I need a favor

[sweetprince]

AHAH, you clicked it. Okay, well I need a favor so that I can officially finish my Sophomore year of college. In my sociolinguistics class we're ending the year with studies, and we're trying to figure out if there's a difference in speech in how women talk about sex and masturbation. Most of these questions, unfortunately, are not ideal for regression, but we're still curious.

IF YOU ANSWER IT (PLEASE, PLEASE DO, I'VE ALREADY POLLED MY CLASSMATES BUT THEY'RE A VERY SPECIFIC SAMPLE), I WILL WRITE A DIRTY-HOT-WRONG MASTURBATION SEQUENCE INTO MY PREP SCHOOL AU, AND GET TWIN TO DO SOMETHING FOR YOU. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YET, BUT SHE'LL DO IT.

[Poll #1185744]

I'll write a really embarrassing fan letter to Jensen on how much his lips hook me in and how much I love wincest and how much I imagine him and Jared doing it every day of the week, if you don't answer this poll, I SWEAR it!

Also, if you know anybody else who's curious about this sort of thing, PLEASE link to this. I promise that once I've done the models, I'll publish the results on here.

ETA: OHMYGOD, you guys are so awesome. This is such a huge number of responses, I can't even begin to thank you.

Comments

[memphis86.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how much it took for me to answer this, I AM SO BAD AT TALKING ABOUT THAT STUFF. DDDD:

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Well that's important, and I appreciate that you did. That'll probably go in my report.

[sgriobadh.livejournal.com]

Girls totally masturbate. They're just not obsessed with it. Or with their penises. What is with that, anyways?

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

We're not studying whether they masturbate, we're trying to figure out how they talk about masturbating, notice there is no question, DO YOU MASTURBATE, I'm assuming you do.

[wendy.livejournal.com]

Have you ever talked about masturbation with your friends?

I want to qualify this question.

I talked to a friend about it once when I was very young and just finding out that it even existed. (She didn't know either!) And I talked to my ex-husband about it, obviously. And I've done many polls about fangirls and masturbation (ever done it in your car? ever done it to fanfic? Etc.)

But I've never like, sat around the table at dinner and had it be a hot topic of conversation. Thank goodness.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

See, that was very useful, because what we're studying is the contrast to how men speak about masturbation which is much more freely then women do. They're fine telling us that they just jerked off, or that they need lotion, or tissues, or whatever, they can be surprisingly candid even when a girl is present, but I think, girls would never talk about masturbation with their male friends present.

[loony-moony.livejournal.com]

My definition of masturbating includes, of course, the use of a vibrator. Just to let you know. :)

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[finn21.livejournal.com]

So that was KIND OF embarassing. I don't even know why.

I did, however, want to clarify my answer for the last question because I've had 2 very different friends in my life that I think are good examples for this poll. Friend A has very little sexual experience so really never talks about sex with me in general. Friend B has tons of sexual experience and LOVES to talk about sex and masturbation a lot of the time. These of course are extreme examples and while experience and being open to talking about sexual practices aren't mutually exclusive I think they do greatly play into a woman's ability to discuss these kinds of topics with friends. So, while women may talk about masturbation, I think because a large majority find it to be awkward they don't necesscarily put a name to it even if they are in fact doing it.

LOL. I wrote you an essay. I'M SORRY.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

NO, DUDE, this is awesome! Thank you!

[softbluebuddy.livejournal.com]

You might want to post your poll at the masturbationto comm.

I kid you not, the most recent entry that was in my in box not five minutes ago was this from a guy who was probably just reading the entries in the comm that are probably 50/50 men/women.

I never realized so many women masturbate!

There are some people in that comm that aren't shy about talking about masturbation in the least. I have never entered a comment there, but there are quite a few who do.

Notice my icon. Those lips and that mouth are one of the wonders of the world if you ask me. LOL

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, thanks for the idea!

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That was actually really helpful.

[walkawayslowly.livejournal.com]

I just want to expand on the last question, I don't think it's because we do it less, I think it's because it's less socially acceptable for us to talk about doing it.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

*nod nod* Yup, that's the hypothesis I'm testing.

[molotov-bitch.livejournal.com]

I was just going to say that!

[sloane-m.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to clarify I don't think that there are fewer slang terms because women do it less but more because it's perceived as something that ladies don't talk about. As a consequence I think that's why we don't have the range of terms for it that men do.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

See above responses.

[hkath.livejournal.com]

Talking about masturbation? Not embarrassing.

Admitting to sustaining a masturbation-related injury? That's a different story.

:D

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

OH MAN, I HAVE THE BEST STORY EVER. So I was researching gun related death about a year ago, and I like, misread the meta tags on a search I was doing, and I wound up with GORY SEX INJURIES, and my favorite? This guy dumped his girl friend, but he realized he was really lonely, and she'd left this vase over, and I don't know why he went from VASE OF GIRLFRIEND to SEXTOY, but some how his brain made the leap and so he started thrusting away, and was all happy about it. And he thought, "Hmm, if I have a little lube this'll be even better."

So he got the lube and it allowed him to slip further in, and suddenly he was putting to much weight on the vase, and it BROKE. And partially severed his penis. Imagine having to explain that to a doctor.

[leonidaslion.livejournal.com]

Not an expert here, but my own personal wank on the issue of female vs. male masturbation (having slang terms and being able to talk about it comfortably) revolves around the fact that (in modern society) males are supposed to be sexually dominant and take control of their own pleasure. Hence the talk of masturbation and the pride in it. Women, on the other hand, are typically seen as and are supposed to be submissive receivers, and as such as 'not supposed' to pleasure themselves. Which is completely screwed up, IMO, but that's society for you.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

I would say the experts would agree with you. I certainly agree with you. My class is all about how language actually reflects gender norms, and how it is, in fact, a feminist issue. It was really terribly depressing in the long run, but definitely different to wonder how we can change it.

[tears4therandom.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't know you, but ifyouweremine is on my friends list and I figured, what the hell. So, yay for female masturbation?

[tears4therandom.livejournal.com]

Aaaand I'm dumb. I wondered why it asked about female masturbation so much, but I soldiered on. Sorry! : ( I'll tell you what I answered and you can remove one from each, to keep your info accurate.

Geez, I suck : (

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

It was arkward to talk about at first, but it got easier. And again some friends we don't talk about it, others we do. ^^

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

[maypirate.livejournal.com]

Sorry I'm late, you probably got all the info you needed by now. Stupid working...

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Hey, anything is helpful, and I appreciate you taking the time to do it.

[mutelorelei.livejournal.com]

I'm probably weird, but I find it easier to talk about with males than females. When I was a teenager, I would ask my close male friends about how they liked to masturbate and how often, stuff like that, and I would share some details about myself. With my boyfriend of over 10 years now, on our very first date, we sat in his car for hours and just talked and talked about all manner of private things frankly, including masturbation. I tend to embarrass female friends too much and make them uncomfortable, I think. As I've gotten older, though, I find it harder to just be friends with men, too many of them have jealous girlfriends/wives and it's like guys have forgotten how to talk about sex with a female just as a friend, and have it not be a come on -- you think I would have had that problem with teenage boys, but nope.

Although I've got some old sex toy reviews on my LJ, I'm pretty tempted to make a post sometime soon with recommendations and discussion for total sextoy newbies...

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's weird, I think what you're saying actually does bear up with the data. It's hard for women to talk about masturbation because they have a lot of societal pressure not to talk about it.

[molotov-bitch.livejournal.com]

I don't talk about masturbation in groups of friends, I only really talk about it in one-on-one conversations with friends I really trust, or with partners.

[dark-reaction.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see this is the opposite of men who are more likely to engage in this kind of activity in groups. I think when it's one on one it becaomes way to personal for them.