@Anoplexian had an interesting conversation with some of my friends the other day about whether that word has always been sexualized or if it was just a recent thing

We were all too young to actually come to a conclusion lol

@scohe001 With regards to the meaning in kink? I'll bet it's been like that in kink for a while now and it's just that kink itself is becoming more openly acceptable in society. Well at least, on the internet/social media.

its definitely become a meme more recently with the express intention of making people uncomfortable via the sexualization

@El'endiaStarman hmm but is it kink in general that's become more acceptable or that kink specifically?

but as Starman points out, it been in age-play for awhile

kink in general imo

We weren't sure if we just never realized it since we were younger and oblivious or if it's actually becoming more of a thing

@scohe001 I was thinking kink in general because see also: BDSM.

....o_o...

age-play is often grouped in with or incorporated along with other BDSM stuff

and talking about sexuality in general is definitely becoming more and more normalized

I wouldn't even know what kind of numbers I'd want to see to draw a conclusion either is the frustrating part

Society is always changing.

@El'endiaStarman *actually changing in a way that's normalizing this kind of thing and ruining the word "Daddy" for a whole upcoming generation of fathers

@spiralsucculent hmm but what makes you say that?

reading other people saying it

I'm not saying that kink is necessarily more common

@scohe001 Hah, I don't like that side effect very much either.

I'm saying that openly talking about it is

Hmm idk I guess to me it makes me think of this xkcd

Like is it just generational bias?

@spiralsucculent that's fair. Especially with the advent of the internet and memes I can accept that

by the nature of being a secret and more closeted thing in the past, there are no good numbers to show if there are more active practitioners

@Anoplexian ⭐

although I would suspect that there are, as open communication and the ability to meet up with people with similar interests would allow people to find, express and act on their kinks

lol

(that's supposed to be a gold star) (I'm on mobile, yay late buses)

its a gold star for me

@spiralsucculent you'd be surprised...I was reading an article last week that was arguing that the internet is the cause of the rising average age for loss of virginity in the US. I think we have numbers on more than you'd expect

@spiralsucculent hmm that's a good point

Somewhat relatedly, there are ways to do research on socially unacceptable practices without requiring that anyone reveal whether they've participated or not. E.g., suppose you want to study the rate of premarital sex in some population and you've selected 1000 people to ask. You can give everyone a coin and ask them to flip it. Then, they answer the question truthfully if the flip was heads, and answer the question "yes" (or "no") if the flip was tails.

Since flipping a coin has 50/50 odds, you would expect about 500 "yes" responses, so if you get 700, then you know the rate is about 200 people (the excess in "yes" responses) per 500 (those who flipped heads), or 40%.

seems just like a strange way to anonymize, but I guess it ensures that it blinds the researcher

thats neat

I'm thinking of opening a meta about the situation I was commenting on

mmm, maybe

@El'endiaStarman do you record who flipped what? Because otherwise wouldn’t you always end up with about 50/50 yes and no regardless of population?

a very common suggestion for heading off romantic/sexual advances is "I'm in a relationship"

Like if in actuality you have 100% yes, you’d expect to see 50/50 yes/no from the flips. But you’d expect the same thing if you have actual 50/50, no?

@spiralsucculent Just one way to anonymize. Research is almost always conducted with some guarantee of confidentiality (if you participate in a research study, you should get a piece of paper telling you what they'll do with the data and asking you for your consent). The advantage of methods like this is that people who don't want to admit that they've done X won't feel extra social pressure on top of it.

its not truth if heads, lie if tails

its truth if heads, default response ("yes") if tails

@scohe001 Nope. Heads = tell the truth; tails = say "yes" regardless.

inb4'd

Ah, that's y'all's version of "ninja'd". Sweet.

@El'endiaStarman yes, thats what I was clumsily trying to say

yeah, its a shortening of inb4somebodyElseHasAlreadyPostedThis

or some like statement

@spiralsucculent I mean, you did also touch on the importance of blinding the researcher (metaphorically!) so they're not biased or influenced unduly.

@El'endiaStarman Ohhhh I thought tails was tell the opposite of truth

Gotcha

That's wicked clever

true, but I was trying to call out the reduction of social pressure coming from not having the interviewer even know

@scohe001 after you asked, I had to reread it haha

@scohe001 Haha yeah, if that was the case, you'd still get a roughly 50/50 split and you would know even less than you did before (because it wouldn't be a perfect 50/50 split).

Haha yea I was scratching my head