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Q: People define commitment to their relationships in many different ways. We are interested in what commitment in your relationship(s) means to you. In the space provided, please describe for us how you personally define commitment and how it operates in your relationship(s).
A: Taking care of and being taken care of; being considerate; involving the person(s) in all the major aspects and decisions of your life; being emotionally open and vulnerable; spending a lot of time together; planning your future so that it involves both/all of you, and either defining the point at which said commitment will come to an end (due to circumstances that are clear and/or inevitable and known to all parties involved, for example moving abroad), or operate on the basis that it never will; a clear sense of what is expected and a willingness to compromise; mutual respect, honesty, communication, partnership, friendship, flexibility, passion, understanding, trust.
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Q: Please use this space to tell us about anything more you think we need to know. For example, were there parts of the survey that you had problems with? Were you able to answer most things accurately?
A: All in all, I found the survey thorough and fairly precise. The only problem I had was with gender terminology and how gender was classified. (The options provided were 'male', 'female', 'transgender', and 'other' with an open text field.)
Firstly, it was unclear what exactly was being asked. 'Male' and 'female' generally refer to a set of primary and secondary sexual characteristics, not gender (although the two things are somewhat related). Therefore, 'male' and 'female' aren't identities per se, so if it was indeed gender that the inquiry was after, 'man' and 'woman' would have suited this purpose better.
The issue with listing 'transgender' as a stand-alone option for gender was problematic. While the term 'transgender' is often used as an umbrella term to describe a variety of different identities, it is not a gender. A trans* individual mostly identifies primarily as something else, and the term is only applied as an adjective (e.g. 'a transgender woman'); 'transgender' alone isn't an identity. A trans* man, for example, would choose 'male' from the options provided and wouldn't register in the data as someone with a transgender background (if this is relevant data at all). Additionally, any non-binary individuals would most likely fill the open text field, which would again render the standalone 'transgender' option useless.
For future reference, when mapping gender identity, a fairly inclusive list would have 'man', 'woman', 'androgynous', 'neutrois', 'dual-gender', and an open text field ('other: please specify'); if the trans* status of a participant is relevant, it should be asked separately from the gender options, not as one of them.
Thank you very much for participating in this important effort to further understanding of polyamory. We genuinely appreciate your time.
A: Taking care of and being taken care of; being considerate; involving the person(s) in all the major aspects and decisions of your life; being emotionally open and vulnerable; spending a lot of time together; planning your future so that it involves both/all of you, and either defining the point at which said commitment will come to an end (due to circumstances that are clear and/or inevitable and known to all parties involved, for example moving abroad), or operate on the basis that it never will; a clear sense of what is expected and a willingness to compromise; mutual respect, honesty, communication, partnership, friendship, flexibility, passion, understanding, trust.
---
Q: Please use this space to tell us about anything more you think we need to know. For example, were there parts of the survey that you had problems with? Were you able to answer most things accurately?
A: All in all, I found the survey thorough and fairly precise. The only problem I had was with gender terminology and how gender was classified. (The options provided were 'male', 'female', 'transgender', and 'other' with an open text field.)
Firstly, it was unclear what exactly was being asked. 'Male' and 'female' generally refer to a set of primary and secondary sexual characteristics, not gender (although the two things are somewhat related). Therefore, 'male' and 'female' aren't identities per se, so if it was indeed gender that the inquiry was after, 'man' and 'woman' would have suited this purpose better.
The issue with listing 'transgender' as a stand-alone option for gender was problematic. While the term 'transgender' is often used as an umbrella term to describe a variety of different identities, it is not a gender. A trans* individual mostly identifies primarily as something else, and the term is only applied as an adjective (e.g. 'a transgender woman'); 'transgender' alone isn't an identity. A trans* man, for example, would choose 'male' from the options provided and wouldn't register in the data as someone with a transgender background (if this is relevant data at all). Additionally, any non-binary individuals would most likely fill the open text field, which would again render the standalone 'transgender' option useless.
For future reference, when mapping gender identity, a fairly inclusive list would have 'man', 'woman', 'androgynous', 'neutrois', 'dual-gender', and an open text field ('other: please specify'); if the trans* status of a participant is relevant, it should be asked separately from the gender options, not as one of them.
Thank you very much for participating in this important effort to further understanding of polyamory. We genuinely appreciate your time.
