Girls on Google - Related Searches and Images

 One of the features of google that I always find to be particularly revealing is the “did you mean…?” and the “searches related to…” suggestions that appear at the top and bottom (respectively) of a search results page. In a search for “girls,” there was no “did you mean.”  The related searches, however, were listed and quite intriguing. The first on the list was “girls body parts” followed by “girls in yoga pants.” Both of these options head straight for objectification. It would seem that people are more likely to search for parts of girls than for anything to do with actual young female human beings. This reference to bodies, as well as the apparent desire of the population to observe those body parts in skin tight exercise pants, indicates the use of “girl” is often in the place of “young (sexualized) woman.” I was curious if this same thing happens with boys (which I was fairly sure it doesn’t, but the concept of the “boy band” certainly complicates that division), so I did another google search.

My search for “boys” had neither a “did you mean…?” nor a “searches related to…” and prompted only half as many total results as the one for “girls.” Overall, this may indicate that boys are less on the minds of Americans. This reduced number of results for “boy” would also make sense, given that “boy” has a more restrictive definition than “girl,” as it generally only includes males not yet sexually mature. This is supported by a glance at the google image search results. While both have adult-themed photos, with sexualized subjects, the female results are almost entirely of this nature, while at least half of the “boy” image results depict actual male children. Actual female children aren’t present on the “girls” image results until page 2 (as opposed to the first image on the “boys” results). So girls and boys, while at first appear to be terms referring to the same age demographic, but different genders, are actually qualitatively different cultural groups, at least regarding the connotations of the words. 

This is something that is going to be relevant throughout this course. When we read a novel written for a young age group, to what extent might that experience be different for girls and boys given their separate places in society’s mindset? How might this affect an authors’ depiction of male versus female characters? Or an author’s intended reception by girl and boy readers? As we discussed in class today, even the psychological theories on childhood and maturation both affect and are affected by these words and their meanings within our worlds. Hopefully this we might untangle this a little over the semester, but I’m expecting it to just get more complicated.