Audience Research

1. Audience Research
Millie Casemore

2. Methods
The way in which I gathered my own primary research was through a survey. I created a 10
question survey which asked participants a variety of questions regarding their gender
equality and mental health. Some of the questions were multiple choice, and some were
agree or disagree with an explanation box. The two first questions were regarding age and
gender because this is applicable to my project – my target audience is 16-30 year olds.
One of the most helpful and biggest questions I asked was about stereotypes. I asked
participants to tick if they had been a victim to any of the listed stereotypes.
In order to get the right demographic, I shared my survey on the student room, Facebook
and Twitter because this is where my chosen group of people tend to be. On Facebook I
have my friends which are the same age as me, also it allowed me to gain some results
from different ages of people to compare. Also, the student room is specifically targeted at
students which is my age group.

3. Age & Gender Questions
The first two questions were regarding age and
gender. The question regarding gender was most
important because I’m trying to compare men and
women's answers. Also, the age one was important
so I could compare different age group and filter it
down to my specific age group. The most people
who answered were females from the 16-25 age
category. This means my data will be leaning
towards female opinions. However, I can filter out
the females responses to just males when it comes
to comparing and finding opinions from males. I
shared my survey in places where most people are
aged 16-25 which is why most of my respondents
are 16-25.

4. Third Question – Have you ever been discriminated against
because of your gender?
As you can see, the results for this question are
fairly similar in responses. The majority said no
and less people said yes, however there is a
slight difference in accordance to gender. More
females said yes than males and the results for
females are slightly more balanced in terms of
yes or no. Generally speaking, women are
subject to discrimination more so than men
which would explain why there is a higher
number of females saying yes than males. When
looking at the comments females left, the
majority of them were regarding stereotypes.
Some women said that they had comments
made regarding strength and ability to do certain
jobs/not getting paid as much. Also, some said
that they weren’t allowed to play certain sports,
work on cars, or look anything other than pretty.
There was also a mention of casual sexism and
the phrase “a man could do a better job”.
Female
Male

5. Third Question – Have you ever been discriminated against
because of your gender?
When looking at the comments
females left, the majority of them
were regarding stereotypes. Some
women said that they had comments
made regarding strength and ability
to do certain jobs/not getting paid as
much. Also, some said that they
weren’t allowed to play certain
sports, work on cars, or look anything
other than pretty. There was also a
mention of casual sexism and the
phrase “a man could do a better job”.
When looking at the comments
section for men, you can see that
there are a variety of comments that
have been left. There is a strong
theme of stereotyping in these
comments. For example, one person
said they were expected to behave
badly at school because they’re male.
Another participant said that they
have experienced being called violent,
a womaniser and sexist because
they’re male. Finally, someone said
they were not allowed on the netball
team because they’re male which is
similar to females not being allowed
to play rugby.

6. Fourth Question – At some point in my life I have felt inferior
to the opposite gender?
This is one of the more interesting set of results,
but one that I somewhat predicted. There is a
significant difference between the amount of
women agreeing than men. Over 70% (75.51%)
of women agreed that at some point in their life
they have felt inferior to the opposite gender.
Whereas only 46.66% of men said they have felt
inferior to the opposite gender. Only 24.45% of
women disagreed with the statement whereas
53.33% of men disagreed. This backs up my
statement earlier where I said generally speaking
women encounter more discrimination than
men – but this doesn’t make discrimination
against men irrelevant. Just over 31% of the
women who agreed, strongly agreed that they
had felt inferior to the opposite gender.
However, if we compare this to the 13.33% of
men who strongly agreed, there is a significant
difference between genders.
Female
Male

7. Fourth Question – Have you been a victim, in your lifetime, to any of
the stereotypes or shaming (relating to your gender), listed below? Females
This is largest question I did and it was asking people to tick yes, no or
somewhat to whether they had been a victim to any of these stereotypes. It
is evident that some people were answering to whether they had been a
victim or if they had witnessed it – this explains why women had answered
yes to the male based questions. This only adds to my results and shows just
how much these stereotypes are used. It’s clear to see that the most heard
or used stereotypes amongst women are regarding emotions and
appearance. Over 80% of women said that they had been a victim to
“Women are more emotional and likely to express their emotions” –
implying they’re always crying or hormonal. Around 62% said they had been
a victim to the common phrase “cry like a girl”. This is a common phrase in
school and is usually used to insult someone, because it’s apparently
insulting to cry like a girl – usually used when men express weakness.
Another common one is that women can’t play sports such as football and
that women should cover themselves up to avoid sexual assault. Women
should be slim and short is something which is very common in the media. A
word that’s usually thrown around when describing women is “slut”. This is
why I included this in the stereotypes section, because a lot of women have
been a victim to slut shaming. Even though some stereotypes didn’t get an
outright yes, we also need to look at the somewhat column where there is a
fairly high percentage of women saying they have been a victim to these
somewhat. Generally speaking over 50% of women answered yes to each of
the female stereotypes which just shows how much gender stereotypes are
used in todays society.

8. Fourth Question – Have you been a victim, in your lifetime, to any of
the stereotypes or shaming (relating to your gender), listed below? Males
Just like with females, the male (females were highest for females) based
stereotypes are highest on the list. Some men have ticked yes to the female
stereotypes but this just shows how often they’re used and heard of. As you
can see the most voted for stereotype was “Be a man” or “Fight like a man”,
over 90% of men answered yes to being a victim to that stereotype. This is
the highest percentage of yes for one question from both genders. The
second highest is that men should suppress their emotions – this is
something I was discussing earlier with the last few mental health based
questions. Over 70% answered yes to this stereotype. Another high ranking
ones were that men should go to the gym, men should be tall & muscular
and that men can’t cook or clean. The stereotypes about bodies are high on
the list for both genders which just proves that not only women are
objectified in the media. Quite a significant amount of men said “yes” or
“somewhat” to the question regarding men having feminine interests. It is
often frowned upon for men to be interested in feminine activities or
hobbies. Usually a man wearing make up is frowned upon and people will
laugh or make fun of them – bullying may occur. Men enjoying shopping is
often considered ‘girly’ and ‘wrong’ for men.

9. Sixth Question – "Men are rarely victims of sexual assault and
domestic violence, so we should focus primarily on helping women."
The statement above is a fairly blunt, controversial statement with some
very interesting opinions around it which is why I included in in my survey. I
essentially wanted to hear peoples opinions on a rarely talked of problem
by stating something bluntly, and then asking people to discuss it. Almost
86% of people disagreed, which is something I predicted, and only 14% of
people agreed. Essentially all of the comments which were left were left by
people who disagreed with the statement. I specifically looked at the two
comments left by people who agreed. They both essentially said that
women have a physical disadvantage advantage and that men ”are the
instigators of women being perceived as objects”. Interestingly enough, the
second comment from the agree section was made by a male, I presumed
it was made by a female.
I then compared this with the comments of people who disagreed with the
statement. These comments were basically saying that both genders
should be treated equally and one shouldn’t be favoured over the other.
Another thing that was said was that men tend to not speak out about
being a victim of sexual assault because they’re ashamed or scared of not
being taken seriously.
AgreeDisagree

10. Seventh Question – I feel like I cannot express weakness in
front of my friends/individuals?
For the seventh question I wanted to find out if females were
more likely to express weakness in front of their friends than
men. Interestingly enough, 73.34% of men agreed with this
statement, leaving only 26.67% disagreeing. Whereas with
women, 71.34% agreed, leaving 28.26% disagreeing. Although
men didn’t outright agree more than women, it is evident that
more men agreed than women. Stereotypically, women are
more known for being the emotional gender who are likely to
share emotion with their friends and they’re also seen as the
weaker gender. Men, on the other hand, have to remain strong
and the powerful ones. They’re not allowed to express
weakness otherwise they’re frowned upon. These stereotypes
would explain why so many men said they agreed with my
statement. If we look specifically at who strongly agreed the
most, it is evident that the men did. Over 45% of men answered
strongly agree, whereas only 19.57% of women said they
strongly agreed. This further adds to the worry that mean are
somewhat not allowed to express weakness in front of their
friends.
Female
Male

11. Eighth Question – If diagnosed with a mental health
condition, I feel I couldn't share it with my friends/individuals?
With this question I wanted to achieve the same sort of
results - to find out if men were less likely to share a
diagnosis of a mental health condition with their
friends. However, the results for each are fairly similar in
terms of whether people agree or disagree and there is
no outright result. Just over 53% of males agreed that
they couldn’t share a mental health diagnosis with their
friends. For females, 65.22% agreed that they couldn’t
share it with their friends. Even the difference between
strongly agree, is quite close (males, 33.33%, females,
28.26%). If we look at the statistics for who disagreed,
we see that 46.66% of males disagreed, and 34.78% of
females disagreed. Overall the results were fairly close
with more females agreeing than men. However, there
are slightly more males strongly agreeing, but only by a
fraction.
Female
Male

12. Ninth Question – I'd feel ashamed if people found out I
was diagnosed with a mental health condition?
Female
Male
This question has another set of interesting results, I
thought more men would agree than women but in
actual fact women agreed significantly more than men.
Just over 70% of the women, agreed they would feel
ashamed if people found out they had a mental health
condition. Whereas just over 46% of men agreed they
would feel ashamed. Even though it is significantly less
than the women, it is still almost half who said they
would feel ashamed. In terms of mental health, it is
known that men are more likely to feel ashamed and
not share if they have a mental health condition which
is why I predicted these results the way I did. An
explanation for this could be that I shared this with my
friendship group and people who are fairly open with
their friends. If I wanted some different results I need
to share this with more men from different areas.

13. Tenth Question – You would be unwilling to seek help for a
mental health condition? (you may feel ashamed, trapped, etc)
Female
Male
As a whole this question has a pair of very balanced
results with both genders answering virtually the same. If
you look at the two graphs, you can see that each bar is
relatively the same for each gender. Exactly 60% of men
agreed with this statement, and 63.04% of women agreed
too. There’s only a 3.04% difference between men and
women agreeing or disagreeing. In terms of who strongly
agreed more, well they’re both pretty equal again. Just
over 28% of women strongly agreed and just over 26% of
men strongly agreed. An explanation for these results
could be that mental health is often shamed upon, in
regards to both gender, which is why both genders
answered agree more so than disagree. Maybe if more
men answered the survey, from different areas, I would
have a slightly different set of results.