In the spirit of my posts on racial diversity on Manhunt.net and Adam4Adam (see NYC; SF; Atlanta posts) -- and my recent post on positional identity on A4A and MH for San Francisco (see here) -- comes this post about the variation in tops, bottoms, and versatile-identified (what I call "positional identity") profiles on these websites for New York City!
As a recap, what I've done here is reconstructed the two website's database by doing repeated searches of profiles using narrow categories. For instance, if I want to know how many top-identified profiles exist among 18-21 year-olds, I did four searches (one for 18 y/o tops; 19 y/o tops; etc). Note that profiles ARE NOT people. And this technique for amassing data is somewhat vulnerable to human error. So take this data with a grain of salt. We need more research on this topic, to know how these identities are distributed in our communities. This is just a shot in the dark, really.
Also note that this data does not include anyone who did not identify as top/bottom/versatile. People who identified as "top/vers" were categorized as "top" here; "bottom/vers" also as "bottom." Without further ado, here's the data. There are 36,104 profiles from Manhunt documented here, and 41,738 from Adam4Adam.
Adam4Adam
As I did last time for race, I've gathered data on the distribution of positional identity categories by age group. I've dropped the last data point (58+) because: 1) it includes very few profiles; and 2) it is incredibly vulnerable to bias because of the number of people who put "99" or "69" as their age instead of their real age (a rather common practice).
The trends here are very similar to San Francisco. Like SF, there is a high percentage of bottoms in the 18-21 age group. Unlike SF, there's a similarly high percentage of versatile guys in that age bracket. This shifts quickly: by the next age group (22-25), bottoms have become the smallest group, and in the following age group (26-29), tops have become the largest group.
And here's the breakdown for all the profiles, overall. It's a slightly more even distribution than SF overall, with 35% of profiles ID'ing as vers; 36% as top; and around 29% as bottom.
Manhunt
Now let's turn to Manhunt. As I asked for SF, the important question: is there any obvious differences from Adam4Adam, as was found with racial diversity (A4A's profiles were consistently more racially diverse than Manhunt profiles)? While there were some minor differences in the SF data, the NYC data is pretty consistent. The trends are similar. Here's the data:
Overall, the data is also about identical:
With this data, I've presented further evidence for the case that there is some correlation between age and positional identity. Obviously, this relationship is unclear. There could be generational cohort differences, although I doubt this explanation. I think a more likely explanation is that these relational identities shift over time in gay men's lives. But we need to understand why. I presume many 18 year-olds identify as bottom because many men who want to have sex with them presume and want them to be bottoms. The converse may be true for 40 year-old guys. We obviously need some "real" social science research here to explain this variation with age.
I'll be back soon with the Atlanta data to complete the trifecta!
Always interesting data & commentary... I agree with your interpretation that the shift in identities probably represents shifts within individuals rather than shift across cohorts (at least mostly). I'm trying to think of a potential datasource to address that question directly in. Perhaps the MACS (multi-something AIDS cohort study)? It has longitudinal data on behavior, if not positional identity. Or maybe just a straightforward set of qualitative interviews...
Thanks once again for delving into the goldmine of internet hookup sites! I love it. What next? Can't wait to find out. But you know this is one of my favorite areas, as well. I think some of the reasons are even simpler than you suggest, and can probably be distilled into one word - experience. Not that it explains the entire phenomena, I think there is probably some psycho-biology going on here as well, related to the MHC complex, as I've mentioned before. We've started collecting data in SF, although I'm not sure we're anywhere near knowing what questions to ask to understand the why within our sample. Keep up the good work Trevor, my man. Sorry I missed you in SF, we may have crossed flight paths as I was on my way to Montreal for CROI. Talk about young bottom boys - largest undergraduate population in North America.
Hi Trevor!
I think it might have something to do with coming out. If you're top-oriented, you might talk yourself into sleeping with women, at least you might be able to do that until you're 22 or so (out of college, and can lead a more private life). I mean, those college years can be a very confusing time. But it would be harder to convince yourself that heterosexuality is an option if all you want is something thrust up your anus, so might as well come out, or at least get on internet hook up sites!
Anyways, that's my thought, you're the sexpert. lol.
Hello Trevor! Drew pointed me to your blog and I'm already a fan. This is a really cool thought experiment you did. I was surprised that there wasn't a more marked rise in versatile-oriented people as age increased. I say this because, anecdotally, I know quite a few people who started out identifying as either top or bottom and eventually realized they liked both! I was SO happy that you were upfront about the empirical shortcomings of a study like this, but I'll offer up one more: I can imagine there being an imbalance between the positional orientation of the posters on these sites and the lurkers who prefer to respond to posts and not create their own. The second group would probably contain more closeted folk who, like Drew argues, might skew top a bit. Just an idea. Keep up the good work!
Disregard the last bit. I mistakenly thought the data was from post-based sites, not profile-based ones. My bad, I promise to read better next time!
Hey Nick! I'm glad Drew pointed you over here, and I'm glad you're enjoying my posts -- though they've been a bit slow lately! Yes, I think that there are a number of phenomenon that we'd expect maybe to see here (like an increase in versatility with age) that doesn't show up. It's very interesting data, and I hope it provokes research on these topics. And your idea about Craigslist lurkers is interesting, and should be explored. I think you're right to suspect a disconnect between those who post and those who "lurk" -- though I'm sure there's a variety of factors there. I actually think bottoms tend to post more than tops, but it's just a hypothesis.
Anywho, glad you're reading! Keep on giving your thoughts!