A/B/O fandom studies

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Introduction

Methods

Results

Controls Groups

A/B/O Sexes Coupled With F/M Sexes

Both Partners With Two Sex Designations

A/B/O Sex Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner

F/M Sex Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner

Overall Sorting Of Couples

Reproduction As Determining Factor: First Survey

Reproduction As Determining Factor: Beta Male Data Correction Survey

Discussion

Determining Queerness Through Reproductive Capabilities

Determining Queerness Through Sex 

Consistencies Between Both Methods of Determination 

So Who’s Queer?

Conclusions

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Discussion Continued

So Who’s Queer?

The answer to this question is both simple and complicated. Topically, Alpha/Alpha, Beta/Beta, and Omega/Omega are homosexual pairings while Alpha/Omega, Alpha/Beta, and Beta/Omega are heterosexual pairings.

However, most fics paint at least Beta Female/Beta Male as a heterosexual pairing so occasionally Beta/Beta is not homosexual and a straight Alpha Female/Alpha Male couple makes an appearance in many fics so occasionally Alpha/Alpha is not homosexual.

Generally speaking the A/B/O sex was a more meaningful measure of whether a couple would be viewed as heterosexual or homosexual except in Betas where F/M sex could be more important, especially for Beta/Beta couples.

The Beta Female/Beta Male couple showed an interesting turn away from the usual conflicted results over same A/B/O sexed but differently F/M sexed couples. In Alphas and Omegas these couples were not successfully sorted while in Betas they were successfully sorted as heterosexual despite Beta/Beta being sorted as homosexual.

This may be a side effect of fics portraying Alphas and Omegas as a much smaller portion of the population while still portraying Alphas and Omegas as the ideal partners. The logistics of these worlds simply mean that if Betas are going to pair off they will most likely be paired with another Beta, and thus, Beta/Beta is considered a heterosexual pairing but only when their F/M sex is different.

It would seem that the best way to determine who’s queer in A/B/O would be to say:

A/B/O sex is more important for Alphas and Omegas

F/M sex is more important for Betas

In mixed A/B/O sex couples A/B/O sex takes precedent

In same A/B/O sex couples with different F/M sexes the rule of reproduction takes precedent.

Conclusions

Using A/B/O sex with a stipulation that F/M is more important in Beta/Beta relationships to determine queerness is likely the most consistent method since few fics do not give both sex designations

Heteronormative views are pervasive even in A/B/O. When respondents should have given conflicted results they more often chose to sort a couple as heterosexual despite no evidence given to suggest this choice in sorting.

Alpha/Omega is always a straight pairing. Characters will not be viewed as queer if they are Alpha/Omega even if they have the same F/M sex.

Suggested further areas of study: measuring how people determine queerness when a fourth (or more) A/B/O sex added since there are a number of fics that have ‘delta’, theta’, ‘gamma’, etc. and how people determine queerness in relationships with more than two partners.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Discussion

The overall trends in the data supported some fanfiction tropes and adages while casting others into doubt and showed some interesting trends on when F/M gender or A/B/O gender were more important in determining if a couple were homosexual or heterosexual.

Determining Queerness Through Reproductive Capabilities

A somewhat frequently repeated ‘rule’ when exploring a/b/o is that ‘it’s straight if they can make babies’. The survey tested this fandom adage and found that  the use of reproduction as a deciding factor on whether a couple was in a heterosexual or homosexual pairing was not used consistently and does not appear to be a good indicator of whether a relationship would be viewed as queer. 

Part of the issue with the inconsistency is a division in how respondents viewed Alpha Females and Omega Males. All respondents who believed that Omega Males could both become pregnant and impregnate also believed that Alpha Females could both become pregnant and impregnate. Respondents who believed that Omega Males could only become pregnant also mostly believed that Alpha Females could only impregnate (two respondents in this group believed that Alpha Females could become pregnant as well as impregnate).

However, even when respondents are divided into those who think Omega Males and Alpha Females are capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating and those who think Omega Males are only capable of becoming pregnant and Alpha Females are only capable of impregnating the rule is not applied consistently in either respondent group. There were contradictions scattered throughout the survey for both types of reproduction based sorting.

Respondents who believed that Alpha Females and Omega Males could both become pregnant and impregnate others sorted Alpha Female/Alpha Female, Omega Male/Omega Male, Alpha/Alpha Female, Omega/Omega Male, and Female/Alpha Female as homosexual despite all these couples being able to reproduce. Alpha Female/Alpha Male and Alpha Female/Beta Female were not successfully sorted despite, again, these couples being able to reproduce.

Some couples that should have produced conflict among respondents were sorted, often showing bias towards assuming heterosexual relationships. For example, Alpha/Male or Beta/Omega Female. There was no further information given on these couples, thus they could have easily been Alpha Male/Alpha Male or Beta Female/Omega Female but respondents in this group preferred to sort these couples as heterosexual.

Interestingly the few couples that should have had conflicted results that were sorted as homosexual were almost entirely couples that involved Alphas or Omegas.

Respondents who believed that Alpha Females couples only impregnate and Omega Males could only become pregnant had fewer outright contradictions. Alpha Female/Beta Male and Beta Female/Omega Male were both sorted as heterosexual despite the premise this group of respondents was using to sort couples, neither of these couples would be able to reproduce.

There were, however, a number of couples that produced conflicted results that should not have: Alpha Female/Alpha Male, Alpha Female/Beta Female, Alpha/Beta Male, Omega/Beta Female. Under the premise that Alpha Females can only impregnate and Omega Males can only become pregnant these couples should have been easily sorted. Alpha Female/Alpha Male, Alpha/Beta Male, and Omega Beta Female should have all been sorted as homosexual while Alpha Female/Beta Female should have been sorted as heterosexual.

A larger number of pairings that were sorted should have produced conflicted results. These pairings were most often sorted as heterosexual. For example Beta/Female or Beta/Alpha Male given without further information should not have been easily sorted. The couples could have been Beta Female/Beta Female and Beta Male/Alpha Male but respondents preferred to sort them as heterosexual. 

Again, the few couples that should not have been easily sorted as homosexual were primarily couples with Alphas and Omegas.

Both groups of reproductionist respondents quite often agreed with the groups of respondents that did not use reproduction to sort couples or did not answer this question, even when the ‘rule of reproduction’ should have led them to sort the couples differently or shown conflict in choice.

Over all using reproduction capabilities to determine queerness was not used consistently by either group of respondents that claimed to use reproduction to sort couples.

Determining Queerness Through Sex

Respondents that did not use reproduction to sort couples were left with only the sex of the partners in a couple to determine queerness. These respondents had a somewhat consistent set of rules for sorting couples that relied heavily on differently sexed pairings and placed more importance on A/B/O sex. This sorting method did not function well when given a couple where one partner had only an F/M sex and the other partner had two sex designations.

When given couples that did not mix F/M or A/B/O all respondents generally agreed on sorting couples. Same sex couples were sorted as homosexual and differently sexed couples were sorted as heterosexual. For respondents that did not use reproduction to sort this reasoning appears to have carried through to the couples where one half of the couple had only an F/M sex given and the other half of the couple had only an A/B/O sex given. All couples were of apparently different sexes and were thus sorted as heterosexual, however, these couples should have produced conflicted results as Alpha/Male could easily have been Alpha Male/Alpha Male. There was a bias towards sorting these couples as heterosexual.

When respondents who did not use reproduction to sort couples were given the 21 couples where both partners had two sex designations A/B/O sex was almost always the more important sex when determining queerness. 3 couples failed to adhere to this ‘rule’. Beta Female/Beta Male was sorted as heterosexual when it should have been sorted as homosexual while Beta Female/Omega Female and Omega Female/Omega Male had conflicted results when they should have easily been sorted as heterosexual and homosexual respectively.

Respondents who did not use reproduction to sort consistently sorted most couples when given a pairing where one half had only an A/B/O sex while the other half of the couple had two sex designations. These respondents almost always used the A/B/O sex to determine queerness. All couples were successfully sorted using this ‘rule’ except Beta/Beta Female and Beta/Beta Male which reflects the same break in the rule above where Beta Female/Beta Male was sorted as heterosexual.

This group of respondents largely failed to sort couples where one half of the pairing had a F/M sex and the other of half of the pairing had two sex designations. This was to be expected since this group of respondents placed more importance on A/B/O sex in determining queerness. However, there were still trends in how this group of couples were sorted or failed to be sorted.

When a single sex partner was Female and partnered with a two sex designation partner where one part of their sex was Male the couple was sorted as heterosexual. When a Female’s two sex designation partner had part of their sex as Female the couple failed to be sorted.

When a single sex partner was Male and partnered with a two sex designation partner where one part of their sex was Female the couple was sorted as heterosexual. When a Male’s two sex designation partner had part of their sex as Male the couple failed to be sorted.

In both cases there was bias towards sorting couples as heterosexual despite not knowing more about the F/M only partner. All couples in this section should have failed to be sorted since these respondents consistently placed more importance on A/B/O sex.

Over all respondents who did not use reproduction to sort couples were most consistent about sorting couples where both partners had two sex designations or when one partner had only an A/B/O sex designation and the other partner had two sex designations. These respondents placed more importance on A/B/O sex than they did F/M sex.

Consistencies Between Both Methods of Determination

Throughout both determination methods Alpha/Omega consistently rated as the pinnacle of straightness. All respondents, no matter their reasoning, sorted all Alpha/Omega couples as heterosexual. There were no differences to how Alpha/Omega couples were sorted based upon female or male. Alpha/Omega couples were always, without fail, definitely straight.

This comes as no surprise since the cultural standard in most fanfiction is for Alphas to pair with Omegas.

Alpha/Alpha relationships were rated over all the most queer between both methods of determination. This was somewhat surprising considering the number of fics that have straight Alpha Female/Alpha Male pairings (whether the feature pairing or a side pairing) and how Omega/Omega couples are often treated as very queer in fanfiction.

In all respondent groups there was a tendency towards sorting couples as heterosexual even when insufficient data was given.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Results Continued

Reproduction As Determining Factor: First Survey

To test the fandom adage of ‘if they can make babies it isn’t gay’ respondents were asked if they used reproduction as a deciding factor when sorting couples as either homosexual or heterosexual.

Of the 36 respondents in the first survey 53% did not use reproduction to sort couples as either homosexual or heterosexual. 42% of respondents did use reproduction to sort couples as either homosexual or heterosexual. 5% of respondents did not respond to this question.

Respondents that used reproduction to sort couples were asked how frequently they used this method. They were given four options:

Most of the time

Some of the time

A few times

Once or twice

Most respondents who did use reproduction to sort couples used this strategy either ‘most of the time’ or ‘some of the time’. Fewer respondents used this method ‘once or twice’ or ‘a few times’.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were further asked about Omega Male reproduction. They were asked if Omega Males are:

only capable of becoming pregnant

only capable of impregnating others

capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others

Respondents were split nearly 50/50 on whether Omega Males were ‘only capable of becoming pregnant’ or ‘capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others ‘ with just one more respondent favouring Omega Males that could both become pregnant and impregnate.

No respondents thought Omega Males were ‘only capable of impregnating others’.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were then asked about Alpha Female reproduction. They were asked if Alpha Females are:

completely sterile

only capable of becoming pregnant

only capable of impregnating others

capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others

Most respondents thought Alpha Females were were ‘capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others’ while a smaller portion thought Alpha Females were ‘only capable of impregnating others’.

No respondents thought Alpha Females were ‘only capable of becoming pregnant’ or were ‘completely sterile’.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were next asked about Beta reproduction. They were asked if Betas are:

fertile

sterile

Only two respondents assumed that Betas were sterile.

All respondents who used reproduction to sort couples and thought Omega Males were capable of becoming pregnant and impregnating others also thought Alpha Females were capable of becoming pregnant and impregnating others.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples and thought Omega Males were only capable of becoming pregnant mostly also thought that Alpha Females were only capable of impregnating others.

Of the two respondents who thought Betas were sterile neither sorted any couple with at least one Beta partner by this standard.

Respondents can be broken down into four groups

Non-Reproduction: did not use reproduction to sort

Total Reproduction: used reproduction to sort and Omega Males and Alpha Females are capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others

Part Reproduction: used reproduction to sort but Omega Males are only capable of becoming pregnant while Alpha Females are only capable of impregnating others 

DNR: did not respond

There was no noticeable difference in how any group of respondents sorted the Female/Male control group.

In the Alpha/Beta/Omega control group there was no noticeable difference between respondents for Alpha/Omega, Alpha/Alpha, or Omega/Omega.  There was slight variation in Alpha/Beta and Beta/Omega. The part reproduction group were slightly less likely to sort these couples as heterosexual but still generally sorted them as such. Beta/Beta had the most variation. The non-reproduction group generally sorted this couple as homosexual, the total reproduction group and the part reproduction group were both split nearly 50/50 on whether this was a heterosexual or homosexual pairing, and DNR sorted Beta/Beta as heterosexual 100% of the time.

In the A/B/O Sexes Coupled With F/M Sexes couples respondent groups agreed or mostly agreed only half the time. Of the 6 couples in this part 3 were in major disagreement: Alpha/Male, Beta/Male, and Omega/Female.

In the Both Partners With Two Sex Designations couples all groups of respondents agreed or mostly agreed on sorting most pairings. In the first survey only 18 of the total 21 couples appeared. Of the 18 couples in this part 6 were in major disagreement. Conflict arose among respondent groups for: Alpha Female/Alpha Male, Alpha Female/Beta Female, Alpha Male/Beta Male, Beta Female/Omega Female, Omega Female/Omega Female, and Omega Female/Omega Male.

In the A/B/O Sex Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner couples respondent groups agreed or mostly agreed on sorting most pairings. Of the 18 couples only 5 were in major disagreement: Alpha/Alpha Female, Alpha/Beta Male, Beta/Beta Female, Beta/Beta Male, Omega/Beta Female.

In the F/M Sex Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner couples respondents generally did not agree with the sorting of these couples. Of the 12 couples 8 were in major disagreement: Female/Alpha Female, Female/Beta Female, Female/Omega Female, Female/Omega Male, Male/Alpha Female, Male/Alpha Male, Male/Beta Male, Male/Omega Male.

Reproduction As Determining Factor: Beta Male Data Correction Survey

Of the 27 respondents in the Beta Male Data Correction survey 70% did not use reproduction to sort couples as either homosexual or heterosexual. 26% of respondents did use reproduction to sort couples as either homosexual or heterosexual. 4% of respondents did not respond.

Respondents that used reproduction to sort couples were asked how frequently they used this method. They were given four options:

Most of the time

Some of the time

A few times

Once or twice

Most respondents who did use reproduction to sort couples used this strategy ‘most of the time’. Fewer respondents used this method ‘some of the time’. No respondents used this method ‘once or twice’ or ‘a few times’.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were then asked about Omega Male reproduction. They were asked if Omega Males are:

only capable of becoming pregnant

only capable of impregnating others

capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others

Respondents were split nearly 50/50 on whether Omega Males were ‘only capable of becoming pregnant’ or ‘capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others ‘ with just one more respondent favouring Omega Males that could only become pregnant.

No respondents thought Omega Males were ‘only capable of impregnating others’.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were not asked about Alpha Female reproduction since there were no Alpha Females present in this survey.

Respondents who used reproduction to sort couples were next asked about Beta reproduction. They were asked if Betas are:

fertile

sterile

No respondents assumed that Betas were sterile.

Respondents who participated in this survey were only asked to sort three couples: Beta Male/Beta Male, Beta Male/Omega Female, and Beta Male/Omega Male.

There was no disagreement between respondent groups with how these three couples were sorted.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Results Continued

Overall Sorting Of Couples

Very few couples overall were sorted as homosexual. When looking at the overall results respondents only sorted couples as homosexual 37% of the time. There was a greater preference to sort couples as heterosexual.

(DNR removed from total count)

When these numbers are broken down into couples successfully sorted as either homosexual or heterosexual and couples that were not successfully sorted we see that there were a sizeable portion of couples that respondents did not agree upon.

(DNR removed from total count)

The couples that were successfully sorted as homosexual were Female/Female, Male/Male, Alpha/Alpha, Beta/Beta, Omega/Omega, Alpha Female/Alpha Female, Alpha Male/Alpha Male, Beta Female/Beta Female, Beta Male/Beta Male, Omega Female/Omega Female, Omega Male/Omega Male, Alpha/Alpha Female, Alpha/Alpha Male, Omega/Omega Female, Omega/Omega Male, Female/Beta Female, Male/Alpha Male, and Male/Beta Male.

The couples that had conflicted results were Alpha Female/Alpha Male, Alpha Male/Beta Male, Beta Female/Omega Female, Omega Female/Omega Male, Omega/Female, Beta/Beta Female, Beta/Beta Male, Female/Alpha Female, Female/Omega Female, and Male/Omega Male.

All other couples were successfully sorted as heterosexual.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Results Continued

A/B/O Sex Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner

Respondents were given 18 couples to sort as either homosexual or heterosexual. One partner in the couple had only an A/B/O sex designation while the second partner in the couple had both an A/B/O sex designation as well as F/M sex designation.

Alpha/Alpha Female

Alpha/Alpha Male

Alpha/Beta Female

Alpha/ Beta Male

Alpha/Omega Female

Alpha/Omega Male

Beta/Alpha Female

Beta/Alpha Male

Beta/Beta Female

Beta/Beta Male

Beta/Omega Female

Beta/Omega Female

Omega/Alpha Female

Omega/Alpha Male

Omega/Beta Female

Omega/Beta Male

Omega/Omega Female

Omega/Omega Male

None of these couples were sorted as homosexual at a rate of 90% or higher.

Generally, between 60 to 89% of the time, Alpha/Alpha Female, Alpha/Alpha Male, Omega/Omega Female, and Omega/Omega Male were sorted as homosexual.

Omega/Omega Female and Omega/Omega Male were sorted as homosexual at about an equal rate, 75% and 72% respectively. Whereas Alpha/Alpha Female and Alpha/Alpha Male were not sorted as homosexual at a similar rate. Alpha/Alpha Female was sorted as homosexual 69% of the time and Alpha/Alpha Male was sorted as homosexual 80% of the time.

None of these couples were sorted as heterosexual at a rate of 90% or higher.

Couples that were generally sorted as heterosexual (60 to 89%) were: Alpha/Beta Female, Alpha/Beta Male, Alpha/Omega Female, Alpha/Omega Male, Beta/Alpha Female, Beta/Alpha Male, Beta/Omega Female, Beta/Omega Male, Omega/Alpha Female, Omega/Alpha Male, Omega/Beta Female, and Omega/Beta Male.

Most couples sorted as heterosexual were sorted at about the same rate as other similar sexed couples (ie, Beta/Omega Female and Beta/Omega Male at 86% and 81% respectively) however, Alpha/Beta Female and Alpha/Beta Male saw a much larger difference. Alpha/Beta Female was sorted as heterosexual 83% of the time while Alpha/Beta Male was sorted as heterosexual just 69% of the time.

Respondents were conflicted about sorting Beta/Beta Female and Beta/Beta Male.

Respondents were somewhat confident about sorting an A/B/O only sexed partner with a two sex designation partner. Although, 11% of respondents chose not to sort these couples.

Collectively, these couples were most often sorted as heterosexual.

 F/M Gender Partner With Two Sex Designations Partner

Respondents were given 12 couples to sort as either homosexual or heterosexual. One partner in the couple had only an F/M sex designation while the second partner in the couple had both an A/B/O sex designation as well as an F/M sex designation.

Female/Alpha Female

Female/Alpha Male

Female/Beta Female

Female/Beta Male

Female/Omega Female

Female/Omega Male

Male/Alpha Female

Male/Alpha Male

Male/Beta Female

Male/Beta Male

Male/Omega Female

Male/Omega Male

None of these couples were sorted as homosexual at a rate of 90% or higher.

Female/Beta Female, Male/Alpha Male, and Male/Beta Male were generally sorted as homosexual 60 to 89% of the time.

Overwhelmingly (90% or higher) Female/Alpha Male, Female/Beta Male, Male/Beta Female, and Male/Omega Female were sorted as heterosexual.

Generally Female/Omega Male and Male/Alpha Female were sorted as heterosexual (60 to 89%).

Respondents were conflicted about sorting Female/Female Alpha, Female/Omega Female, and Male/Omega Male.

Over all respondents were somewhat confident about sorting an F/M only sexed partner with a two sex designation partner.

Respondents were more likely overall to sort these couples as heterosexual.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Results Continued

A/B/O Sexes Coupled With F/M Sexes

Respondents were given 6 couples where one partner had an A/B/O sex and the other partner had an F/M sex.

Alpha/Female

Alpha/Male

Beta/Female

Beta/Male

Omega/Female

Omega/Male

None of these six couples reached a 90% or higher agreement on either homosexual or heterosexual.

Of the 6 couples Alpha/Female, Alpha/Male, Beta/Female, Beta/Male, and Omega/Male were generally sorted as heterosexual (60 to 89%). The two couples with alphas made up the extremes, with Alpha/Female being sorted as heterosexual 83% of the time and Alpha/Male being sorted as heterosexual 61% of the time.

Respondents were conflicted about sorting Omega/Female. This couple was sorted as heterosexual 56% of the time while homosexual and DNR collectively reached 44%.

11% of respondents did not sort this set of couples.

Respondents were somewhat confident about sorting couples where one partner had an A/B/O sex and the other partner had an F/M sex. The only couple to cause conflict of agreement was Omega/Female.

Respondents generally sorted these couples as heterosexual.

Both Partners With Two Sex Designations

Respondents were given 21 couples where each partner had two sex designations. These two sex designations combined F/M and A/B/O sexes.

Alpha Female/Alpha Female

Alpha Female/Alpha Male

Alpha Female/Beta Female

Alpha Female/Beta Male

Alpha Female/Omega Female

Alpha Female/Omega Male

Alpha Male/Alpha Male

Alpha Male/Beta Female

Alpha Male/Beta Male

Alpha Male/Omega Female

Alpha Male/Omega Male

Beta Female/Beta Female

Beta Female/Beta Male

Beta Female/Omega Female

Beta Female/Omega Male

Beta Male/Beta Male

Beta Male/Omega Female

Beta Male/ Omega Male

Omega Female/Omega Female

Omega Female/Omega Male

Omega Male/Omega Male

Of these 21 couples Alpha Female/Alpha Female, Alpha Male/Alpha Male, Beta Male/Beta Male, Omega Female/Omega Female, and Omega Male/Omega Male were overwhelmingly sorted as homosexual pairings (90% or higher).

Beta Female/Beta Female was generally sorted as a homosexual pairing (60 to 89%).

Alpha Female/Beta Male, Alpha Female/Omega Male, Alpha Male/Beta Female, Alpha Male/Omega Female, Beta Female/Omega Male, and Beta Male/Omega Female were overwhelmingly sorted as heterosexual pairings (90% or higher).

Alpha Female/Beta Female, Alpha Female/Omega Female, Alpha Male/Omega Male, Beta Female/Beta Male, and Beta Male/Omega Male were generally sorted as heterosexual pairings (60 to 89%).

Respondents were conflicted about Alpha Female/Alpha Male, Alpha Male/Beta Male, Beta Female/Omega Female, and Omega Female/Omega Male couples. Respondents did not consistently sort these couples as homosexual or heterosexual pairings (59% or lower).

(Not shown: 1 DNR in Alpha Male/Omega Female)

Respondents appeared to be mostly confident about sorting couples where both partners had two sex designations. Only four couples did not clearly fall into either homosexual or heterosexual categories.

Over all couples where both partners had two sex designations were slightly more likely to be sorted as heterosexual.

(Note: DNR occurred less than 1% of the time)

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Results

Control Groups

Two sets of control couples were given at the beginning of the survey. One control of Female and Male couples and a second control group of Alpha, Beta, and Omega couples.

The first control group consisted of three F/M couples:

Female/Female

Male/Male

Female/Male

Respondents sorted Female/Female and Male/Male as homosexual pairings and Female/Male as a heterosexual pairing.

(DNR: Did Not Respond)

The second control group consisted of six A/B/O couples:

Alpha/Omega

Alpha/Beta

Alpha/Alpha

Beta/Omega

Beta/Beta

Omega/Omega

Respondents sorted Alpha/Omega, Alpha/Beta, and Beta/Omega as heterosexual pairings. Alpha/Alpha and Omega/Omega were sorted as homosexual pairings.

Beta/Beta was somewhat mixed. About two third of respondents viewed this pairing as homosexual while the remaining one third of respondents sorted this pairing as heterosexual. However the majority of respondents did sort this couple as homosexual.

(DNR: Did Not Respond)

Couples in the Female and Male control group were more often sorted as homosexual while couples in the Alpha, Beta, and Omega control group were slightly more likely to be sorted as heterosexual.

When both control groups are viewed together heterosexual and homosexual pairings occurred at about the same rate.

Based upon the responses to the two control groups overwhelming agreement will be determined as 90% or higher, general agreement among respondents will be considered 60 to 89%, conflicted results will be 59% or lower.

[abostudies]

Who’s Queer in A/B/O?

Introduction

This study looks at how people determine queerness in A/B/O relationships and how consistently these methods are applied.

Methods

A 68 question survey was created through google forms. It was distributed on tumblr and ao3. The survey was open from March 21st 2016 to April 5th 2016. The survey was submitted 37 times during the period of time the form was open.

Respondents were asked to sort 63 unique couples as either a homosexual or heterosexual relationship. After sorting the couples respondents were asked if they used a couple’s ability to procreate to determine homosexual or heterosexual. If the respondent did not use procreation to sort couples they were asked to submit the survey. If the respondent did use procreation to sort couples they were asked to answer a further four questions.

Depending upon the respondent’s answers respondents may have answered 64 or 68 questions.

One blank survey was submitted thus 36 of the 37 surveys were used.

After the survey was closed an error in the survey was discovered. Beta Male/Beta Male, Beta Male/Omega Female, and Beta Male/Omega Male had been left off the survey. A second survey was distributed to fill this data gap.

The second survey consisted of 7 questions. The survey was created through google forms and was distributed on tumblr. The survey was open from April 5th 2016 to June 1st 2016. The survey was submitted 27 times during the period of time the form was open.

Respondents were asked to sort 3 unique couples as either a homosexual or heterosexual relationship. After sorting the couples respondents were asked if they used a couple’s ability to procreate to determine homosexual or heterosexual. If the respondent did not use procreation to sort couples they were asked to submit the survey. If the respondent did use procreation to sort couples they were asked to answer a further three questions (Note: these were the same questions as the original survey, the single difference being the exclusion of a question pertaining to alphas since none of the couples in this second survey had an alpha individual).

In total 71 separate questions were asked between these two surveys.

[abostudies]

Okay, get ready for the first data drop.

[abostudies]

Complied the results for the fandom self identifies survey and half way done compiling results for the who’s queer in a/b/o? survey.

I will likely release the who’s queer in a/b/o? study first because I’m a nerd and want to quote some of the findings in the discussion of the fandom self identifies study.

[abostudies]

I’m currently compiling the data from the self identify survey into pretty charts and lists.

So far I’ve got seven out of seventeen questions turned into something better than reams of excel data.

My next big block of data is all the a/b/o sexual/romantic orientation questions.

[abostudies]

Fun Fact! When you compare the info from the Who’s Queer? survey to the info from the Self Identify survey you get some wildly different answers.

I think part of it may be a judging other people’s relationships vs judging your own type of a thing going on.

Anyway I was looking through the self identify data on which people identified as hetero or homo (most people identified as bi/pan) and noticed that people who felt their a/b/o self would be heterosexual all identified Alpha Female/Alpha Male as a heterosexual relationship and most identified Omega Female/Omega Male as a heterosexual relationship. Whereas in the Who’s Queer survey people were at a near 50/50 split about whether these two were heterosexual or homosexual. Apparently when you ask people about it in relation to themselves it’s straight. 

[abostudies]

Preliminary Results for the Fandom Self Identifies Survey

The Fandom Self Identifies Survey will take a bit longer to interpret results into something meaningful but in the meantime I’ll answer the burning question: what did everyone pick?

Well, apparently we live in a reverse verse world. When people were asked what they thought their Biological sex at birth would be the largest group turned out to be omega.

Interestingly nobody thought they’d be born an alpha male and only two respondents thought they’d be born as a beta male.

When asked what gender one would identify as omega was still the hot choice.

These numbers breakdown like this,

Just 1% of respondents identified as an alpha male. Interestingly only 1% of respondents identified as a beta male and again, only 1% of respondents identified as a male only. There were very few people to identify as male overall.

Only 32% of respondents thought they would be born as their preferred biological sex though 35% of respondents said they would identify as their preferred sex anyway. 30% had half matches identifying singularly as either alpha, beta, omega, female, or male. 34% of respondents would prefer to be a different gender than their birth sex but would self identify their gender as their birth sex anyway.

Despite being given the option to pick something other than the genders listed nobody picked a gender outside the...a/b/o version of the gender binary.

Only 16% of respondents had their preferred biological sex, biological sex at birth, and chosen gender all match up.

Other interesting things, there’s really no meaningful way to represent the data for real world sexual and romantic attractions in graph form. There were 22 different sexual attractions listed and 19 different romantic attractions. Basically, we’d just get a whole bunch of very tiny unreadable slices of pie. So I’m thinking chart with percentages.

Meandering thought -> I bet in a real a/b/o world people who identified solely as male or female would have a special word that grouped them together, sort of a fourth gender to go along with alpha, beta, and omega. I don’t think they would be considered agender but they would definitely be a socially distinct fourth group. And I think just one group for both female and male because a/b/o worlds seem pretty ingrained with the idea that each gender is further split into two based on female and male.

[abostudies]

Preliminary Results: Who’s Queer?

Here is a look at the control groups (sorry for the awkward placing of the legend, I know tumblr isn’t a fan of landscape so I wedged it into the corner in a desperate bid to make it as tumblr friendly as possible)

There were no major surprises in the Female and Male pairing control group. Most respondents agreed with the socially accepted answers.

There was one respondent that either missed the question or was uncertain about the M/M couple and left it blank, and one respondent who I think probably had a technology malfunction because they submitted a blank survey leaving blanks across the board which accounts for the single instance of N/A in F/M and F/F and the second N/A in the M/M category.

The Alpha, Beta, Omega control group is also about what I thought it would turn out to be. Most respondents agreed with socially accepted answers with some conflict over B/B.

A/O, A/B, and B/O were all mostly sorted as heterosexual, while A/A and O/O were sorted as homosexual. The B/B pairing had the most conflict with 62% of respondents sorting them as homosexual and 35% of respondents sorting them as heterosexual. The blank survey accounts for one N/A across all categories. However there was a second respondent who left O/O blank giving O/O two N/As.

A very early look on how B/B couples break down leads me to believe the conflicting choices on B/B couples is likely due to Beta Male/Beta Female being perceived as a heterosexual couple.

This is a terrible piece of data, as I missed Beta Male/Beta Male on the original survey and am now waiting for more data on Beta Male/Beta Male (you can help fill this data gap over here: Beta Male Data Correction), but preliminary results suggest people are probably skewing towards sorting Beta Male/Beta Male as a homosexual pairing (also, being a separate survey the mystery N/A respondent is not present in the Beta Male/Beta Male category).

When Alpha, Beta, or Omega was paired with Female or Male respondents generally sorted most couples as heterosexual.

However when respondents who chose homosexual or left the question blank are combined it becomes apparent a sizeable portion of respondents didn’t agree with the heterosexual sorting for many of the pairs. About 30% to 40% respondents chose an option other than heterosexual.

O/F in particular sees an almost 50/50 split among respondents about whether this is or is not a heterosexual pairing with 54% of respondents sorting O/F as heterosexual and 46% of respondents choosing an option that was not heterosexual.

More raw data to come!

[abostudies]

Due to human error three Beta Male options were missed. Please help fill the data gap (this is a very short survey).

In this survey you will be given three couples: Beta Male/Beta Male, Beta Male/Omega Female, and Beta Male/Omega Male. You will be asked to sort each relationship as either heterosexual or homosexual.

This is a very short survey geared towards filling in a minor data gap.

(Results will be post to this blog)

[abostudies]

Oversight: Beta Male/Omega Female and Beta Male/Omega Male were not on the list due to terrible terrible human error.