Adventures in Google

Happy Monday! Here Are The Most Popular Google Autocomplete Suggestions For “Female”

Fun with Google Autocomplete: everybody’s doing it. And if there’s one thing you should know about The Jane Dough it’s that we are very susceptible to peer pressure. JK, we’re our own people.  (Unless that’s not cool, in which case we totally aren’t. ;] ;]) (Why didn’t you text us this weekend?) (Did we do something wrong?) (What is everyone saying about us?) (WE LIKE YOU SO MUCH.)

Google’s suggested search terms are generated by algorithms reflecting the search activity of all users. While the suggested terms are usually hilarious or nonsensical, the autocomplete function has caused some controversy. In 2012, Bettina Wulff, Germany’s former first lady, sued Google after discovering that the first autocomplete terms that popped up after her name were “escort.” “prostituierte,” and “rotlicht.” (The last two mean “prostitute” and “red light” in German.) Wulff’s autocomplete case was not without precedent — there had already been five in Germany, all of which Google won.

Google Autocomplete has also been known to get pretty sexist, ending the phrase “women are” with both “crazy” and “not funny.” So TJD decided to join in on the potentially offensive fun and see what Google Autocomplete would come up with for the word “female.” The results are surprisingly…anatomical.

The top four Google suggested terms for “female” are “circumcision,” “condom,” “dog names,” and “anatomy.” I’d like to think that the same person is searching for all of these. Maybe he bought a female Cavalier King Charles Spaniel because his ex-girlfriend told him that he lacked compassion. While on his way home from the breeder’s, a flyer for a college production of The Vagina Monologues caught his eye. ”That could be interesting,” he said to himself. Two hours later, when he walked out of Roone Arledge Auditorium, he had a lot of questions. A whole evening of furious Googling later and he was exhausted and more confused than ever. “Let’s…let’s just go back to the basics,” he mumbled. He clicked Google’s empty search bar and began to type. “F-E-M-A-L-E  A-N-A-T-O-M-Y.” That evening he learned that Mr. Robinson, his middle school gym teacher and the man responsible for giving the sixth graders their only sex-ed lecture, left some stuff out. <em>So much stuff.</em>

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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