For Google doodles, flowers=women.
The Google doodle this year also includes a flower. Besides the Venus symbol (a symbol that we can read as either problematically part of a binary system or as a reference to the political feminist movement), the flower and the color change (primarily purple) are the only parts of the logo that indicate exactly what they’re trying to recognize today. Not only does the doodle fail to represent actual women or actual achievements by women (something Google doodle fails at consistently), it also conflates female with feminine. It conflates “woman” with “girly,” symbolized by the flower and the color purple (generally coded as feminine in the West). And instead of actually acknowledging women, or supporting women’s equality, the Google doodle phones it in, as it always does with women. They slap a flower on the page and pretend they give a shit, when in reality, this representation is worse than none at all.
A tweet from @GuardianJessica reading, “And birth control pills RT @mathildia @GuardianJessica I’d like to see a suffragette, rosie the riveter, a vampire & a peanut butter kitkat.”
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For Google doodles, flowers=women. | From Austin to A&M:
March 8th, 2012 at 8:35 am
[...] Cross-posted at Geek Feminism. [...]
kate:
March 8th, 2012 at 8:58 am
When I saw Google’s doodle, I was also put off by the flower. I felt slightly placated when I read IWD’s Wikipedia page, which states that the Yellow Mimosa symbolizes the day in several countries. I still don’t think the doodle is an accurate representation of women, but I think they were aiming to use that “symbol” rather than a generic flower.
jlstrecker:
March 8th, 2012 at 10:51 am
Thank you. I saw the doodle this morning and was so vexed; glad I wasn’t the only one.
Google could have doodled something that would actually help women — like this graphic from ActionAid. They have the power to do that and they chose not to.
According to Wikipedia, “In many regions, [International Women's Day] lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.” In Italy, Russia, and Albania, a common gift is yellow mimosas. Which could explain the yellow flower — except that it looks nothing like a mimosa.
Alice:
March 8th, 2012 at 10:56 am
I’m confused. Aren’t flowers supposed to be a symbol of international women’s day? Certainly this has been a part of IWD celebrations for a lot longer than google has been producing graphics.
Erin W:
March 8th, 2012 at 11:17 am
I’ll give them a pass on the purple Venus since that’s part of the official IWD logo, but I am underwhelmed by the rest. How generic!
G:
March 8th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
BBC’s as bad or worse. The joined in the breathless amazement that Pinterest actually is a success without having mostly male customers in this article.
Picture caption says: “Women – not geeks – are Pinterest’s early adopters
Fiona:
March 8th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Flowers are historically a symbol of international women’s day, I believe. I don’t personally think Google misstepped there.
On the other hand, the 101 men/8 women ratio of honored individuals is surprising and sad. Is that widely known? It was new to me.
Courtney Stoker:
March 8th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Ugh, gross. They…do realize women make up half the population, right?
Courtney Stoker:
March 8th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Plus, the idea that IWD turns into a version of Mother’s Day is kind of sad to me. This is supposed to be a day of promoting gender equality. You can’t do that by buying ladies flowers and calling it a day.
jlstrecker:
March 8th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
To contact the Google Doodles team and tell them how they could improve next year’s IWD doodle: proposals@google.com.
(As I was searching for the contact info, I found out that, surprisingly, 2 out of the 5 current Google Doodlers are women. Now obviously it shouldn’t be their sole responsibility to design the IWD Doodle. But you’d think a team that’s 2/5 women wouldn’t end up with a design that’s so… chivalrous.)
Restructure!:
March 8th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Horrible caption. Maybe there should be a place where we collect all these millions of casual comments by people (mostly men) in tech that assert women can’t be geeks.
Anjasa:
March 8th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
I saw it this morning and it kinda ished me as well. I was fairly disappointed with how traditionally feminine it looked with the colours and style.
Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional feminine motifs, but can’t we be a bit more cutting edge than that? Especially with so many important issues that have come up in the last year for women across the world.
It’s International Women’s Day | Dr. Sheila Addison:
March 8th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
[...] Feminism asks, “Why is the Google Doodle for IWD a kind of janky flower thing?” I guess the thinking here is “Women: They love flowers!” But we all know [...]
Sheila A:
March 8th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Thanks so much for this. My response:
What women really love is leaves. If only Google had taken the time to really do some data mining on the ornamental vegetation preferences of all women everywhere, this could have been avoided. (Pro tip: For IWD, I would personally like to receive a TA to help me grade all my papers. And universal health care in the United States, so I would not feel coerced by my dependency on my employer-provided benefits should I decide to follow the recommendations of the American public and engage in job creation by becoming a small business owner. And an end to sexual repression and violence against women and girls worldwide. But those things are hard to put in a Google Doodle, I know.)
Femmedia - Blog Roundup:
March 10th, 2012 at 5:44 am
[...] Geek Feminism For Google doodles, flowers=women. [...]
Shauna:
March 11th, 2012 at 6:57 am
That’s a use for a tumblr-type site if ever I saw one. (Tumblroid?)
RH:
March 11th, 2012 at 10:18 am
The Purple and green are there because they were the colours of the Womens Suffrage groups in Britain. ( and maybe other countries?)
The colours meant;
Green – Give
White – Women
Violet – Votes
Claire:
March 12th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
I was put off a bit by the flower too. I like the playful overall feeling of the art though. Maybe it would be better for something more emotional and Hallmark, like Mothers’ Day.