Gender Roles in Lesbian Porn--POLL!

[viellen]

Hi all, one of our members, vixxette, is writing an essay on gender roles in lesbian pornography and she asked us to post a poll to help her out. She asks that only lesbians participate in the poll, as that is the test study that she would like for her essay. Thanks for your help!!

[Edit: The point of the paper is to write about the sex roles that self-identified lesbians take on during sex. If you sometimes identify as a lesbian then please feel free to answer. The reasoning for using the term lesbian is that a lot of girls/women tend to identify as bisexual when they are not quite sure of their sexual identity. I wanted to use the term lesbian to weed out those women because a lot of bisexuals will tend to take on the submissive or "female" role during sex. The dominate or "male" role is going to be less prevalent in women who sleep with both men and women from the reasearch I have done. I use the word female in quotations because I personally do not feel that the submissive role is particularly female, which is the basis of my paper. I hope this makes a little more sense and I do hope it didn't further frustrate anyone.]

[Poll #628374]

Comments

[ravrhi.livejournal.com]

Hey. She may wish to try lez_sex_tips for a more focused demographic.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I will try that as I just got an extension on my paper.

[ruxpinrumble.livejournal.com]

...i was going to ask that too...

[zellie-bean.livejournal.com]

I third that ;)

I like women!

But...I like men too so I'm disqualified? XD I just like everyone!

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

The bi question fourthed. Liking men doesn't preclude me from liking women. However, if it's going to mess up her poll, I don't want to do that, either.

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

fifths on the bi thing...speaking of labels...grrr...

[viellen]

To everyone on the "bi" question, I've emailed vixxette to see if she can get us a clear answer on that. :)

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

The point of the paper is to write about the sex roles that self-identified lesbians take on during sex. If you sometimes identify as a lesbian then please feel free to answer. The reasoning for using the term lesbian is that a lot of girls/women tend to identify as bisexual when they are not quite sure of their sexual identity. I wanted to use the term lesbian to weed out those women because a lot of bisexuals will tend to take on the submissive or "female" role during sex. The dominate or "male" role is going to be less prevalent in women who sleep with both men and women from the reasearch I have done. I use the word female in quotations because I personally do not feel that the submissive role is particularly female, which is the basis of my paper. I hope this makes a little more sense and I do hope it didn't further frustrate you.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

I also want to stress that I don't think there is anything wrong with being or identifying as bisexual or questioning your sexuality or whatever, this is just not the demographic I am interested in writing about.

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

No, of course it doesn't frustrate me that you are looking for that demographic. I fear your edit may be a bit elaborate, though, and potentially perpetuate harmful stereotypes about bisexuals. You could probably simply say, "I want to see how people who use the specific label lesbian answer these questions. Self-identifying that way specifically is important to the research." as even that much wasn't clear in the initial request. It seemed to be about how people who have been in relationships with women feel about women/women porn, and sex, and didn't stress that it was to see how self-labeling yourself that way could make a difference. I don't ever identify as a lesbian because I'm not one, although I have been in lesbian relationships. Even if I married a woman I'd still be bisexual (even if monogamous) because that's who I am. I'm attracted to people for individuality and not gender. I'm 29 years old, and have never been confused about my sexuality. I'm also generally dominant, with both women and men. It is a negative misconception that bisexuals are confused,and we struggle to overcome it...many teenagers are questioning no matter how they label themselves, and by the time they are adults bisexuals are no more likely to be confused than anyone else. It is also unclear in the comment. It is also confusing how you use "those women" (referring to the unsure ones) and bisexuals being submissive in the same sentence. Are you saying those women tend to be submissive or all bisexuals or both? I'm not denying your research--I've never seen it, and that is part of the point--it isn't cited in your edit. I could see if both groups got the same result (according to your individual research) but it is not clear that they are two very distinct groups (questioning and truly bisexual) in that sentence of the comment...it seems as if you may be lumping them together, although you possibly just worded it awkwardly...you know what I mean? So anyway, I certainly see and understand your reasoning in narrowing the demographic to the way people label themselves and how that may make a difference, but I fear you may have overexplained now in a way that may perpetuate stereotypes.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

Okay, let me re-phrase, not research, per say, but "society's" ideals about bisexuals are that they are confused. I would prefer not to include the bisexual or questioning their sexuality demographic because it may possibly raise some questions about the validity of answers. (FYI, I am attracted to all sexes- male, female, gender queers- so I know the struggle you face with the whole "shes just confused/greedy thing... I just wanted to get a strong lesbian demographic, if that makes sense)

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I do totally understand why you want a narrow demographic for a variety of reasons and I'm not frustrated by that at all. I just feared that your original explanation may have perpetuated those stereotypes in a confusing manner. We "just know" as well as anyone else and are not out of a girls gone wild cast video, and I'm not sure the separation was clear enough in your first explanation. A "I want to keep the narrow demographic because the way people self-identify does indeed make a difference in my research" would have sufficed. I'm not sure being part of the group in question (even if you label yourself differently or not at all) makes a difference.

[wickedrhapsody.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious--what kind of class do you have to take to be asked to write an essay on gender roles in lesbian pornography? I wish my profs gave me assigments like that, though since im an English/German major its not very likely..:X

[wingles.livejournal.com]

My guess would be Women's Studies, or Gender Studies, whatever you want to call it. But I don't really know.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

Queer theatre and film. I picked the topic because we were studying the gender roles that the women took on in the sex scene from The Killing of Sister George.

[meximanian.livejournal.com]

Just a tip...the question where it says what do you call yourself...butch, femme etc. The other part mentions that "some of us do not like to label ourselves" I would suggest that they change this to "if you don't perfer labels..." something to that extend b/c I can see where someone could take the survey and then choose other b/c they don't want to be seen as someone that "labels" themselves...even though they identify with those terms...

just a tip b/c otherwise it might change data a bit (future sociologist here:-) ) but then again if they're prof isn't going to be a stickler about that then don't worry...I just know some soc profs are very strict about wording...and if it's not a soc class then I guess don't bother :)

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I understand that the wording on some of the questions is off... My mother is in the hospital (where I wrote this) so I was not all here. I am definitely going to use the word identify in my paper. Thanks for the tip.

[lizs18.livejournal.com]

I did my thesis on lesbian-porn made by lesbians vs. lesbian-porn made by people who are not lesbians. I can email you a copy if you are interested.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

YES!
vargasgirl AT gmail DOT com

[lizs18.livejournal.com]

Ok, now I just have to find it! I graduated a few years back, but as soon as I find the document I'll send it.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't worry too much about it. Paper's due at 7. If you don't mind sending it anyway, I would still love to read it. This is a topic I am really intersted in.

[lizs18.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! Definitely won't find it by then, but once I do I'll send it :) Good luck on your paper!