Here are some initial results from my questionnaire about comics-reading practices. First,though, let me make clear that this is NOT a scientific survey. Everyone who responded did so of their own initiative, and they found out about the survey either because they came across it when they visited my web site, or because they heard about it on a comics-related message board. Therefore, respondents are mostly people who not only read comics regularly, but also look for information about them on the Internet. Thus, these results can only really tell us something about that specific demographic.
At the time I tallied these results (April 29, 2004), I was working with 500 responses, 229 (45.8%) of which came from women.
| Category | Comments | Graph |
| Responses by country (female) | Since the questionnaire is in English, it's no surprise that most respondents live in Anglophone countries. (Footnote 1) |  |
| Responses by country (male) | I was hoping, though, for more responses from countries other than the U.S. |  |
| Age of respondents | The average age of male respondents is somewhat higher than that of female respondents. Could this be because the male fan-base has been around longer? |  |
| Gender identity of female respondents | It's interesting that fewer than one-fifth of female respondents identify themselves as "100% feminine". . . |  |
| Gender identity of male respondents | . . . whereas twice as many males identify themselves as "100% masculine." |  |
| Sexual identity of female respondents | Again, fewer than half of women say they are attracted "only to men". . . |  |
| Sexual identity of male respondents | . . . whereas three-quarters of men are attracted "only to women." On the other hand, a higher percentage of men than women identified themselves as homosexual. I suspect that when I look at tastes in comics, I'll find a split between men who are interested in shôjo manga and those interested in superheroes. |  |
| Quantity of shôjo manga read (by gender identity, females) | I wish I could identify some interesting pattern here, but I'm drawing a blank, probably because the samples in the minority categories here are so small that it's impossible to generalize about them. In Japan I've found that female readers who identify themselves as more masculine than feminine do not like shôjo manga, and instead prefer shônen ("boys'") manga and/or "boys' love" (Footnote 2). Finding out if the same is true in the rest of the world will require at least a thousand more responses! |  |
| Quantity of shôjo manga read (by sexual identity, females) | There's an interesting pattern here, but, for the same reason discussed above, many more responses will be required to verify it. The pattern here is the reverse of that of male readers, seen below. That is, homosexual females seem somewhat less likely to be fans of shôjo manga. This isn't surprising, since most shôjo manga are heterosexual romances. ^_^; |  |
| Quantity of shôjo manga read (by gender identity, males) | Now here's a clear pattern: the less "masculine" the respondent perceives himself to be, the more likely he is to enjoy shôjo manga. This is a no-brainer, since shôjo manga originally are intended for girls and women. Masculine men are more likely to be put off by them. By the way, my own gender identity fluctuates between 80% masculine and 20% masculine, and probably averages around 60 or 50%. ^_^;;; |  |
| Quantity of shôjo manga read (by sexual identity, males) | Another (almost comically) clear patttern. Again, though, it remains to be seen whether or not the pattern holds when I have a thousand or more responses. That it is the mirror image of the female results is almost too perfect to believe. |  |
| Favorite genres and gender identity (males, including readers of shôjo manga) | These numbers would seem to suggest that the less "masculine" a respondent perceives himself to be, the more likely he is to prefer manga. However, many who offered "manga" as a favorite genre are also regular readers of shôjo manga. |  |
| Favorite genres and sexual identity (males, including readers of shôjo manga) | Here there is no perceivable pattern. As is the case with all these results, the samples of minority responses are far too small to generalize about. |  |
| Favorite genres and gender identity (males, excluding readers of shôjo manga) | Now, when we exclude regular readers of shôjo manga, we find that there is no statistical difference between the gender identity of readers of superhero comics and of shônen (boys'/men's) manga. But while the numbers are too small to be conclusive, it may be that readers of independent comics include a higher percentage of males who identify themselves as less "masculine." Considering the range of comics that can be classified as "indies," this is not surprising. |  |
| Favorite genres and sexual identity (males, excluding readers of shôjo manga) | The same is true of this graph. I would think, though, that there would be a fair number of gay males who prefer superhero comics, since they famously portray the male body in beautiful detail. |  |
1. "Other" countries include: Albania, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Columbia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Northern Mariana Islands, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Virgin Islands. BACK
2. "Boys' love" is a genre created by women for women about boys or men in homosexual relationships. Most are not intended to represent gay male reality, but rather represent a female fantasy. They range from sweet to suggestive to downright pornographic. This is a genre I discuss in detail in my contribution to the forthcoming volume Fanning the Flames: Fandoms and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan, which should be coming out soon. (The release date keeps getting pushed back! -_-;) BACK
If you have any comments about any of this, please drop me a line.
More to come! Next I'll add results regarding tastes in genre. Superheroes, manga, and indies should make an interesting comparison.
Thanks again to those who have responded!