Autocompletology

Photo: By the group, The Fourth Height

Recently I came across a site dedicated to the weird and often wonderful world of google's autocomplete. You know those suggestions that pop up when you enter a search term on google? Well, those are autocomplete: the most popular searches corresponding to what you've entered so far. And my goodness some of them can be odd! Take, for example, the case of an innocent search for 'What do I do if I get swine flu?'. Half way through your typing, google will handily propose a number of suggestions of what you might be looking for. Top of the list? 'What do I do if a ginger kid bites me?' Says reams about our society. This got me thinking about how useful this function could be as a means of analysing popular opinion. With an estimated 100 million searches per day, surely google can tell us something about what people are really thinking about. And, whilst I'm sure it is lacking something in terms of real quantitative research, in a world where it is possible to study David Beckhamology, I think it merits further attention. So, I shall name this new science Autocompletology and my first area of interest will be Russia-related searches.

The most logical place to start is with 'Russia.' A nice simple search. Initially nothing too controversial pops up: in first place, thanks to Rihanna no doubt, Russian Roulette; then Russian translation. But in third place: Russian Brides. Third place?! Surely it is not normal for one of the most popular searches containing the word Russia to be connected to the (legal) purchasing of women? Even worse, if you begin to type 'Russian women', google's top returns are: Russian women personals/dating/scams/for sale...

Of course, this says far more about the western mentality (or perhaps that should be the english-speaking mentality? Actually no: on entering 'les femmes russes', French Google usefully suggested 'les femmes russes' after just entering 'femm', so I think it's fairly western) and perceptions of Russia, than it does anything about Russian women. (Who, I want to stress, are not the topic of this post.) I've been accused in the past of being overly sensitive with regards to (some) western men's attitudes to Russian women, but there is something about (many of) them that is just skin-creepingly horrible. If you go to the websites themselves, the way in which they objectify Russian women is blatant and frankly quite horrible. What I find even stranger is that this attitude isn't unique to dating sites, which I can generally overlook when I imagine the average profile of users (lonely, sad, delusional, sexist...) and given that most of them are scams anyway. No, a lot of the ex-pat crowd I knew in St Petersburg expressed similar attitudes when talking about Russian women. "Russian women are this" etc. etc. This constant generalisation and objectification of women that men just wouldn't dare use if talking about western women. Or, indeed, women they had ever spoken to.

To return to our Autocomplete studies: as a point of comparison, when I switched to Russian google and tried out 'британские мужчины' (British men), nothing happened! And then 'French men', followed by 'Italian men'... still nothing! Eventually when I typed American men, something did pop up, but way down the list and only when I'd almost completely finished the word. (Important Autocompletology note: the speed with which a word is suggested, i.e. how far through the word you get, is big indicator of the popularity of a search.) Ho hum. So, the sites probably are scams and the men using them delusional. Still, says a lot about how Russian women are presented in the West...

...Somehow this Autocompletology study seems to have been hi-jacked by another rant about sexist men but I have time for one last search. Next stop, 'Putin', since we do love a bit of V.V-watching on the Eastern Blog. And the results? Disappointingly quiet concerning those pictures (no bare chests, hunting or swimming, alas) but nevertheless a rather pleasing selection: 'Putin height/French/quotes/calendar/tiger'. And so, in the popular Google imagination, the mighty Russian president is reduced to a small man (various sites dispute exactly how small), whose name, when transliterated into French is amusing close to putain, who shot a tiger down with a tranquilizer and of whom a not insignificant amount of people (127, 000, 000 hits) wouldn't mind owning a calendar. And who came up with such blinders as: 'You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.' Worryingly not one one mention of his actual role, his politics or indeed anything beyond the banal. Autocompletology analysis: Is this the product of his much-famed PR (a rejection of it, perhaps?), of Western portrayals of the man, or just a sad indictment of popular engagement in politics and foreign affairs? (I fear the latter, looking at London's current mayor...)

That's all for now folks, however, I shall definitely be taking this new found social science further. And if you come across any, do please tell me about any good Autocompletologist discoveries!

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But Men Are Always Right

Photo: Viktor Suvorov
Further to my last post, I remembered an incident that occurred the other day:

I was teaching a class and asked my students to pair up and role play a business meeting: each student was given a different goal and the aim was to discuss the different possibilities and then come to a decision. Normally the exercise takes about twenty minutes, but on this occasion it was over within two. Surprised, I asked the couple in front of me (a man and a woman) how they had come to a decision so quickly. The girl replied, “I gave my opinion, and then he gave his. He’s a man, so obviously he knows more about business, so we took his decision.”

Infuriating. The woman works as a manager in an engineering company and is highly educated.


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Remember: Women are People Too!

Photo: Aleksandr Petrosyan for Russian News Week
So ends an article entitled, ‘Things Never to Say to a Woman’ written by Sofia Wagner, and published on shkolazhizni.ru (School of Life), an internet magazine, describing itself as a ‘forum for all unanswered questions.’ The article, which is ridiculous, almost to the point of parody (excerpts published below) reminded me of everything I find infuriating about male-female relationships in Russia.

Of course, it’s difficult to make blanket statements about this subject, as I discovered as I tried repeatedly to write an introduction to Wagner's article. Attitudes to male-female relationships differ vastly according to age, socio-cultural background, personality type, etc. and Wagner's opinion is just one example of a rather provincial attitude to men and women, which assumes that a women’s place is necessarily in the home.

From my personal experience, however, the majority of male-female relationships in Russia are highly chauvinistic. Nevertheless, they are more complex than the straightforward dominant -oppressed power relationship. Men and women are expected to play certain roles in society, and these roles seem much more fixed than their equivalents in British society. So, whilst Russian men see themselves as protectors and are assiduous in looking after women, constantly opening doors, carrying bags, and always, always picking up the bill, woman are expected to look good at all times. In conversation women will often concede an opinion to their male counterparts, and men are seen as stronger leaders and more authoritative on most issues. On the other hand, women are definitely in charge in a social sense, and tend to have total control over the domestic scene - all this alongside working in high-powered jobs (definitely room for some interesting feminist exploration here, but this article is long already!). Essentially, there seems to be a kind of co-dependence at work, running along deeply sexist lines, whereby men and women are expected to play along to “rules” governed by their gender.

As a westerner living in Russia, these rules can prove a social minefield: never try to shake hands when meeting a man, don't offer to pay for a drink and never, ever question a man's facts in a conversation.

The question of male-female relationships is a massive topic, so I’m going to try and find more articles showing the array of opinions and attitudes out there, but here’s the original article. I thought it was a spoof at first, but I think it’s for real. It’s worth a read, if only for comedy value:

What Never to Say to a Woman

“My Mother does it better”
My mum is better at cooking than you, and her salads are better; she’s better at ironing shirts, and when she irons my trousers, the pleats stay in for weeks; when she cleans the house it’s like a dream – you won’t find a spot of dust in even the darkest recess!

Sometimes the mother is substituted for a sister, an acquaintance, an ex-wife (yes, this really does happen!), a childhood sweetheart etc. But most often its “Mother does it better”, a terrible phrase, responsible for the destruction of many families.

I don’t wish to criticise mothers in any way. On the contrary, I truly believe that most mothers probably were better housewives than their son’s wives. It’s just that telling a woman this doesn’t generally lead to domestic bliss. Indeed, when confronted with such criticism the response of the average exhausted, hardworking, contemporary woman will be, ‘if you’re mother’s so great, go back to her.’

“Finally, you’ve put something nice on!”
You hear this phrase quite often. I know men who are constantly telling their wives that they don’t know how to dress. They tell all their friends that if they didn’t buy their wives clothes then they’d be too embarrassed to walk down the street with her. Obviously this kind of talk inevitably leads to divorce.

"Where's my dinner?!"
This is particularly offensive if your wive is looking after a child, doing her own work, keeping house… Men only have to worry about their own work.

A better way to deal with this would be to ask why your wife hasn't managed to cook the dinner. If the problem is that she doesn't know how to do it (and this does happen, often in young families), then its best to find a course to help her. If its just that she is twoo over loaded with jobs to do then perhaps you could help her.

"Where've you hidden my tie/cigarettes/pen/hammer/glasses etc.?"
By asking this question, a man immediately demonstrates that he does practically nothing around the house. He is at home as he would be in a hotel, with porters, maids, etc. [who do everything for him].

"What are you, a fool?"
[It's possible that] you wife really is a fool. What of it? It simply means that she has other abilities instead of intellect. In marrying a woman you give over your heart and hand, so if your wife is a fool, what does that say about you?

"You don't know how to do anything!"
Possible variations of this are 'you don't know to sew/cook/bring up a child' etc. But, dear men, remember, if a woman can't cook – and this does sometimes happen – wouldn't it be much easier just to buy her a cook book? It's much more effective than wasting your time shouting and getting upset.

"Your son is a failure!"
As if he's just her son, and has got nothing to do with you whatsoever. Its very easy to criticse a woman, but in this case the only person you should be criticising is yourself, for not paying enough attention to the upbringing of your own child.

Dear Men, please remember, women are people too!

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