Thanks to the hard work of Argenti Aertheri and the suggestions of various other Boobzers, the Man Boobz survey is now up and ready to be taken. It will give me — and all of you — a better picture of just what sort of people read Man Boobz on a regular basis. It’s completely anonymous. Go take it! It will only take a few minutes.
I will probably leave it up for a couple of days, and will report the results here as soon as the numbers are crunched.
I think pretty much any other question you might have about it will probably be answered on the survey itself, so hop to it!
Thanks Argenti!
The surreal thing was that Meller played along, including talking to the dolls as if they really were his.
@ Aaliyah
Elam is invading your dreams? Ick. Here, have a kitten eating a cake.
Also, welcome to any new delurkers. I just woke up and went straight into an interview so I may not be making a lot of sense right now.
Took the survey. For some reason my answers caused the page to flash “Check your privilege!” between every refresh. Probably a bug. 😉
This is where people run into problems trying to talk about the US and politics/social stuff. It’s so huge that you can go to one part and feel like you stepped out of a wormhole that led you to a weird theocratic version of the 1950s (why yes, my father did work in the Bible Belt for a while), and then go to a different part of the country and find yourself surrounded by nothing but queer vegan leftist hippies (well, I suppose there are some conservative people in the North Bay, but yay! I don’t have to talk to them).
I agree with Cassandra. I’m also in the Bay Area and sometimes I feel like the rest of the USA outside California is like a completely different country.
This view is usually exacerbated when I travel outside Cali, so it’s not just me stereotyping. I mean, I’m sure that’s part of it, but not exclusively.
Going to visit my Dad in Baton Rouge from here was so weird. It’s city/town dependent too – going from Baton Rouge to New Orleans made me feel much more at home, and it’s really not that far away.
In fairness, Washington and Oregon are basically California but temperate. But yes, the rest of the US is a different country; who knows how far you might have to drive to get a decent piece of vegan gluten-free French toast.
I think it’s more specific than that though. There’s a part of Northern California that’s super conservative (I’ve actually been reading about a Dominionist cult based up there), but then keep going and eventually you’ll hit Portland, which is pretty much San Francisco with more rain and lower rents. And the central valley is pretty conservative too*. You can clearly see the way this breaks down if you look at voting maps laid out in red/blue.
* To be fair, conservative by CA standards and conservative by Louisiana standards are not necessarily the same thing.
Right; Orange County is incredibly conservative, and so are Eastern Washington and Oregon. They all complain that the winner-takes-all presidential election model disenfranchises them, but unless they want Wyoming to get a share of the electoral vote actually proportional to its population, they can stuff it.
“I mean, unless we have another person in Israel”
That would be me, probably.
So, hope you guys don’t mind me asking, but what parts of the US are theoretically the best to live in, in terms of general equality? (sexism, racism, homophobia, albeism, transphobia ect) I just know I”m probably not going to want to leave the country forever when I move out, but also have a super low faith in my ability to stay in america without denting all the walls with my head.
@Marie:
I’d personally recommend New England or New York. It’s amazing how far advanced the land of the Puritans has become, probably due to the “Mind your business ethic.”
Let’s just say that if I still lived in Seattle/Redmond, I’d probably still be vegan. Montreal isn’t bad but being veg is something you still have to struggle with and know all the best markets in town rather than “just drop at the local supermarket and marvel that the organics and vegan aisle is large enough you can’t miss it if you’re distracted for 5 seconds”.
I’m in New England, and I’ve got to tell you, there’s New England, and there’s New England.
Get into the rural areas, outside the population centers, and we’re loaded with isms and cults. (trust me on this)
@ Marie
Part of the Bay Area are pretty good on all those fronts (San Francisco, especially certain neighborhoods, Oakland, Berkeley). Rents are horrifying, though. Portland is similar but cheaper. I don’t know how comfortable people who’re not kind of hipster-ish would be in any of the most tolerance-oriented pockets within those areas though. I used to have a more mainstream friend (not really socially conservative but not into alt culture, straight and with a corporate career) and she felt pretty out of place sometimes in San Francisco.
@CassandraySays and Hyena Girl
Sweet. Thanks for suggestions 😀 I’ll keep those in mind when I’m in danger of having my own place…which could be a while, but I wanted to know some ahead of time and it seemed closish to the topic (hopefully I”m not derailing too much).
@ Howard
Have you seen this guy’s blog, particularly the parts about his ex and the cult she was involved in?
http://thecommandmentsofmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/joke-was-on-me-part-one.html
They’re based in Northern California – I’m getting really curious about exactly where. There’s a whole region up there that’s pretty weird socially, with gun-toting conservative isolationists interspersed with hippies growing weed.
Portland is one of the places I’m thinking about moving to some time in my life. It sounds like I’d belong there pretty easily, especially since I know some cool folks there.
I have not seen that blog, Cassandra–if you’ll excuse me, I think I may be busy reading for a little bit.
Portland does seem pretty great, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t mind it getting cold and damp.
@ Howard
That blog is awesome. I’ve read most of the guy’s tale of relationship wtf and it’s like a fundie soap opera.
Also funny – I found him by following a trail of links from Maggie Mayhem’s blog. From kink.com labour disputes to dominionist cults in about 3 or 4 steps.
Marie: Capitol Hill is the best place in Seattle. Generally the city of Seattle is a lot better than the east side (Kirkland/Bellevue). Down here in LA, I haven’t got a really good sense, but obviously Hollywood and such places are awfully open-minded. Generally I think all of LA, including here in Pasadena, is pretty good as long as you’re not in the really preppy conservative places like the OC.
What’s the cost of living like in West Hollywood? I actually really liked it there.
Oh, man, you know the thing that I was linked to from a book blog that actually undermined my fundamentalism?
Meet the Predators on Yes Means Yes.
(because it has numbers and studies and then linked me back to Schrodinger’s Rapist and This Is Rape Culture and yes these specific articles are very clear in my head)
So I went from fundamentalist Christian reading to kinkster consent negotiation in a couple of months. Via roughly that many links.
“Portland does seem pretty great, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t mind it getting cold and damp.”
That’s my kind of weather. =P Really, it is. Especially if it doesn’t get that awful heat that I get in San Jose.