Discourse Demographics Survey

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Fan Survey
Title: Discourse Demographics Survey
Surveyor:
Date(s): 2017
Medium: online
Fandom(s): Voltron: Legendary Defender
External Links: Discourse Demographics Survey tumblr post, raw data
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Discourse Demographics Survey polled Voltron: Legendary Defender fans who engaged in shipping or anti-shipping to examine the different opinions and beliefs held by anti-shippers (sometimes shortened to "antis"), pro-shippers (sometimes called "anti-antis") and neutral fans. It was a mostly Tumblr-centric survey and was originally promoted on Tumblr.

1,998 fans responded to the survey. However, not every question was required to be answered, and the survey was split into three versions: one for proshippers, one for antishippers, and one for neutrals. The anti version received 581 responses per question excect on non-required questions. The neutral version received 375 responses per question, and lastly the proshipper version received 1,042 responses per question. Since its original run the survey has yet to close. It is still open for responses, and the results below are from a review of the data as of March 2021.

Questions Asked

There are six sections, listed and detailed below. Some sections, such as demographics, were rather short. Others, such as discourse questions, are much more unyielded. In the three main parts of the survey (antishippers, proshippers, and neutrals) some questions are different or not presented at all (see Critcism). Because of the sheer number of questions not every question can be discussed below, but some highlights are presented.

Survey Section Headers:

  • Demographics, which gathered general demographics such as age and sex
  • Voltron Demographics, which gathered info on favorite Voltron characters and ships
  • Discourse Questions, which asked about respondents beliefs on discourse and why they were an anti/proshipper/neutral
  • Content Viewership, which asked about the content respondents searched for and consumed online
  • Content Creator Survey, which asked questions about respondents' lives as content creators in the fandom
  • Community Survey, which asked opinions on the Voltron community

Demographics:

  • Age
  • Gender identity, and if they were transgender
  • Romantic and sexual orientation
  • Race and country of residence
  • If they were a sexual assault or rape survivor
  • If they were neurodivergent

Voltron Demographics, and Discourse Questions:

  • Favorite Voltron character, and why
  • Main pairing, and any other pairings they ship
  • Do they feel wanted in this fandom
  • A checklist of "stances" related to their position in the Voltron fandom; this question does not appear on the proshipper survey
  • Open ended question on why they identify as their stance
  • If they think any part of their identity or experience is what has caused them to be their stance
  • If they consider their stance as a part of their identity
  • If they feel a sense of community in the fandom
  • Describe the atmosphere of the Voltron community

Content Viewership and Content Creators

  • How difficult it is to find "good" blogs and "good" content of their ship/head canon
  • If they only follow blogs related to their stance
  • If they've taken measures to block or avoid certain content
  • How they react to interaction from those with a different stance
  • If they are afraid of backlash as a content creator

Community

  • If they feel a sense of community in the fandom, and what the atmosphere of it is like
  • If they take part in Voltron fandom outside of Tumblr

General Results and Comparisons

Some of the results were opened ended, where respondents could write in a reply. This makes some of the results, such as respondent race and country of residence, difficult to calculate without pulling the results into a spreadsheet. And, even using a spreadsheet, not every respondent of a specific race replied with the same thing, such as with the respondents of mixed races. There were some questions not set to required, and some questions that allowed respondents to both select pre-made answers and place a write in. Lastly, some questions were not asked across all three versions of the survey, particularly the questions regarding what respondents do and do not ship.

  • 29% of respondents identified as Anti-shippers, and 52% of respondents identified as Pro-shippers. 18% of respondents considered themselves neutral.
  • Both antis and pro-shippers skewed younger than neutral fans, but there was also a contingent of respondents unwilling to provide their ages. 4% of pro-shippers, almost 10% of neutral fans and 6% of antis responded that they were 0 years old.
  • Of proshippers, the majority were female at 56%. Of antishippers, 52% identified as something not female. Of neutrals, 60% identified as female. This means of the three surveys antishippers had overall less female respondents.
  • Of proshippers, 71% were not transfender and 72% were not asexual. Of antishippers, 59% were not transgender and 70% were not asexual. Of neutrals, 74% were not transgender and 71% were not asexual. This means overall, antshippers had the most transgender respondents, but in general all three surveys had few transgender and asexual respondents.
  • Of proshippers, 33% were rape/sexual assault survivors, of antis 21% were, and of neutrals 14% were. This still leaves the majority of all three surveys to say that they were not rape/sexual assault survivors, though more proshippers were than others.
  • When asked their favorite ships, proshippers said Sheith at 46% then Klance at 15%. Antis said Klance at 79%. neutrals said 48% Klance and the second most popular selection was "prefer not to say" at 20%. The large difference between anti respondents' preference towards Klance compared to proshippers may possibly align with some write-in responses claiming that the anti/proshipper discourse in the Voltron fandom started out as a shipwar.
  • Of proshippers, 87% said certain offenses did not warrant harassment and 72% said they discouraged harassment. Of antis, 20% said certain offenses did not warrant harassment and 57% said they discouraged harassment. Of neutrals 66% said certain offenses did not warrant harassment and 58% said they discouraged harassment. This means overall, proshippers disapproved of harassment 67% more than antishippers and 21% more than neutrals. Proshippers discouraged harassment only 15% more than antishippers and 14% more than neutrals. This suggests that while the respondents disapproved of harassment overwelmingly more, they did not actively discourage it even a quarter more than antishippers and neutrals.
  • Of proshippers, 53% said they didn't feel wanted in the fandom. Of antishippers, 33% said they did not feel wanted. Then of neutrals, 49% said they did not feel wanted. There is no definitive conclusion as to why neutrals aligned closer to proshippers with this specific question, but it does show proshippers feel less wanted than antishippers.
  • Overall, in the write-in responses, no matter the version of the survey, respondents frequently found the fandom to be toxic and their write-in responses spoke highly negative of opposing stances. Neutral responses were not an exception and spoke negatively about all parts of the fandom.

Proshippers

Demographics and Voltron Demographics

The largest demographics for age were: 10% 18 years old, 9% were 17, and 8% were 19, showing a trend towards younger demographics. However, just like with both the anti and neutral versions, some answers may be faked as 3% (41 people of 1,042) said they were 0 years old.

The majority identified as female at 56%, and the second most was non-binary at 13%. This leaves 44% not female. The overwhelming majority at 71% were not transgender. 30% identified as biromantic with the second most being panromantic at 21%, leaving 70% not biromantic. For sexual orientation, there was a tie between bisexual (28.9%) and asexual (28%), leaving 72% not asexual.

The majority at 67% were not sexual assault or rape survivors, with 22% saying that they were. 59% said they were neurodivergent.

Of pro-shippers favorite characters, 29% said Keith and the second most favorite was Shiro at 26%. This mean 71% of respondents' favorite character was not Keith. Similar to the anti and neutral surveys, when asked why they that character was their favorite, many said that the character was relatable. The two most popular pairings were Sheith at 46% and Klance at 15%.

The majority at 53% said they did not feel wanted in the fandom. When asked to answer the next questions honestly, most said yes, but a minority of 5% (56 people) said no.

Discourse Questions

This section of the survey differs from the sections presented to both the anti's and the neutral's survey, as instead of being simply given one big question with multiple ships they could check off, each ship is presented as its own question. This section of the survey is also calculated differently, as despite the pro-shipper section of the survey having 1,042 responses, this section only has 986 responses per question. This difference should be kept in mind while reviewing the data.

70% were pro shaladin, and 28% were pro shaladin but not shidge. This means overall, 98% were pro shaladin. 69% were pro piladin, and 22% were pro piladin but no shidge, for a total of 91%. 88% were pro palotor. 83% were pro galradin. 29% were pro holtcest. 44% were pro coradin.

87% said certain offensive did not warrant harassment. 72% said they open discouraged harassment. 16% said they considered being pro a part of their identity and 38% said only online, for a total of 54%.

Several of the questions in this section were write-ins. Due to the number of write-in questions and length of responses not all write-in questions can be covered, but a few quotes are below. To view all questions and responses, it's best to review the raw data.

I think that is important to talk about serious issues that surround peoples lives, even in regards to fandom and fiction, but it's also important to understand the context behind everything and how it change things. Also, no matter what, harassement never helps anyone, it's only a way to support violence between people.

Please elaborate on your reasoning for your stance

I do feel more included in the LGBTQA+ community ever since I started shipping Sheith and more "problematic" ships,like piladin and palotor

Do you think any part of your identity or past experiences has anything to do with your stance?

A bunch of grow ass adults arguing over the ages of cartoon characters that no one outside of the fandom cares about or even thought to care about. It's also a fantastic example of group think.

What would you say to a newcomer to the fandom who is has asked you what the fandom discourse is about?

I firmly believe that everyone has a right to ship what they want, unless said ship is objectively harmful or abusive in nature (such as nonconsensual galradin), but that this doesn't excuse their reactions to other shippers (e.g. attacking someone because they do/don't ship shaladin for example). I tend not to get involved in the discourse simply because my mental health cannot take it.

What else do you have to say in regards to your stance on the discourse?

Content Viewership and Content Creators

On a scale of 1 to 5, 33% selected "3" for how difficult it was to find good blogs to follow. On a scale of 1 to 5, 30% selected "2" for how difficult it was to find good content of their ships and head canons. 60% said they did not prefer to follow blogs with a Voltron centric URL. 50% said yes, they replied on certain pro shaladin only accounts for Voltron content.

50% said they downloaded a 3rd party software, such as xKit, to blog certain tags. 60% said they avoided certain tags. When asked what they'd do if they realized they had reblogged a post made by an anti shaladin, the majority at 56% said nothing. 60% said they would reblog content from anti-shaladins as long as the post itself wasn't anti shaladin.

59% said they followed pro ship only accounts. 63% said they unfollowed anti accounts. 40% said they blocked anti accounts. The majority at 80% said they didn't make use of blocklists. 55% were content creators.

54% said they were scared of backlash for posting their work.

I wish people would stop commenting "I don't like _____ or _____ is gross, but this is really good!" It's completely unnecessary and passive aggressive. No creator wants to see that!!

As a content creator, what else do you have to say about fan works within the Voltron Community?

Community Questions

On a scale of 1 to 5, 33% selected "3" for if they felt a sense of community in the fandom. A close split said they did take part in Volton groups outside of Tumblr; 49.7% said no, 48.8% said yes. Of those who said yes, the majority said it was on Discord at 32%.

Tumblr is very unnaturally serious about discourse and so is commonly hurtful, but there are good people here and there. The one discord group I'm in is full of people who are exhausted with tumblr users (both pro and anti) that take things too seriously.

How would you compare the Voltron community on Tumblr compared to other social media outlets or to experiences at cons?

Pro-shippers get oddly anti-sjw/conservative at times. It's.... a major thorn in my side.

Do you have anything else to say regarding general community of this fandom?

Antis

Demographics and Voltron Demographics

The largest demographics for age were: 15% at 16 years old, 15% as 15, and then 12% as 18. 6% also claimed they were 0 (35 people out of 581).

The largest demographics for gender were: 47.8% female. This means 52.2% identified as not being female. The next question clarifies how many identify as transgender, with 59% saying no.

The largest demographic for romantic and sexual orientation were: 30.3% biromantic, then 18.4% gay/lesbian/homoromantic. This leaves 52% who identify as something other than biromantic or gay/lesbian/homoromantic. 29% identified as asexual, with the next largest being 25% for bisexual. This leaves 70.7% as non-asexuals.

The majority identified as not being a sexual assault or rape survivor at 67%, leaving 21.9% saying yes and 10% preferring not to say.

The majority identified as being neurodivergent at 67.6%, but the question does not clarify in which way.

Discourse Questions

The most popular character was Lance at 36%, and the second most being Keith at 24%. This means, overall, 64% of respondent's favorite character was not Lance, and 76% of respondent's favorite character was not Keith. The least favorite was Slav. Under "why is your favorite character your favorite," there were many responses along the lines of the character being relatable or similar to the respondent's own personality. Next, the most shipped paring is Klance at 79%, making it overwhelminging the most shipped pairing.

66% of anti respondents said they felt wanted in the fandom, and 33% said they did not. Then, 94% said they were willing to give honest opinions on discourse surrounding Shaladin and other subjects that would be presented, leaving 5% (34 people) to say no, they would not respond honestly.

There were a clear handful of popular pre-made answers that respondents chose on the question "please check everything that describes your stance as an anti in the Voltron fandom. The three most checked answers were as follows: "Anti Shaladin" with 99%, "Anti Holtcest" with 99%, then "Anti Coraladin" with 97%.

85% said they owned a discourse blog. Then, on a scale of 1-5, respondants said they took part in disocurse at "1" 33% of the time, "2" 37% of the time, and "3" at 19% of the time.

20% said certain offenses warranted harassment, and 55 said no. 57% said they opened discouraged harassment, and 28% said no. 26% said being an anti was part of their identity, 28% said no, 36% said only online. 57% felt a sense of community in the Voltron fandom. 65% said they didn't take part in anti groups outside of Tumblr, and of those who did take place in anti groups outside of Tumblr the majority (26%) said it took place on Discord.

Several questions of this section were write-in responses. Due to the number of write-in questions and length of responses not all write-in questions can be covered, but a few quotes are below. To view all questions and responses, it's best to review the raw data.

I think these are morally wrong and that fiction does have an effect in the real world. I have also seen that that pedo's are trying to get into the lqbt+ community and I think shaladins might find comfort in that toxic place. Also the relationship dynamics are unsatisfactory and uncomfortable is in a romantic setting.

"Please elaborate on why you identify as an anti"

I'm 15 and the idea of being involved with someone that much older is creepy to me, so I'm not a big fan of it being portrayed, even in fiction.

"If you are anti Piladin, please elaborate why"

It did not specify whether it was nsfw content of the kids or not, but I would assume so, considering that most of them are. Although many teens are sexually active, they should not have explicit content draw or written of them.

"If you are anti NSFW, please elaborate why"

I’m not really sure? I think being LGBT and having been in abusive relationships in the past have affected it yeah. From my experience Shaladins tend to be really gross and fetishize mlm a LOT. So that’s one thing that offputs me as a mlm myself...and the abuse thing is self-explanatory.

"Do you think any part of your identity or past experiences has anything to do with your stance as an anti?"

I dislike the reputation that we have as harassing people. I don't think that a way to get our point across is to tell people to die or to hurt themselves. We have the right to be angry that something that harms real people is being romaticized, and we have the right to complain to each other and only associate with people who agree that it's bad. Harassment isn't only us, though, it's a problem that both antis and pros partake in. I also don't like engaging in discourse with shaladins because they can get angry over small posts that didn't even show up in their tags, but I end up having to explain myself. Antis believe in one thing- Abusive, pedophilic, incestuous, and otherwise unhealthy ships are not good.

"What else do you have to say in regards to your stance as an anti?"

Content Viewership and Content Creators

On a scale of 1-5, respondents were asked to highlight how difficult it was to find "good blogs" to follow for their dashboards. The majority said "3" at 34%, which would be about an average difficulty. On a scale of 1-5 they were asked how difficult it was to find "good content" for their ships and headcanons, with the majority saying "2" at 29%.45% said they preferred to follow Voltron-centric blogs. 47% said they did not reply on "Safe Voltron" accounts for Voltron content. 46% said they had downloaded an extension to blacklist unwanted content. 83% said they avoided certain tags.

When asked what they would do if they accidentally reblogged a post by a pro-shipper, 52% said delete post and block/unfollow, and 26% just said delete post. 66% said it was not okay to reblog posts from shaladins, even if the post was not shaladin. 74% said they only followed anti accounts. 70% said they unfollowed proshipper accounts and 39% said they also blocked them. Over half, at 54% said they were content creators.

Of the content creators, 49% said that they were not afraid of backlash for posting their work, and 34% said they were. When asked how they felt when somebody not on the same side of the discourse interacts with their work, many said uncomfortable. Others said they were fine as long as the user didn't attempt to argue with them.

Neutrals

Demographics and Voltron Demographics

Of the 375 respondents on the "neutral" survey, the most common age was 19, or 10%. the next two were 17 and 0, at 9%. Similar to the anti survey, some of the responses to age demographics appear to be fake.

60% identified as female and the majority at 74% said they were not transgender. The most common romantic orientation was biromantic as 24% with the second most common being panromantic at 18%. Sexual orientation's highest score was asexual at 29%, and then bisexual at 19%.

76% said they were not a sexual assault or rape survivor, and 14% were.

56% said they were neurodivergent.

Neutrals' favorite characters were Lance at 24% and then both Keith and Pidge at 18%. When asked why they were their favorite character, many said it was because the character was relatable.

The main pairing among neutrals was Klance at 48%, with the second most being "prefer not to say" at 20%.

51% said they felt wanted in the fandom, and 5% (21 people) said they were not willing to give honest opinions on the subjects presented.

Discourse Questions

When asked "Please select all that describe your stance as neutral" the most selected pre-made answer was I make no discourse related posts" at 71%, "I do not like the discourse" at 68%, " and "I have no public opinion on the discourse" at 40%.

When asked if certain offenses warrant harassment, 66% said no. 58% said they openly discouraged harassment online. only 20% said that being a neutral was a part of their identity, and 24% said only online.

Several questions of this section were write-in responses. Due to the number of write-in questions and length of responses not all write-in questions can be covered, but a few quotes are below. To view all questions and responses, it's best to review the raw data.

Mostly because I'm tired of discourse and don't really want to participate in it, I also feel like a lot of the discourse in the fandom is the same argument regurgitated multiple times (for both sides). Also, I'm not really against shaladin b/c I believe the age differences aren't that significant and also the relationships seem pretty healthy. (I am anti-shidge though.)

"Please elaborate on why you identify as neutral"

To be frank, I don't like conflict. It causes me anxiety. I also prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt.

"Do you think any part of your identity or past experiences has anything to do with your stance of neutrality?"

I'll be open and honest with them and they can do as they please with the information. "A lot of the fandom argues about ships and the ages of the paladins before their canon ages came out." And so on.

"What would you say to a newcomer to the fandom who is has asked you what the fandom discourse is about?"

It's dumb and it's a kids cartoon, calm down, eat some bread, drink some milk

"What else do you have to say in regards to your stance on the discourse?"

Content Viewership and Content Creators

On a scale of 1 to 5, 38% selected "3" when asked how difficult it was to find good blogs to follow. On a scale of 1 to 5 27% selected "1" for how difficult it was to find good content of their ships or head canons. 52% said they didn't prefer to follow blogs with a Voltron centric URL. 54% said they didn't rely on just neutral accounts for Voltron content. 59% did download 3rd party software, such as xKit, to block certain tags, and 52% said they avoided certain tags. 82% did not make sure of blocklists. A minority of 45% were content creators.

45% of the time, content creators were scared of backlash for posting their work. On a scale of 1 to 5, 32% selected "3" for if they feel a sense of community in the fandom.

My content isnt Shaladin but if I ever decided to draw it I would probably get a death threat lmao. Someone would call me a pedophile even though I'm pretty sure I know exactly what a pedophile is and its not me

"As a content creator, how do you feel when somebody who is not on the same side of discourse interacts with your work?"

Criticism

The survey has had some criticism, and included a final write-in question that asked "is there anything we can do to improve this survey?" It had 477 responses. While many said there was nothing to improve some offered feedback, and a few longer quotes from those respondents are below.

Dunno if you know anything about the kin community but it might help you to involve us in the survey since we are the actual characters the discourse is about!

No, but the "neutral" option is bullshit. If you're against harassment then you're pro. If you're okay with antis existing then fuck you.

I'm told the "neutral" section doesn't offer Shallura as a ship option whereas the "anti" and "pro" sections both do, so you should probably fix that as it may be skewing your results. also i don't really feel comfortable with your definition of "pro"? I feel like "ship and let ship" should be a neutral position

I'd probably limit responses to one per person. Also it'd be interesting to see how former antis became neutral or pro-shippers, and vice-versa.

Some issues with the survey were not expressed in these write-in questions, though this is likely due to the respondents not having access to the full survey, since the survey was split into three different surveys depending on if they were anti/proshipping/neutral. This means respondants were not even aware that some questions were not presented similarrly to both antishippers and proshippers until the survey results were released. For example, the proshipper version of the survey had a question that said: "Are you willing to answer a form of questions relating to stances on shaladin discourse and give us your honest opinions on the subjects presented? (Please keep in mind that the next section has a part specifically for content creators and we would love it if you took the time to fill it out!)" However, the antishipping question did not include the "(Please keep in mind that the next section has a part specifically for content creators and we would love it if you took the time to fill it out!)" part.

Another criticism would be that not every question was set to required. This is evident in some questions such as the proshipping version of the survey's question for "as a content creator, do you feel like it is easy to get your work seen," 581 respondents had said "yes" to being a content creator, but only 574 of them answered the aforementioned question, which can skew the results by making it confusing for those reviewing the data.

Then, even among required questions, such as "do you unfollow anti accounts," respondents were allowed to either choose a pre-made response or write in their own. The ability to write in their own responses for questions such as the aforementioned can skew results, as respondents ignore the pre-made answers to write their own. This makes it harder to review the raw data and get a generalization of the answers.

Further Reading

Responses to the Survey

References

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