Sexism in societies around the world is a very well-documented phenomenon. However, until now it was considered that the realm of internet is relatively better. But an ads campaign from UN Women reveals how Google Autocomplete is a proof that sexism is rampant and popular online.
Google Autocomplete provides an insight into popular queries which are most often used in Google search. In this way, the Autocomplete simply lets you see what kind of content the users are looking for.
The ads campaign launched by UN Women shows that when it comes to women, the queries related to them are often highly sexist. For instance, if you punch in ‘women should’ in Google search bar, the Autocomplete displays results such as ‘women should stay at home’, ‘women should be slaves’, ‘women should be in the kitchen’ and ‘women should not speak in church.’
Similarly, when you punch in ‘women shouldn’t’, Autocomplete yields more sexist results. The revelations by the UN Women ads campaign is a wake-up call that sexism is still a very popular notion online and people tend to indulge in it quite often. It is horrifying to note that people take to Google to look up sexist stuff.
In that context, the ads campaign from UN Women is really good in that it has created posters out of these sexist Autocomplete results by placing them in the foreground of faces of women. The message that is being conveyed is that such queries are manifest of a sexist culture which needs to be changed.
Courtesy: Mashable
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LOL how can you expect the “realm of the internet” would be better than any other place infested with humans? its the same people…
Did you check what auto-complete spits out when you type “men should” into the search box?