Summary of results - Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on the whump genre

Here is a summary of the results from the research thesis, "Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on the whump genre"! This was part of my studying a Master of Contemporary International Studies. The research aimed to explore how whump-interested people connect with the whump genre cross-culturally and cross-linguistically.

Back in June/July this year (2023), I sent out a questionnaire open to any whump-interested person, and also invited interviews for bilingual whump-interested people. I've finally finished my thesis, and overall was awarded an A- for it!

The full thesis is available now to read on Academia.edu, and will also be available on IPU New Zealand's library website in January 2024.

This research was approved for Human Research Ethics Clearance by the IPU New Zealand Research and Development Commitee on 3rd May 2023 (HREC-2023-05-03-01).

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Questionnaire - İntercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre

As part of my research thesis for my Masters of Contemporary International Studies, I am conducting research on "Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre."

This questionnaire is part of this research!

Survey period: Thursday 1st June 2023 (9pm, NZST) - Thursday 29th June 2023 (9pm, NZST)

For the purpose of this research, participants must:

Note: Participants are not required to consider themselves a part of the "whump community" in order to participate in this study.

This questionnaire will take approximately 10-15 minutes.

Additional information:

This research defines whump as, "Whump is a genre of fiction that places emphasis on a character's physical and emotional experience of pain, and often recovery, in a story."

For detailed information, please see here: İnformation sheet - Questionnaire (this is also at the beginning of the Google Form)

This research also has an interview with limited spaces. İf you are interested, see this post here. İnterview participants must be bilingual, and meet the participant criteria mentioned above.

This study has been approved by the Research and Development Committee of IPU New Zealand Tertiary Institute. The approval was made on the 3rd of May, 2023.

If you have any questions at any time, feel free to ask!

📝 Just over one week remaining for the questionnaire! 📝

Anyone is welcome to participate! The only requirements to participate are that you are over 18 years old, and that you have at least some general interest or appreciation for whump.

Note (just in case of confusion): You do not need to be bilingual for the questionnaire - that is only an additional requirement for the interview!

FYI, I have decided to extend the questionnaire survey period for another two weeks!

This means that the questionnaire will be remain open for responses until Thursday 13th July, 9pm NZST!

Questionnaire - İntercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre

As part of my research thesis for my Masters of Contemporary International Studies, I am conducting research on "Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre."

This questionnaire is part of this research!

Survey period: Thursday 1st June 2023 (9pm, NZST) - Thursday 29th June 2023 (9pm, NZST)

For the purpose of this research, participants must:

Note: Participants are not required to consider themselves a part of the "whump community" in order to participate in this study.

This questionnaire will take approximately 10-15 minutes.

Additional information:

This research defines whump as, "Whump is a genre of fiction that places emphasis on a character's physical and emotional experience of pain, and often recovery, in a story."

For detailed information, please see here: İnformation sheet - Questionnaire (this is also at the beginning of the Google Form)

This research also has an interview with limited spaces. İf you are interested, see this post here. İnterview participants must be bilingual, and meet the participant criteria mentioned above.

This study has been approved by the Research and Development Committee of IPU New Zealand Tertiary Institute. The approval was made on the 3rd of May, 2023.

If you have any questions at any time, feel free to ask!

Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre - information, interview registration of interest form

I can now announce more information about my upcoming research on whump / whump interest! ✨✨✨

As part of my research thesis for my Masters of Contemporary International Studies, I am conducting research on "Intercultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on whump genre."

This study has been approved by the Research and Development Committee of IPU New Zealand Tertiary Institute. The approval was made on the 3rd of May, 2023.

This research two participation opportunities:

- A questionnaire (open Thursday 1st June, 9pm (NZST) - Thursday 29th June, 9pm (NZST))

- An interview (throughout June-July)

For the purpose of this research, to participate in the questionnaire and/or in the interview, you must:

Additionally, as the interview explores whump through the perspective of different languages, for the interview you must also:

Note: Participants are not required to consider themselves a part of the whump community in order to participate in this study.

Interview information ---------------

Interview participants will be given two options to choose between:

Spoken interviews will be recorded. Spoken interview participants are not required to have video turned on during the interview. The researcher will contact interview participants following interview participant selection to schedule a suitable time for spoken interviews.

For any written interviews conducted via Tumblr direct messaging, the researcher will use the Tumblr handle @callaei-researches to communicate with the participant.

Interview - Registration of interest form -------------

If you are interested in participating in the interview, please fill in the form below! (same link as the top of the post)

Additional information -------------

This research defines whump as, "Whump is a genre of fiction that places emphasis on a character's physical and emotional experience of pain, and often recovery, in a story."

Important things to note about the research (see the information sheets under the "keep reading" for detailed information):

- this is an academic research project (Master's research thesis)

- the questionnaire is entirely anonymous

- the interview requires a means of direct communication with the researcher, but this information will not be shared. In the research, interviewees will be referred to as "Interviewee 1," "Interviewee 2," etc.

- responses are entirely voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time during the research period

- any personally identifying information will be kept confidential and accessible only to myself (the researcher) and my research supervisor.

Detailed information -------------

More information about the questionnaire, the interview, and the registration of interest form can be found here. These will be also given at the beginning of the questionnaire, the registration of interest form, and to all participants selected for the interview.

Questionnaire information sheet

Interview information sheet

Interview - Registration of interest information sheet

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Upcoming new whump research!

I have just started my research year of my Masters' degree! I'm currently working on my research proposal and ethics clearance.

This research will have both an online distributed questionnaire and an interview.

I am hoping to have the questionnaire open in June 2023 (pending human ethics approval clearance). The interview* will happen following the questionnaire, and will be limited in spaces - I will update on this later.

I will confirm my focus area of research and the survey period opening dates within the coming weeks!

*The interview will have spoken interview /written interview options, to maximise accessibility for participants. Note: the interview will have a participation criteria.

I did my undergraduate research project on the sociocultural identities within the whump community - of the 810 responses in the survey, over 1/3 were ace and about 1/5 aro !

For those with whump OCs, comment/reblog with their names and why you chose those names (if there was any particular reason) 

I’m curious about the naming process

The naming of my designated whumpee OCS, Yuuki and Kyle:

Yuuki Takahashi

Yuuki was named after a character in Erased / Boku Dake ga Inai Machi - the live action drama which heavily inspired the first book of my novel series, The Case of Kindall, K. "Yuuki" was the nickname of this character.

Yūki is also the given name of the actor who played Satoru (the protagonist).

Kyle Kindall

Kyle's name was chosen based on wanting a an average sounding name that could apply to a vast range of character types. Someone whose name could "fade into the background" in society.

And because of Kyle's bicultural heritage, Arkala'ana and Scottish, I wanted a name that could have both native Arkala'anahn and English language equivalents.

Kyle's Arkala'anahn first name is Kai'irh, which is based off the Mandarin version of the name, Kai'er.

Hey you. If you've ever felt anxious or ashamed because of your enjoyment of whump, this post is me pulling you into a hug (if you like hugs, of course!) and telling you that you're not alone. You're not weird, broken, dangerous, or evil. The things you enjoy in fiction don't dictate your worth or morality as a person. I know what you're feeling, you are loved, and you are so welcome in this community. 💖

*includes hugs for anyone who likes whump and or hurt/comfort but who doesn't identify as being part of the whump community*

Even if you don't identify as part of the whump community, you are still seen and you are not alone! ~~

An Exciting Announcement!

The whump community is one of the kindest, friendliest, and most supportive communities on the internet. Without the support I’ve gotten through this community, I don’t think I would have ever developed confidence in my writing abilities and pursued my dream of becoming a published author. It is not an exaggeration that this community has been truly life-changing for me, and I’ve finally figured out how to give back.

I  @whumpy-writings and my co-editor @thecyrulik are starting The Whumpy Printing Press to help whump writers fulfill their dreams of seeing their words in print.

Starting May 1, we will be collecting stories for Hurt and Comfort: A Whump Anthology. This book will be self-published in ebook, hardcover, and paperback. 

Theme: This anthology is a celebration of the whump community. We take a broad view of whump- it can be physical or emotional. Your stories can be hurt no comfort or comfort no hurt, just as long as they touch on whump in some way.

Submissions open: May 1, 2022

Open for submissions until: August 1, 2022

Tentative Publication Date: September 27, 2022

The Nitty-Gritty

Keep reading

Update (April 2022)

It's the first day of my Masters' today 🎉

Later this year, I'll have the chance to work on (and propose) an idea for my second year research thesis - which I've already got an idea for.

I want to continue research on the topic of whump interest / whump community / whump and hurt comfort genre research. To make sure the idea I have in mind will work and will be accepted, in the meantime, for me, it's a matter of refining and clarifying this idea. But yes, I'm definitely keen on doing more academic research on it. And both my supervisor for my last years' research project and the head of research at the time, they were both quite interested in the prospect of postgraduate primary research with this.

Given the success of last years' project, I'm fairly confident that I (hopefully!!) should be all good to go ahead with this! And if it's all good, then there will be more opportunities for people to partipicate in the research (e.g. via interviews) if you wish!

More details to come later!

Update on the finished research project:

For anyone who may be concerned that whump / whump interest / hurt/comfort isn't a good topic to pursue in academic research:

Here be some blurry screenshots of me receiving the "Undergraduate Research Award" at the IPU New Zealand graduation ceremony yesterday (I'm graduating yet, after summer semester finishes in March!)

We matter, our whump interest matters, and it's worth discussing the diversity and dynamics of whump interest we experience. It's valid and deserves a place in academia.

I'd love for this research to encourage more studies on whump, whump interest, whump community, whump and hurt/comfort genre etc. in academia! (I know I'm keen to take this research further!! >:D ✨)

Thank you again to all the whump interested people and participants in the survey who made this research project viable!! 🎉

Reminder: The full research project will be made available online for public access on IPU New Zealand library catalogue in 2022

Edit: Link to the research project (To read, click on the two arrows ↕️ (that look like this, but diagonally))

The full version of my final project is now available online via IPU Library! (link below)

An overview of the core topics covered within literature review and discussion:

- discussion of whump in light of sadomasochism and asexuality

- discussion of whump in terms of whump as a tragedy vs comedic genre

- analytical suggestion of how whump fiction may function as a means of narrative processing for trauma

- other insights about whump, whump genre and whump community arising from the research

Reblogging again because I missed a typo!

Typo alert (15/01) in earlier reblogs! It should read "does /not/ lessen..." --> "Wherein particular attention has been given to certain areas of the research (e.g. asexuality, whump genre), this does [[[not]]] lessen the importance of topics relevant to whump interest that may not have been focused on."

Survey on the relation between whump and sadomasochism

Hello folks :) I recently stumbled upon research done on the whump community which included a bunch of topics the whump community itself would be interested in (@callaei-researches)

Among them, the keyword "sadomaso" (S/M) was mentioned a couple of times. It sparked my own curiousity which lead me to create this survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSel3mEf2VwGcsEboS4tTtw8clZ73VGs31Ms7Pzh5mCwjsY_iQ/viewform

It is aimed at learning about the possible relations between S/M as a sexual deviance and the fictional genre of whump, also known as hurt/comfort.

I'm doing this in my free-time just because I'm interested in the topic and I felt like playing around with basic statistics stuff a bit. Your participation is greatly appreciated!

They're also looking at exploring the possibility of whump for aces being alike to sadomasochism for allos!

Sociocultural identities within the whump community [Summary of research/results]

Full title: "Sociocultural identities within the whump community: Investigating whump and hurt/comfort genre, whump interest and the whump community, and the application of whump in narrative processing"

About the research: This research was part of "Interdisciplinary Research Project", an undergraduate research paper at IPU New Zealand. It was conducted by Renée Nielsen and supervised by lecturer Mark Hall.

This research considered the fictional genre of whump and hurt/comfort, a genre centred on predominant themes of a character’s experience of pain and often recovery. The study aims to inquire about the nature of whump interest from an academic perspective, and thereby to develop a more informed understanding of the genre and the engagement of the whump community as its primary audience.

This summary of results includes:

The full research project will be made available online for public access on IPU New Zealand library catalogue in 2022.

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Here is the summary of results/research from my year-long undergraduate research project on whump!! ✨

hey if you’re a whumpblr that doesn’t post a lot of pet/conditioning whump, please interact with this post, I need more blogs to follow!

Hi! I tend to post/reblog mostly (action & adventure) trauma-centric whump and hurt/comfort!

Update: the research project is completed!! 🎉🎉✨

I'm just waiting on some marks to come in, but last week I submitted my final progress report, and this week (yesterday), I had to give a final viva presentation. So expect a summary of results soon!

My supervisor and head of research committee (to whom I presented my proposal to about this time last year) have said they were impressed by the research, and have given me really good feedback on the project. I'm saying this here because I want you all to know that this wouldn't have been possible without everyone's support and participation in this research. I'm appreciative beyond words.

That this research matters in some way to people - knowing this, it's been a major encouragement to me that's helped me grind through some pretty energy draining work-heavy weeks. Thank you!

Posting of summary results info:

I'll need to give my brain a little bit of rest after all that (and while it finishes off the last of other stuff for uni this semester), but I hope to have a summary of results posted here in the next few weeks.

📫 For those of you who have given your email address during the survey period, I will also send you each a summary of results via email. I will also mention any Tumblr blogs who have expressed they would like to be notified when the summary of results are up.

Ahhhh it's finally donnnneee!!!!! I've really enjoyed working on this research, and I'm really happy with how it's turned out!!

I'm looking forward to sharing this with you!

I'm ace, too - and yeah, trying to articulate differences between whumperflies and sexual arousal (as aspec) can be hard.

Whumperflies for me arise from aesthetic and emotional excitement. It's the thrill I get from emotionally connecting with a character in a whumpy situation who happens to be depicted in that situation in an aesthetic way to me.

One question I've asked myself to help me distinguish this from definitions of sexual arousal is: how do you feel when whump tropes you like are place in a sexually oriented scenario?

I have favourite whump tropes that I love and almost always get whumperflies over, but if those tropes are in a sexual setting and the seriousness of the emotional/physical whump aspect of the trope are lost to the sexual-ness, I lose interest. (I'd be happy to give examples if anyone wanted - but I'll just keep it generic for now/here!)

For me, this helps me distinguish between whumperflies and sexual arousal.

The physical response to whumperflies may overlap in some ways to what sexual arousal might (from what I understand), but arousal (involuntary reaction) is also different from sexual attraction (desire that can be acted on). Whumperflies are like an excitement over something thrilling happening and (from my understanding) sexual attraction would be some desire for sexual activity with the involved character/person or in the involved scenario.

This post by @/killian-whump discusses this overlap with whump and sexual arousal in light of asexuality and sexuality - I recommend checking it out!!