John,

Fine. Here's some research ideas for you: 

1. Collect (or analyse existing) demographic data about the proportion of 

- single males/females 
- males/females in a relationship 
- married males/females 

- males/females with children
- childless males/females

within the contributor populations of different Internet sites – from 4chan to Wikimedia to Reddit to Facebook to Twitter etc. 

Make sure to include some sites like Pinterest that are predominantly female.

2. Rate visibility and in-your-face-ness of pornography, glamour shots and nudity-related discussions on each of these sites.

3. Determine overall female vs. male participation level on each site.

Analyse the data to see whether sites with high matter-of-course visibility of pornography, like 4chan, turn out to have the highest proportion of single childless males, e.g., and the lowest proportion of women contributors (married mothers, women in a relationship, single women, etc.). 

Expressed as hypotheses:

Null hypothesis: There is no discernible statistical correlation between higher visibility of porn, a high proportion of single childless males in the site's population, and low female participation levels (random cloud in the scatter plots).

Alternative hypothesis: There is a discernible statistical correlation between higher visibility of porn, a higher proportion of single childless males, and low female participation levels (clear trend lines visible in the scatter plots).

Perform regression analysis, calculate confidence levels etc.

4. As a bonus, ask survey participants about their views of the different sites – what attracts or repels them, how various sites' attitudes to censorship, presence or absence of glamour shots and pornography, freedom to use abusive language, absence of abusive language etc. impact on their decision to participate or not. 

If there are significant correlations in the data, and a higher proportion of non-single or married men and fathers is correlated with higher female participation levels, make clear to the community in which direction we have to move to change both male demographics, and attract more women.

Andreas



On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 11:08 PM, John Vandenberg <jayvdb@gmail.com> wrote:
Andreas,

ffs can we have one thread where we don't talk about porn.  Or if you
do think porn is a part of the gendergap, pose research questions
which will help test your hypothesis, because that is what this thread
is about.

I want research questions I can put to real academics.
Not bullshit hand-wavey assertions even if they are backed up by a 'citation'.

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 6:47 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466@gmail.com> wrote:
> The screenshots below are from a blog post by a girl geek going onto 4chan
> /b/.
>
> http://boards.4chan.org/b/ (probably NSFW)
>
> 4chan is the site that gave Wikipedia and the world its lolcats, as well as
> the saying, "There are no girls on the Internet." As you'll no doubt see if
> you navigate to the above address, it is also full of anonymously posted
> girlie pictures, not unlike parts of Wikimedia. One of the board's
> catchphrases is, "Tits or GTFO". Rather male-centric, right?
>
> The Wikipedia article on 4chan is a featured article. (Why am I not
> surprised ...)
>
> The following screenshots are SFW:
>
> http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-81.png
> http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-9.png
> http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-10.png
> http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-11.png
>
> The following is the dialogue they show:
>
> ---o0o---
>
> /b/abes get no love! I hate you, /b/. Where are the female /b/tards?
>
> in the kitchen.
>
> stop making these shit threads ... girls on /b/ are anon, and stay anon.
>
> i lol'd go make me a fucking sandwich
>
> If girls on /b/ are non and stay anon, why is anon assumed to be male by
> default? Can we just purge all the cam whores, plz?
>
> making me a god damn sammwich
>
> make my sandwich silently
>
> im a girl,im in florida
>
> Tits or GTFO. Pic related.
>
> Girls on the Internet don't fucking exist.
>
> girl, why do you have a pc in the kitchen?
>
> female /b/tard here, trolling threads and not making samiches
>
> Oh silly, there are no girls on the internet
>
> ---o0o---
>
> Now, this dialogue illustrates how anonymous uncensored porn and sexist
> behaviour towards a woman can go together, and reinforce each other.
>
> The blog post the screenshots are taken from is here:
>
> http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/elisaverna/wait-did-4chan-just-enlighten-me-i-feel-dirty/
>
> Andreas
>
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 8:33 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 7:40 PM, Michael J. Lowrey <orangemike@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 1:21 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Please consider the likelihood that there may be a correlation between
>>> > the
>>> > let-it-all-hang-out attitude towards porn, and the problem you describe
>>> > as
>>> > "sexualized behavior – sexist comments and bad manners".
>>> >
>>> > The let-it-all-hang-out approach towards porn is likely
>>> >
>>> > – to attract people who engage in "sexualized behavior – sexist
>>> > comments and
>>> > bad manners", and
>>> > – to repel the type of people who would be "allies within the community
>>> > to
>>> > shoot down behaviour like that (civility!)".
>>> >
>>> > A more responsible and mainstream approach, on the other hand, is apt
>>> > to
>>> > repel the first and attract the second type of contributor.
>>>
>>> {{citation needed}}
>>>
>>> Unquestioned premises almost inevitably lead to false conclusions. In
>>> this case, the unquestioned premise is that those who oppose
>>> censorship are people who engage in (or at least tolerate) sexist
>>> comments and bad manners, as opposed to the possibility that those who
>>> people oppose censorship believe in opposing censorship as a matter of
>>> principle. You are unilaterally defining opponents of censorship as
>>> irresponsible, out of the mainstream, and unwilling to support
>>> civility: again I say, {{citation needed}}!
>>>
>>> (I won't bother to ask for an apology.)
>>
>>
>>
>> I'll work on a citation. But in my experience, the places that are most
>> radically free speech, and most anti-censorship when it comes to porn, like
>> parts of 4chan and reddit, are also places where the level of discourse goes
>> way south. I don't think that is a particularly novel or contentious
>> observation.
>>
>>
>
>
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