is to possibly set up a used clothing e-store. Unless you mean like headwear accessories?
Ummm… No offense but did this survey have several people look at it before publishing? Because I felt like it was very vague and very exclusionary, so I doubt you are going to get accurate results. I know this isn’t a Super Professional Survey™ but as someone with training in research methods, there were several red flags for me.
Halfway of “????” my way through this survey it occurred to me that it probably wasn’t created for people who don’t read the fashion content
Thank you for making the updated survey metric-inclusive and for specifying the shoe sizes.
Took the old and new one and I have to say I am so glad it was redone! Excited to see the data from the new one and what it may be used for!
I want to show my support for the first answer of the dress size question being “I don’t wear dresses.”
I feel so Seen.
Wow, that was a really difficult survey to take. I want to help Team Autostraddle when I can, but this was a powerful reminder that I am not a fashion oriented person at all.
Same! I’m trying to do better, fashion-wise. But budget makes it hard and this really underlined how much work I need to put into just finding inspiration and curating my tastes. I started to answer the Celebrities you look to for fashion question and realized pretty quickly that I was just naming women I think are pretty.
Thank god I wasn’t hallucinating this post appearing then disappearing.
I have no style but in honour of feeling mentally validated I’m gonna take the survey anyway!
LOL Sally Saaame!
I actually asked a question about where it was in the little box thing!
See this, right here? This is what makes Autostraddle the best place on the Internet.
1. Thing happens.
2. Community politely and constructively critiques said thing.
3. Editors listen to the critiques and take them to heart, sincerely apologize, explain what happened, and fix the thing.
4. Community expresses their gratitude.
This is the way everything should work, and yet this would never happen anywhere else on the Internet.
Good job, team!
omg I was just coming here to say this exact thing!! <3 kudos to everyone xxoxoxox
Thanks for updating the survey!
Thank you Nora for putting together this survey, and for all the great fashion-related content you’ve been writing and curating!
Thank you to the senior editors for the update and for the transparency about what happened. I’m so grateful for this website and for the thought and care that you all put into it.
*snickering*
same tho (it was an honest answer i swear)
I also just want to say that I really appreciate the transparency of the reason for the original/changes/new survey and also the changes felt more inclusive and easier for me to respond to.
A+ for AS :)
I have this weird and probably-not-correct fantasy that this “project” is Autostraddle convincing Wildfang to incorporate actual inclusive sizing into their line (and maybe, like, collaborate with Universal Standard)
It feels like it will be the sort of project that turns my wardrobe from being about 1/3 AS merch to almost all AS related clothing! Like really just setting up a monopoly in my closet, which I am totally ok with!
I was dreaming it was our very own personal shopping service online. Not sure if that would be too costly though? A boy can dream!
Thanks for editing the survey, it felt a lot better the second time through. ? I still have no sense of style, but the questions were much better.
omg an online secondhand AS store situation is ALL OF MY DREAMS COME TRUE
Tbh my favourite team has really good sportswear so I basically just wear the lads version of that w the odd AS thing in here & there. If I worked outside the house I might vary that a bit but I don’t.
Yeah. I know. I’m not stylish…
I wish suits could be made less tight cos I have touch sensitivity issues and every time I wear a suit that fits I feel like something’s nipping my armpits/shoulders.
What’s your team?
I’m a celtic fan so on the colours question I was tempted just to say ‘I wear green’.
When I wear non-football clothes I gravitate towards green and brown though so I put ‘earth colours’.
That’s exactly why I don’t like sweaters and dress coats/jacket made for women even if they don’t have girlie seams or do a sad empty goat skin impression around my chest region.
They nip at my armpits and object to my use of shoulders.
Hm good idea. I’m too short for menswear proper but I’ve not tried boys’ formal wear where it might be a bit looser, esp with it not being aimed at grownups. I always just buy a size too big & let my sleeves hang down.
Re spectrum (Question 1): I feel like that’s very culturally dependent. Like even my more ‘masc’ side is rather femme leaning (think Darren Hayes), and what’s femme in one culture will be seen as masc in another.
Like pants.
Ao dai is pants, salwar kameez is pants and suit sometimes.
There’s probably more pants things we don’t know and also ancient history I do know.
Oh and colour.
That’s a good point. I actually liked the wording of this question more in the first survey, because there was an “other” box where one could ramble on about one’s gender presentation feelings rather than having to fix a number to it. If one were so inclined.
Me too – and I’m definitely identifying myself here, but I don’t think numbers should’ve been attached to it at all if there’s nothing there to say what they mean. Perception of presentation varies A LOT depending on who’s asking, and I don’t know what *the writers* think fem and masc mean, so the number I gave might mean something very different to them than it does to me.
(That’s the long version of STEM-kid me going “Where are the units???!
What’s the scale?!”)
surveymonkey doesn’t have an option to get rid of the number for sliding scale responses, or to add an “other” to it, at least not that i could figure out in my limited time this morning. i wondered if maybe it was for mobile or an accessibility issue or something? i agree this question would be better without it and with an “other,” will find a new solution for next time.
i think with this specifically we’ll just have to settle for imperfect results. tons of “others” is also a lot to wade through… but (seriously) thank you for letting us know to keep that in mind when looking at the results
I get that. Riese, thanks for redoing the survey.
Also who else gets their fashion inspiration from:
1. Pop culture
2. Nerdery
3. Art
4. The stage
I was a bit concerned that me,who does not can’t really online shop, taking the quiz would not be helpful at all to the purpose, but then I realised a suggestion about providing item makeup (what materials it’s composed of) could help someone else with a different set of allergies or texture problems. Like nickel and wool allergies for instance, also just because clothes are not an option doesn’t mean accessories like belts or ties for short torso’d people aren’t.
Writing good survey questions is hard, even for topics that aren’t as sensitive as fashion can be, so thank you Nora for putting this together for us and being open to feedback.
Click click done. I can’t wait for this! My entire wardrobe is second hand and I will be queueing at the door on opening day! xxx
This survey, for me, was just reiterating over and over that I wear jeans and t-shirts all the time.
Same. Like, I wear t-shirts or sweaters, and jeans or shorts. Weirdly, neither t-shirts nor sweaters were included in the “what’s in your daily rotation?” question, so my response reads like I’m just always going topless.
Thanks so much for updating the language and sizing on the quiz!
Ughhh this was hard. Fashion is the bane of my life right now- all of my clothes are based on convenience/what I had instead of what I want to wear. I’m lucky that I’ve stayed the same size for a while so I can wear clothes for longer, but I can’t seem to justify buying new clothes and donating what doesn’t fit my sense of style anymore.
Also, I realized I don’t care about celebrity fashion. All my “celebrities” were musicians and characters.
That was so much fun to take and made me think a lot about the relationship between style and identity. Thank you AS team for being so thoughtful about this survey xx
THIS IS THE BEST I AM SO EXCITED IF I CAN HELP I WANT TO THIS IS AMAZZZZING!!!!!
??????????????
HI I AM PRETTY SURE WE ARE ALL WEARING CROP TOPS AND LEGGINGS ON HEAVY ROTATION