For those of you who may recall, I did a study on the reactions of female fans to comic book character death back in 2009. Now, nearly a year later, I'm in grad school and preparing to study comic books as technical writing. As this journal still exists, I thought I would use it as a way to keep track of my research and also, perhaps, allow this journal to be a resource for other people wanting to study comics.

Thank you to everyone who participated by either filling out the survey or taking the time to give me advice. You've been invaluable, and I thank you for your help.

Numbers will be available as soon as I have them finalized.

I can say this: All of you who have taken the time to answer have proven that women have diverse opinions. Who'd have guessed, right? ::grin::

The survey

If anyone's been keeping up and hasn't yet taken the survey, it will only be open until 12:00 AM U.S. Central Standard Time this evening. I've received 20 replies, all of them very interesting and a great read. Once I've got the numbers hammered out, I'll share them here.

Thanks, again, to everyone who's participated by either filling out the survey or offering advice. You've all been invaluable.

Survey Post

Just to make people aware, the survey post will be open until November 14. I have a rough draft of the paper due the 10th, and the final draft is due the 17th. To give me a couple of days to organize my information, the survey post will have comments blocked after midnight on the 14th (early on the 15th).

The only number I have so far is responses. 15 people have taken the time to take the survey, and I thank you for it.

The survey post

I've been getting responses for about the last 18 hours, and I can only say thank you so much. I appreciate the time and effort everyone in taking to both answer the questions and ask for clarifications.

Here's what I've discovered so far:

--Even in my best efforts to be inclusive, I came off as a bit of an American-centered jackass. Sorry about that. When I went looking for examples of how to put up demographic information, I checked out the census bureau in the U.S. because I'm from the U.S. That one's on me. I've now added a text box to the demographic section that allows participants to fill in their country of origin and racial background.

--Continuing my adventures as an American-centered jackass, I didn't think about currency conversion at first. I've since edited the survey to include a link to a currency converter that has 164 options for currency and that will translate those options into American dollars.

--I posted the wrong definition of fridging. I wrote out five different drafts of what a fridging meant, and my first draft defined fridging as a "bad" character death without mentioning the connection between female character death and male character reactions. I copied and pasted the wrong definition and didn't catch it. It's since been edited, and I time-stamped the edit so I could take into account the previous definition I had used when reviewing the information. And thank you to everyone who mentioned how they defined a fridging and to a couple of people who commented elsewhere that my definition was flat-out wrong. You caught my mistake, and I'm grateful for it. I'm still leaving Edit #4 (definition) of fridging up, because while I've corrected my own language, it does not necessarily mean that the definition I'm using stands for everyone.

So, in short, thanks to everyone who's been first wave on this. You've been immensely helpful, and I cannot say thank you enough.

Comments for this post will be screened at first. This is to make sure I don't unscreen comments from the survey post by accident.

( Probable FAQs: Project Objective; Why this topic; Participant anonymity; Why demographics; Why these characters; Why fridging; What if I have no response to/familiarity with a character )

Please take the time to choose options in the demographic information. Demographic information can prove or disprove theories about how opinions will be similar or different. Filling out the demographic information honestly will produce a more accurate study.

( Earlier edits )

NEWEST EDITS:

EDIT 5: To answer a question on fridging: If your definition of fridging does not match the definition of fridging used in this study, please feel free to fill out the survey using your own definition and please explain what you define as a fridging.

EDIT 6: (30 Oct. 2009; 12:53 PM) Rephrased the definition of fridging in the FAQ section because I realized I'd identified it incorrectly (thanks to those who made me double-check). Time-stamp is in place so I can take into account what definition I was considering official when I review the results.

EDIT 7: Currency converter for non-U.S. particpants. This will let you put in your yearly income and convert it to U.S. dollars. There are 164 currencies on this converter, and I hope everyone can locate theirs.

Poll #1478124
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 0

What is your age range?

What is your racial background?

What is your average yearly household income?

How many comics do you read in a month?

How do you read your comics?

What is your level of education?

Poll #1478434
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 0

What is your country of origin/racial background?

Important Notes Before Starting:
Please put some sort of identifying characteristic into the title line of the comment box. This can be your preferred screenname or some other unique word or phrase that you can use if you need to comment more than once to properly express your opinion (see the next item for an explanation of multiple comments).

Please give the most detailed explanation of your feelings as you can. If you run out of space (Livejournal comments only accommodate 10,000 characters), cut and paste the excess into a new comment, and please make sure to mark in the title bar that the comment is a continuation of your answer.

Do not be afraid of flames or negative feedback. All comments for this entry will be screened, and they will not be unscreened at any time. The only publically viewable information from this study will be the demographic information and the final paper (which will not include personally identifying information of any kind).

Survey:
1. Was the death of Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat (Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1) a fridging? Why or why not?

2. Was the death of Angelo Espinosa/Skin (Uncanny X-men #423) a fridging? Why or why not?

3. Was the death of Janet Van Dyne/The Wasp (Secret Invasion #8) a fridging? Why or why not?

4. Was the death of Steve Rogers/Captain America (Captain America, Volume 5, #25) a fridging? Why or why not?

5. Was the death of Karen Page (Daredevil, Volume 2, #5) a friding? Why or why not?

6. Was the death of Bill Foster/Goliath (Civil War #4) a fridging? Why or why not?

7. Was the death of Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Crisis on Infinite Earths #7) a fridging? Why or why not?

8. Was the death of Stephanie Brown/Spoiler/Robin (Batman #633) a fridging? Why or why not?

9. Was the death of Sue Dibny (Identity Crisis #1) a fridging? Why or why not?

10. Was the death of Sodam Yat (Green Lantern Corps, Volume 2, #36) a fridging? Why or why not?

11. Was the death of Ted Kord/Blue Beetle (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) a fridging? Why or why not?

12. Was the death of Eddie Bloomberg/Kid Devil (Teen Titans, Volume 3, #74) a fridging? Why or why not?

All comments for this post are screened and will remain screened.

Under the cut is the artifact paper I submitted as the first part of this research project. I was told to explain what I was studying and why I wanted to study it. I scored a 50/50, so I figure it's exactly the best way to let you understand my general plan.

( text of paper )

( references )

Comments are open for this post. Please feel free to ask about any clarifications.

Next up will be my method paper. After that, we'll actually get down to research.

In video form because all attempts to write it out [as required for the course] have been failing miserably. Creating the video has helped me figure out what to say in the paper, and it will also explain my project in a way that isn't a wall of text.



A minor clarification:

I mentioned screening comments in the video. Comments will only be screened on the research posts. Any other posts [general updates, informational posts] will have open comments.

I'm copying and pasting from my user info, because I want to say the exact same things:

I'm a senior at a college in Missouri doing a project on the reactions of female comic book fans to the deaths and depowerments of comic book characters. This research is being performed for a Media Analysis and Criticism class and will not be published. This journal was created solely for the purpose of gathering information for this project.

That's the basics. There will be more information as I finalize my artifact and methodology papers that are required as part of the project.