I analysed the searches people used to read my blog and it’s not good news for women
By Jessica Eaton
27th December 2018
Content warning for sexual violence and search terms by abusive and violent people
In 2018, my blog had just over one million views. I write about victim blaming, psychology of sexual violence, child sexual abuse and trauma for the most part. I’ve also written some very popular blogs about feminism and whataboutery.
My wordpress account collects search term data where available and I have been intrigued to see what people write in Google to end up reading my blogs. I did promise everyone that I would perform a basic thematic analysis on the dataset and show you the findings. Well, here we are. It’s pretty bad.
First some stats:
Out of one million views, the majority came from facebook, Twitter and other social networks and forums such as Mumsnet.
75,347 of them came directly from search engines using search terms and keywords
Of these, 28,236 were not available or unknown
Leaving 47,111 search terms I can analyse
I removed just under 4000 search terms that deliberately looked for my work containing my name or a copied and pasted link to my blog
Therefore, I had around 43k search terms left to group into broad themes.
The results are below, and paint a pretty depressing picture for women, girls and feminism – but as I will explain, provide some hope and direction for 2019.
Theme 1: Questions about whether women and men can be equal
Examples of searches:
Are men and women equal
Are women equal to men
Men and women can never be equal
Can men and women be equally successful
Do women want equality or feminism
Men and women are not equal
Why do women want equality
Women are not oppressed
Girls and man can never be equal
Women are not equal to men
What men have that women don’t
How women should behave right in society
Women should not be given equal rights
Men don’t want to work with women
Boys are more moral than girls in society
This theme was the largest of all of the themes, and provided evidence that thousands of people are looking for answers online about whether women can be equal to men. This is a contentious issue and the phrasing differed depending on the person. This theme suggested to me that we have much work to do in order to talk about and achieve equality (more like equity) of the sexes. Clearly people want to talk about and learn about this so maybe we should create resources, programmes, books, lessons and materials about this?
Theme 2: People sure do hate feminism and feminists
Examples of searches:
Feminism is evil
I hate feminism
I hate feminists
Feminism is the belief that women are better than men
Feminists are unfair against men
Women cannot acknowledge men
Girls who don’t like feminism
Why men end up hating women
Feminists shut down talk about men’s issues
Why women are not held accountable
In 2018, guys can’t even talk to women
Feminism is bad
Stay away from feminists
Feminism is wrong
Refusing feminism
Why feminism is bad
How can feminists love men
Why people hate feminism
Feminists think women are better
Why I hate feminists
Men don’t want a feminist
How to change a girl so she is not a feminist
How to get my girlfriend to stop being a feminist
The world does not need feminists
Crazy feminists
Could women wage war against men
Are women becoming a threat to us men
Why men don’t want females to rule
Women will become just as bad as men
Feminism is shit
Is feminism destroying men
Female supremacy is close
Sick of feminists
Lies feminists tell
This theme is interesting because it contained so much information we can use to understand people’s fear of feminism. There is the tired stereotype of feminists being evil man hating women, but there are also men actively trying to dissuade their female partners away from feminism – to the point where they are googling how to stop their wives and girlfriends from being feminist. Eek.
There is also the confusion caused by the man-hating stereotype that has left many people confused as to how feminists are marrying men and having families (this one cracks me up on the regular but we have to take this seriously because it means people genuinely can’t believe that feminists can love their male friends, partners, colleagues, family members etc).
The final issue is the fear that feminism will lead to a world in which women treat men the way men currently treat women. Now that’s some interesting shit. How can you possibly claim women are not oppressed or that women are equal and simultaneously be worried that women might one day treat you the way you treated them? Hmm?
Theme 3: Curiosity about feminism
Examples of searches:
Things feminists say
What women think about feminism
What do feminists think of domestic abuse against men?
Is it good or bad thing to be a feminist?
Feminism is it right or wrong?
What do women want in feminism?
How to safely explain you’re feminist to a man
Can a man be a feminist?
Do feminist think all men are rapists?
Why is feminism important?
Why should I become radical feminist?
Should I stop talking to a guy who hates feminism?
Why aren’t there any old feminist?
Do feminists fight for men too?
Did any feminist ever help men’s issues?
Why do people hate feminism?
If I become a feminist, do I need to hate men?
Do women realise that feminism isn’t working?
How does a feminist find love with a man?
Are there any movements that can dismantle feminism?
This theme presents opportunity. Don’t be put off by some of the questions, they all present opportunities for us to educate and talk to people so feminism is not misconstrued or deliberately twisted. There are lots of common misconceptions here that we can write blogs, give speeches, make videos and talk about.
The one thing that did worry me was the amount of women who were searching how to tell their boyfriend or partner or male relative that they were feminist, whilst being concerned about their own safety. These women are clearly worried about violence or consequences of being ‘outed’ as a feminist and that means in some families and relationships, feminism and women’s rights are not welcome at all.
Theme 4: Porn, child abuse imagery and sexual violence
Example searches:
Chicken nugget sex
Use my pussy
Skool pussy
Beat that pussy up
Beat women sex
Women who like to be beaten and fucked
Sex where I can beat the woman
Sex with big mum
Film a rape
Kim kardashian nude photos
Extension pussy
Sex with chicken live videos
Girls who like their pussy beat
Beat up a girl and fuck her
Pakistani rapes white girl porn
Women who like being raped
Women who have had babies being fucked
Young teens in tight slutty bathing suits
Pregnant women porn
Rape porn sex
Young care giver porn
Raped college girlfriends
Stories of very young girls first time
Terrorists forcing women to fuck porn
Terrorist rapes girl porn
A man beating a lady up and fucking her
Beaten woman having sex porn
Porn video of woman getting the shit kicked out of her
XXX cse porn
Little girl in sexy swim suit raped sex videos
Raping a 15 year old girl video
Sexually abuse my daughter film
Rape virginity child pain
Chubby little girls in swimsuits porn
Well, what can I say after that list? We have some serious issues here. Clearly a real arousal from violence against women and young girls with many searches for beating and raping women and girls. This is nothing new. Gail Dines, Julia Long, Suzan Blac, Julie Bindel and even NSPCC and Barnardo’s have been warming of this trend for a long time. Violence is now in the majority of all porn. The torture, beating and raping of women and girls has become normalised.
What it does make me wonder is why so many people searching for such horrendous abuse imagery and porn end up clicking on my blog instead and reading my work. I can’t imagine that’s what they set out to do. Maybe that’s why I get so many angry blog comments from men.
Theme 5: Misogyny
Examples of searches:
I hate being a woman
I hate female bodies
I’m a girl but I don’t want to be a woman
I don’t want to be a woman anymore
Women get the shittiest end of everything
Being a man must be easier than being female
Proof that women are shit
Women cause most of worlds problems
Women are evil
Women don’t deserve rights
Women are inferior to men
Can a slut truly escape her past
I hate women in power
The problem with women these days
Without male authority women fall apart
Women secretly like being treated bad
Women have become evil
Women are worthless
Why women lead men on
Women should serve men
Women have annoying personalities
This one was quite a sad finding. Especially the amount of women who just didn’t want to be women anymore because they couldn’t stand it. We’ve been talking about this trend all year and I’m sad my findings support it, but women and girls just don’t want to put up with misogyny anymore and some hate being women and girls.
However, it’s not hard to see why when you add theme 4 and the other search terms from theme 5. Who the hell would want to be a female in this world with these beliefs and values about us?
Theme 6: People need answers and women need support
Example searches:
Can you educate people to stop rape?
I was raped
Rape education
Should I I ever say rape?
Should I get raped or abused?
Can CSA cause bpd?
Why did woman faint during rape?
Borderline personality disorder caused by abusive relationships
Did being raped cause my bpd?
Pains a rape victim might go through
Reducing rape incidents
Why is rape a crime?
Why does sex hurt me after molestation?
Sexual trauma symptoms
Muscle soreness after rape
How do I stop rape thoughts?
My abusive husband watches men rape me what do I do?
Women with bpd make false sexual assault reports
Why do girls with bpd always cry rape?
Other women who have survived rape
I cannot do the things my husband wants me to do in bed
Why do I hypersexualise after rape?
Physical injuries after I was raped
Medical problems after sexual assault
Feel dirty and see myself as object after rape
This theme was made up of the thousands of people seeking answers to a range of questions. Those questions reveal issues we need to address. The first is around borderline personality disorder and why it is being linked to rape. I know my answer to that is that many women and girls who are told they have BPD are usually suffering from trauma from abuse, oppression or violence and BPD is a sexist, catch-all diagnosis. However, there were a lot of people asking very derogatory questions about women and girls with BPD diagnoses that suggested people believe they lie about abuse and rape. That needs addressing very robustly.
There were a lot of people who found my blog by seeking advice or information about rape, abuse or sex. This means that we need to increase the amount of accessible information about more niches issues around these topics to accompany the huge collection of general information we already host on topics such as abuse, rape and violence.
Final words
The search terms used to find my blog fit into six broad themes. They suggest that misogyny, sexual violence and a hatred of feminism is rising – but that there are still thousands of people seeking advice, answers, information and support about rape, violence, sex and feminism that we can continue to help – whilst we come together to fight the obvious, powerful hatred of women and women’s rights.
2019 is not going to be easy, but we have so much to work towards and we are definitely capable of reaching millions of people worldwide to provide the information people need to understand feminism, sexual violence, misogyny and trauma.
Written by Jessica Eaton
Email: jessica@victimfocus.org.uk
Web: http://www.victimfocus.org.uk
