Proposition number 7: It is a violation of Community Standards for a person ‘of a certain age’ to wear a thong at a public beach. (thong = a small piece of cloth that covers the genitals, held in place with strings. One string passes between the buttocks – in the butt-crack – leaving the buttocks exposed.)

Summary: {‘Against’ the proposition wins. The five vote win for the ‘against’ side is less than the margin of error, so the win is not statistically significant at the generally accepted 95% confidence level. Although ‘against’ wins for the 104 persons who voted, it cannot be confidently applied to the community as a whole.}

Details:

¹I used the words “older woman or a very young child” instead of ‘person of a certain age’, because proposition 8 forbids a male wearing a thong, therefore, this proposition would have to apply to females only.

Graph 7A

G

Graph 7B

Graph 7C

Median Minimum Age =  16.5 years old; n=31

Average Minimum Age =  15.9 years old; n=31

Graph 7D

Median Maximum Age =  30.5 years old; n=19

Average Maximum Age = 40.8 years old; n=19

Calculation of Margin of Error:

            Calculation of margin of error ranges for the 95% confidence level:

            The results are: 39 votes ‘for’ and 44 votes ‘against’.

Against:           39 votes±10.8% = 39 votes±4.2 votes = a range of 34.8 to 43.2

For:                 44 votes±10.8% = 44 votes±4.8 votes = a range of 39.2 to 48.8

            Because the two ranges overlap, the resulting vote cannot be considered statistically significant at the generally accepted 95% (i.e. 19 times out of 20) confidence level if applied to the Community as a whole.

Discussion of Results for Proposition Number 7:

            The Majority of men were against the proposition (i.e. in favour of thongs), women were ‘for’ the proposition (i.e. disagree with women wearing thongs on an undesignated public beach). On this topic teen females sited with the men and not the women as in other propositions.

            My intention in writing this proposition was to determine if an older person could wear a thong. I had in mind a 50-year-old, but some voters commented that young children should not wear thongs. I had not anticipated that a voter would try to apply this proposition to that age group since I thought that the phrase, ‘of a certain age’ could only be applied to an older person. Perhaps the wording of the proposition is in need of revision in any possible future vote. Even though the question only anticipated one age, many voters wrote a minimum and a maximum age so I will bend to the wishes of the voters. I collated the comments and here present the minimum age to wear a thong at a public beach and the maximum age as indicated by all the voters who left comments in this regard.

            In this proposition, voters were asked to define: ‘of a certain age’. The median ages for the minimum age and maximum age to wear a thong were: 16.5 and 30.5 years old respectively. The average ages for the minimum and maximum age to wear a thong were 15.9 and 40.8 respectively.

            Although it was my intention for this proposition to apply only to older people and I was trying to find out if it was alright for older people to wear a thong, the voters, in their comments and age indications, applied this proposition to young children, as well as older persons. In this report, I use the short title: ‘old guy in a thong’ even though this proposition applies to both genders. Since proposition 8, the next proposition, forbids males wearing thongs, this proposition might be reinterpreted to apply only to females, and, more specifically, to older females and to young female children.

Voter Comments Section:

            Community Standards Vote 2008

Ifs/ands/buts/comments on the following proposition: 7. It is a violation of  Community Standards for a person ‘of a certain age’ to wear a thong at a public beach. (thong = a small piece of cloth that covers the genitals, held in place with strings. One string passes between the buttocks –in the butt-crack- leaving the buttocks exposed.) Define ’of a certain age’ in the above rule (What age? 0-80+): ___________.

[Comments are typed as the various authors wrote them with no correction of spelling or editing.  Editors notes are placed within square brackets.]

[legend: M=male, F=female, number is age, X=not specified.]

-end of proposition 7 -

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