RWBY MLM Survey
| Fan Survey | |
|---|---|
| Title: | RWBY MLM Survey |
| Surveyor: | elive-and-swel |
| Date(s): | 2020 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | RWBY |
| External Links: | RWBY MLM Survey Results #2, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
RWBY MLM Survey is a fan survey examining MLM's (men loving men) opinions on characters, ships and representation in RWBY. It was inspired by the RWBY WLW Ship Survey.
The survey was posted to Tumblr and Reddit on January 17. The survey gained 168 responses.
Intro Post
Hey, RWBY fans! I was inspired by @breadthief‘s RWBY WLW Survey and thought it would be a good idea to hear from the MLM in the fandom to see how they feel about certain aspects of RWBY! You can find the survey here, I will be doing my best to update y’all regularly as the results come in!Just as the WLW survey is for WLW fans only, please only answer this survey if you identify as MLM!
Thanks again @breadthief for the inspiration!
Results
RWBY MLM Survey Results #2Hey, guys! I’ve received so many responses from you wonderful fans, and I wanted to update you all to let you know where we currently stand.
Current response total: 168
Gender Identity
- Out of all responses, 79% identify as male, 18.5% as nonbinary, 15% as genderfluid or genderqueer, 5% as demiboy, and everyone else as other.
- Of the people who identify as male, 56% identify as cisgender, 24% as transgender, and 20% preferred not to specify.
Sexuality
- The majority of responders (45%) identify as bisexual. 35% identify as gay, 13% as MLM, 12.5% as queer, 10% as pansexual, 9% as asexual, and 11% as other.
Male Characters
- The Top 3 Favorite male characters are James Ironwood (62.5%), Sun Wukong (36%), and Clover Ebi (30%).
- The Top 3 LEAST Favorite male characters are Jacques Schnee (67.5%), Adam Taurus (62%), and Arthur Watts (22%).
- The Top 3 Most Relatable male characters are Qrow Branwen (31%), Jaune Arc (19%), and Sun Wukong (9%).
Female Characters
- The Top 3 Favorite female characters are Weiss Schnee (48%), Yang Xiao Long (34%), and Ruby Rose (33%).
- The Top 3 LEAST Favorite female characters are Cinder Fall (62%), Raven Branwen (42%), and Salem (27%).
- The Top 3 Most Relatable female characters are Weiss Schnee (20%), Ruby Rose (19%), and Blake Belladonna (14%).
Ships
- The Top 3 Favorite Team RWBY ships are Bumbleby (57%), Whiterose (15.5%), and Freezerburn (10%).
- The Top 3 MLM ships are Fair Game (80%), Seamonkeys (54%), and Ironqrow (40.5%).
- The Top 3 WLW ships are Nuts n Dolts (75%), Crosshares (45%), and Collateral Damage (22%).
Gallery results
LGBT representation and gay (male) representation
Lesbian representation and bi representation
trans/genderqueer representation and aro/ace representation
Reception and responses
One of the reasons that mlm are under represented in RWBY is the lack of (emotionally) significant male characters in general.Which male characters do we have that the audience at large is emotionally invested in enough to care about who they date? Juane, Ren, Oscar, Qrow, maybe Ozpin, maybe Ironwood, kinda Adam, Sun, maybe Mercury. A whole nine male characters who have been written to have some kind of emotional investment. We were not emotionally invested in characters like Lionheart. If he had a spouse, pretty much no one would care.
Women interested in other women are "over-represented" in RWBY over gay men and men who are interested in other men solely due to the fact that the main characters are mostly female. Ilia has/had a crush on Blake. Blake is female therefore if RT wanted in introduce a gay character, Ilia must be also be female. It had already been established that Jaune had seven sisters, so Saphron's gender has already been determined. Saphron, in order to be an high-visibly LGBT character, must have an SO of the same gender - which has already been established as female. Therefore, both Saphron and Terra are female. The Arc family member in Argus could have been an uncle or male cousin who had a male SO. However, because Jaune has never spoken of his extended family, the significance of such a family member would be lost.
[...]
If Qrow and Clover's relationship turns out to be romantic, then the writers masterly avoided the slutty bisexual stereotype/implications with the significant emotional connection between the two.
And that's the thing. Clover's sexuality is only important to the audience because Clover is being connected to a character we care about. If Clover started of saying "Oh yeah and I'm gay/have a husband at home" both the audience and the characters would be like "cool why does that matter?" Hell, even if Oscar had a crush on literally anyone who was not in the main cast, male or female, the audience would probably be asking "Why does this matter, this is a waste of time that could have been spent on something else!"
Who characters interested in only really matters if they are the main characters or connected to main characters. Most of the main cast are female or already spoken for ergo there is precious little places to introduce male gay characters in ways that are actually significant.[1]
Like the survey. Only thing I don’t like is that you used Fair Game. Karma is the much better name.[2]