This is a call for black lesbians to complete a questionnaire in relation to the Internet and sexuality. The research being undertaken (in South Africa) has relied on a call for lesbian responses to a questionnaire. However, we need more responses from black lesbians as the majority of respondees are white - and we think that race does matter in this kind of research. If you can assist, please do. Below is the call:
Researching Sexuality and the Internet among lesbian users – we need your help!
We are part of a larger international research project called EroTICs commissioned by the Association of Progressive Communications. Check out the link: http://www.apc.org/en/projects/erotics-exploratory-research-project-sexu...
The research we are doing seeks to answer the following question:
How does the Internet facilitate the exercise of sexual rights and the expression of sexualities, particularly of women living in different socio-political, economic and cultural contexts?
Part of what the South African research group is focusing on is lesbian usage of the Internet. As you can imagine, very little has been done in this field. To conduct the research we need your responses to a number of questions. We have developed a questionnaire we’d like to ask you to answer. It consists of 30 items and might take an hour to complete thoughtfully. We are aware that this is a lot of time, but it could be done in more than one sitting if you like. Your responses will be anonymous.
We consider the research important as this knowledge is needed to be able to argue the importance of the Internet as a democratic and private space where freedom of expression is possible. This is increasingly significant when arguments for further regulation of the Internet are being put forward and this means potentially more filtering on ‘sensitive’ subjects.
Once the questionnaires are completed we will interview some of the respondents who are willing to be interviewed.
We will publicise the findings so let us know if you wish to be informed about the final reports. We also want to know who will be interested in helping make public the findings once we’ve completed the work.
This is being sent out by Jeanne Prinsloo who is leading the South African leg of the research. She teaches and researches in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. Her email address is j.prinsloo@ru.ac.za.
IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO COMPLETE A QUESTIONNAIRE, PLEASE RESPOND TO lesbiansonline@gmail.com AND WE’LL EMAIL THE QUESTIONNAIRE TO YOU.
We ask you to return it within 72 hours.
