Looking for Volunteers for Study on Women Attracted to Men and Women

[Mimi]

My name is Mimi Hoang, M.A., and I am a graduate student in clinical psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles. I am looking for women who:

1) have ever been attracted to men and women, regardless of who they date or how they self-identify

2) have been in at least one romantic exclusive relationship

3) are age 18 or older

If you answered "yes" to all 3 questions, please go to the study's website for more information: http://home.comcast.net/~mimihoangstudy/. Data collection will end in March, so please don't delay in signing up!

Thank you for your time,
Mimi Hoang, M.A.
Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Candidate
Emphasis in Multicultural Community Clinical Psychology
California School of Professional Psychology at
Alliant International University, Los Angeles
(310) 949-9229
mhoang@alliant.edu
http://home.comcast.net/~mimihoangstudy/

[Driver 8]

Given the bad science being passed off as research on bisexuality lately, I for one would really like to see this researcher's credentials before participating.

[Mimi]

I understand your concerns, Driver 8, because I too am aware of the bi-negative research out there. What credentials would you like to see? I am in my 5th year of grad school at AIU, and in 2002-2003 I was the Co-Chair of the AIU LGBT Forum, which was the campus organization for LGBT students. I have also Chaired the Bisexual Advisory Board at 'Ohana House/Asian Pacific Islanders for Human Rights in LA in the Fall of 2004. I also Co-Founded and Co-Chaired Fluid UCLA, a social/discussion group for bisexual, bicurious, and bifriendly students at UCLA from 1999-2001.

[Sparks]

Dear friends,
Please help Mimi in her research. Know that she will keep your words in confidence.

Fred

[rupertbare]

I understand your concerns, Driver 8, because I too am aware of the bi-negative research out there. What credentials would you like to see? I am in my 5th year of grad school at AIU, and in 2002-2003 I was the Co-Chair of the AIU LGBT Forum, which was the campus organization for LGBT students. I have also Chaired the Bisexual Advisory Board at 'Ohana House/Asian Pacific Islanders for Human Rights in LA in the Fall of 2004. I also Co-Founded and Co-Chaired Fluid UCLA, a social/discussion group for bisexual, bicurious, and bifriendly students at UCLA from 1999-2001.

Mimi - maybe you should have put up "two" first posts - one with the original request and the second with this information.

I'm sure, as an educated woman, you can understand a little reluctance among folk here regarding "scientific" research without a "hidden" agenda!!

I hope you get a good response, though, to your original request.

love and peace from the UK

Rupe :)

[JohnnyV]

Mimi,

I would be willing to answer some questions. You can send me an email through the email message option.

J

[BiMale]

Very interesting. Good luck to you.

BiMale :male: :)

[anne27]

I think this is a worthwhile project. I would very much like to see us in this community have a little imput. We have an intelligent, diverse group of women here on this forum. Our lives and our experiences can provide insight and hopefully enlighten.

While a lot of us are reluctant to bare our souls when some studies have slammed and slandered us, we have to have faith and trudge on and hope for the best. We need to support research on bisexuality. Not every researcher has a hidden political or religious agenda.

If we don't speak up for ourselves, who will???

[Mimi]

Wow, thank you, all, for responding to my thread and commenting on my study. I didn't realize that people were still reading my post! :kay:

Sparks - Your advocacy is much appreciated! :bigrin:

Rupertbare - Thanks for your suggestion, although I think all of your replies have "boosted the ratings" of my thread and hopefully people will "tune into" my 2nd comment and have their worries assuaged. I actually think it's very smart that people keep a skeptical eye to research on bisexuality. Even though science is supposed to be objective and rational, there are plenty of political agendas (good and bad) that goes into research.

JohnnyV - I appreciate your interest, but the study is only for women (and MtFs)! :)

Anne27 - You're definitely right - if we don't speak up for ourselves, then someone else will... and it might not be the right person!

I still have a few more volunteer spots open if more people are interested, but they're going fast!

[Driver 8]

I would be willing to answer some questions. You can send me an email through the email message option.
And all this time I thought you were a guy, Johnny ;)

I know as an out bisexual I've often been subjected to rude, intrusive questions from nosy strangers. And I've often seen "help me with my homework" posts on bisexual groups online from people who seem to be a more polished version of the same.

I realize it's not possible for a researcher to participate in every community where they ask for volunteers; however, if they're not a known regular there, I do think it's important that they mention any relevant past work, and, if possible, describe their experiment. (Again, I realize that there are times when you can only tell subjects in a general sense what you're looking for, to keep from influencing the results.) I don't personally think it's essential for the researcher to be a member of the community in question, but I am put off when they show signs of being unfamiliar with the community.

Ms. Hoang, I do appreciate you taking some time to answer people's questions. I do wonder how much you'd be able to generalize from a survery here, since it's a decidedly non-random sampling.

As a final, more general comment ... years ago, a sociology prof attended a meeting of the campus GLBT prof and asked people to come in and be interviewed about discrimination. I signed up, but when I went in and told her I was bisexual, she visibly pushed her chair back (!) and went on to discount everything I said. I told her about how my former girlfriend and I were refused an apartment we were looking at, and the manager told us he wouldn't rent to us because that apartment complex had to be "suitable for families"; the researcher didn't write anything in her notes, and said "But there could have been some other reason." I left with the strong conclusion that she'd already come to all her conclusions before she started gathering data, and the suspicion - unprovable, of course - that if my lesbian-identified girlfriend had come in with the same stories, they would have ended up in the study.

[PeterH]

Hi all,

although I'm not a girl, so not suitable as a subject for your study, I am interested in the science behind bisexuality and think more knowledge and less ignorance would help improve the situation for us, with regards to social acceptance. I'd also be interested in the sort of questions you're asking and what the aim of your study is.
what surprised me a little, Mimi, was that you didn't put up where you are on the Kinsey scale in your add. Perhaps you could also tell us sth about why you are interested in bisexuality and what you want to find out. Since social acceptance in the US is so low, people will tend to be sceptical towards scientific research here and as you realized, fearful of interpretations based on agendas.

Mimi, I would like you to so some good research and get much help from the people here. To help you with that, i'd like to do some suggestions of things you could do to overcome people's scepticism and fears.
I think that if you would tell us why you are personally interested in the subject, and what you would like to find out, that would help a lot. It would explain to people what your personal agenda is. I'm sure you are doing this from the best of motives, but I think it will help iif you explain what these motives are. I would advise you to put both these things in the opening post of this thread, before you ask people to participate. So people know what their participation will achieve.
I think telling people this may be helpful to the quality of your research as well. Any study, any questionnaire is based on some assumptions. I have seen students have bad results from their research, because they made false assumptions. You can easily avoid some wrong assumptions by the advice of some experts in the field: people who are bisexual themselves.

To overcome people's fears of the research being influenced by agenda's, you could also invite people here, or just those who took part in the study, to comment on your results and interpretation, before you publish your conclusions.

Mimi, I wish you the best of luck with your studies and hope you will get some interesting results,

Peter

[PeterH]

Mimi, in the above post, i think I have added some things that you seem to have done already. Maybe i misremembered. My memory is not always what it should be. My apologies, Peter

[Mimi]

I'm feeling a little put on the spot here, :oh: but I suppose that if someone new entered my community and wanted to do research, I'd probably feel a little guarded too. So I do completely appreciate the concerns that have been brought up.

So first off, I have updated my profile to include my Kinsey rating and more information about my background. I had been hesitant to include my personal info because I for one want to limit my online time and I also didn't want to have a "personal ad" where people would contact me for reasons other than the study or professional/platonic reasons. It's a little tricky balancing between the role of researcher and friend, and so that was my dilemma. But I realize now that putting my info adds to my credibility in the bisexual.com community. So thanks for the nudge!

Second, if you do read my profile, you will see that I indeed am "one of your own" and have been a bi activist for the past 7 years. I may be new to the bisexual.com community, but I'm not new to the world of social activism regarding bisexual inclusion and bisexual equality. People who know me know that I am pretty outspoken about these issues, as well as issues about racism, sexism, and classism. I'm usually defending the underdog in some way, shape, or form.

And lastly, my motivation for doing the study (though I do have to limit what I say for research purposes) is to find the similarities and differences in sexual identity, social attitudes, relationship behaviors, and personal traits among women who are attracted to men and women. In my literature review I break down the differences between attraction, behavior, and self-identification among people in the bi community, and therefore I am not specifically looking for women who identify as "bisexual" per se. I also discuss the social pressures that cause internalized heterosexism and internalized "homosexism" and have coined a new term for that phenomenon (which I may reveal when my study is completed). I am also looking to dispel one of the myths about bi women, but unfortunately I cannot reveal that now either. What I can say is that I am trying to show some correlations between certain issues affecting the bi women's community in order to further understand bi women in romantic relationships. MY RESEARCH IS VERY MUCH PRO-BI. :flag1: I even had to enlighten my dissertation chair, who is an out-and-proud lesbian professor who is very knowledgeable about the gay/lesbian stuff but still ignorant about the bi stuff.

Hopefully all of this helps!! And I'm sorry to hear about the discrimination you've faced, Driver8. I have faced some mean comments myself and it is not a happy experience.

[JohnnyV]

Mimi,

Thank you so much for being patient with us! I feel bad that we're putting you through so many hoops when it looks like you have good intentions. Maybe if there weren't so many anti-bi meanies out there, we wouldn't have to be so skeptical. But a little bit of skepticism is healthy in the name of self-preservation, so I understand Driver and Peter prodding you a little on the details.

By the way, Mimi, I hope you will stay with us after your study is finished. It looks like you can share a lot with us (and we with you.)

Love,
J

[Biboz49]

Mimi. Just another comment as a member of this community: I appreciate, and I'm sure many others do as well that you have provided the reason as to why you wish to conduct your study. When I saw your initial post requesting information my first reaction was similar to the others...."ok so what is she after". Possibly it may help in the future to give reasons for requesting information when asking for it. Best of luck in your research.

In addition, it would probably benefit many members here with the published results of your research. Would anyone else be interested? I know I would. What do you think?

[arana]

Mimi. Just another comment as a member of this community: I appreciate, and I'm sure many others do as well that you have provided the reason as to why you wish to conduct your study. When I saw your initial post requesting information my first reaction was similar to the others...."ok so what is she after". Possibly it may help in the future to give reasons for requesting information when asking for it. Best of luck in your research.

In addition, it would probably benefit many members here with the published results of your research. Would anyone else be interested? I know I would. What do you think?
Biboz makes a good point. This is not the first time this type of request has been made by a student and I have yet to see anything after the fact. No, "thank you's and this was the grade I received" or "here's my final draft what do you think"....nothing. It makes people hesitant to answer personal and general questions because they don't know how honest the person asking is being with their agenda.

I do wish you well on your studies and paper Mimi!

[PeterH]

Hi Mimi,

it's nice that you posted all this info about yourself and your research. I did realize that what I said could easily come accross as rather offensive. It wasn't meant that way and I'm sorry if it did. I could have been more careful in the way I formulated things but that would have taken very much time. I hope you'll excuse me. My only motivation for writing was for you to do some good research and for people here to be comfortable with it.
I can understand that you didn't come here to expand your bi social life (you seem to have enough of that already!!) and limited your personal details because of that. I'm glad you had the courage to be so open in the end and admire your activism. The bi community needs more people like you!
Being a scientist myself, I totally understand that you can't publish all your ideas here, because they would influence the answers to the survey.
I'm glad that you gave some background info and look forward to your results. Perhaps you can put them online and post a reference to it here, here. As you may have seen, it is also possible to attach *.doc files to your posts, so that would be another option. i would also be interested in seeing the questionnair that you use. Could I find it somewhere?
Again, I wish you lots of succes in your studies and look forward to hearing more about your research, Peter

[likalotapuss]

Anything I can do to help Mimi? Let us know what you find out!

~Ang