A zeitgeist of repression

Google Trends reveals the most sexually repressed (and Internet-literate) nations in the world by showing who spends the most time searching for the word ‘sex’ (via Andrew Sullivan).

The #1 city: Delhi. The #1 country: Pakistan.

Three of the top six cities are in India: Delhi, Chennai and Bombay.

The top U.S. city: Salt Lake City. Then Chicago.

The top language: Arabic. Was it really a surprise?

Also check out who searches for the word ‘pornography’ and the word ‘desi.’

One of the ultimate ironies of the traditional Indian gender roles is that, although they strive to keep chastity on every cherubic mind, they accomplish quite the opposite… every interaction is viewed through the filter of gender… it’s a perversion that the platonic part of our lives is defined by the sexual. If chastity were the objective, repression is clearly not the answer. [Link]

Related posts: Everyone’s having sex except you, No sex please, we’re Indian, Bad Indian Boy, There is no place to hide it in India

47 thoughts on “A zeitgeist of repression

  1. are we not the home of the kama sutra?!?..

    hence i’m not surprised.

    so, if i was surgeon general of the brown revolution party (as seen in the prior posts), then i might be on the lines of jocelyn elders… (tee hee).. kidding.. all in good fun..

  2. And I was sitting there wondering what fun things I could uncover with this new Google feature – you beat me to it =)

  3. Heh, it’s all good fun (the stats, not the searching). As M says, Internet access and literacy make the figures little more than amusing reading. But it doesn’t surprise me, desis rank at the very highest echelons of sexual frustratedness. Not as oppressed and suppressed as places in the Middle East, where often porn can’t even be found, but just as horny. Hence my theory – desis are the world’s biggest wankers.

    I propose a huge cohort study, with thousands of subjects. It will be my legacy to the world – to find out who jousts the most. I am confident that brown people will cum out on top. Just from anecdotal experience, most of my desi friends have vast hard drive partitions dedicated to porn. That could be another variable – gigabyte allocation. Along with tissue purchase/sock washing, frequency of baby oil purchase, girlfriend status, computer game ownage and wrist circumference.

  4. I wonder how different the results would have been if countries like Saudi and UAE didn’t have country-wide proxies blocking all sorts of pages, even boing boing.

  5. Baron, your excellency,

    You are out of control. Simply brilliant. (By the way, I saw John Abraham on TV this weekend, and he said his favorite film was Jism: The Dark Side of Desire. You couldn’t have made it up.).

    And Manish, I did the picture. Very clean.

  6. And Manish, I did the picture. Very clean.

    Ooops. Dig. I meant dig.

    Honest!

  7. no surprise. the times of india posts bikini-clad women (mostly foreign) on its front page and those are almost always the most viewed images.

  8. how how shall we win we shall type(the word sex/porn/desi/hot indian) we shall win….

    honestly,this is hilarious…..cum(bad one i know) to think of it,the results are so so we-knew-that-already….but now that the world knows,i feel like a boy with his hand in the cookie jar…(oops,bad analogy!)

  9. nice one manish.

    i tried to play around with trends (as i am sure others are too) and saw an awesome result over there. Search for MBA. It seems that desis account for 85% of world’s MBA search. 🙂

    Other interesting observation: the search for MIT leads to all ten results from Germany.

    This is pretty cool indeed. However, in spirit of asking the world from Google, I wish they had normalized the data on a per netizen basis.

  10. Irvine, CA is the top location for people who search for Jessica Alba. What? Like you never have.

  11. I had fun with ‘Viagra’, ‘scientology’, and ‘prozac’. The top three searches for Viagra were from the UK. Bong and the rest, what gives?

  12. Google Trends reveals the most sexually repressed (and Internet-literate) nations in the world by showing who spends the most time searching for the word ‘sex’ (via Andrew Sullivan). The #1 city: Delhi. The #1 country: Pakistan. Three of the top six cities are in India: Delhi, Chennai and Bombay.i>

    No wonder all of the software engineers are Desi.

  13. hmmm… bheri interesting…

  14. erectile dysfunction: holy smokes.. I Wonder what’s going on at Deerfield Beach
  15. samosa : I swear, we’re really turning the great white north brown
  16. Recycling : Canada represents well… hey – that’s near one fifth the Canadian population up there.
  17. gold jewellery : Ha! no surprises here.
  18. overseas travel : OyOyOy… they’re literally coming out of the land down under.
  19. depression : and I guess this is why
  20. I love you : I am tickled mauve but it’s so true – it’s a warm and loving people. Good for them.
  21. Ha, somehow this makes me feel like I have a little vindication! The referrals list for my blog includes searches like “madras cunt” (Chennai), “colombo sex guide” (Germany) and “Aishwarya Rai virginity taken” (Iran). Found it halfway funny until the first one, which was the most recent one, turned up, and then I felt sick. Having lived in and experienced the misogyny of Chennai, I hated the thought that some bastard, just like so many I met there, had seen my writing and pictures, not me mention photos of me and my little cousins, en route to other domains. So I’m glad — anyone who GoogleTrends “sex” will see those pervs exposed for what they are!

  22. A commentor on Reddit responds to a similar post thus:

    The reason for this is that they are searching for porn by searching for “sex”, while other countries are more specific about what they want. For example “golden showers” put Australia and South Africa at the top, while Ireland wants “tits”.
  23. The reason for this is that they are searching for porn by searching for “sex”, while other countries are more specific about what they want. For example “golden showers” put Australia and South Africa at the top, while Ireland wants “tits”.

    well, shit — ya gotta walk before you run!

  24. Guess who wants cock?

    Manchester.

    This should be really good ammo for Liverpool FC fans.

  25. The referrals list for my blog

    nice photos sharanya. where’s the cow and the marche from? looks very familiar but i dont recall a cow campaign in toronto.
    good luck on the book – will keep a look out for it.

  26. why is searching for sex considered a sign of repression ? maybe ppl are searching for new techniques of sex! :p

    you are idiots if you directly draw that conclusion from google trends coz even the ngos working against female foeticide etc would be counted as sexually repressed!

  27. hey idiot – i agree with you – the tool is useful for making absolute statements – such as x number of people are interested in the y criterion – but to make blanket statements comparing one group of people with another group – well, some folks skipped the stats class for the psych or the humanities cours – “i’m very interested in how people think and human sexuality. this is the really interesting stuff. people have always said i’m very deep for my age.” – there’s legions of tweed clad professors who consider this either a perk or the bane of the academic life – my experience of course being the one god forsaken year i spent as a grad student in psychology before i realize what the fuck, these are studies for the stupid by the stupid – and i went back to engineering – i am rambling – sleep deprivation – but to get back to point – the tool does have merit – if they report absolute numbers and one can be reasonably certain the target audience is representative of the population in interest – other than that – it’s like handing a loaded gun to the unwashed masses – and hope for the best – in the above context- sullivan’s article was cute – but why read more than what the data suggests – the statement of muslim depravity or sexual repression does not hold water statistically – but has mucho lap-it-up quotient on the mass expectation scale – i dont like harmonious masses – the intellectual ability of the masses reflects the intellect of the lowest common denominator – there is the pressure to agree and be agreed with – i bend a little to accomodate you, you bend a little to accomodate me – and soon we are looking at each other with the noses buried in the other’s ass crack making cooing statements on how cool the other is – and you can do no wrong – because to make the claim that the other’s ass stinks is to acknowledge that one has a stinky ass – and we can not have that. where were we?

  28. and soon we are looking at each other with the noses buried in the other’s ass crack… where were we?

    Rimming.

  29. Oh please. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice that most of the countries in the list don’t have English for their mothertongue. All this means is that people from these countries don’nt have excellent knowledge for English – so they search for “sex” instead of “porn” or “tits”. A search for “porn” puts Birmingham at the top and Australia and United Kingdom among top 4. Don’t tell me Australia is “sexually repressed”. Another reason for India to send more sex searched to google is because of the relatively low availability of porn, so people have to turn to the net for most of their needs.

    Sepia Mutiny simply appears to be a blog on all the dirt in India. I hope, some day in the distant future, you grow balls enough to write positive things about India.

  30. Dhaavak,

    You’re a breath of fresh air in these parts. Well, not fresh air exactly, but you get my drift.

    I agree that the mass tends towards the lowest common denominator, intellectually. But then again, bridges, the organization of cities, space shuttles and modern medicine are possible only with groupthink. So there’s that to be said for it. Even in ethical terms: think about the US constitution. A product of groupthink if ever there was one, and it really does address some of the essentials about governance and living together.

    Anyways, back to sex.

  31. I hope, some day in the distant future, you grow balls enough to write positive things about India.

    Oh yeah, that’s the problem with SM: insufficient ethnic pride 😉

    I hope, some day in the near future, you grow balls enough to read before pissing.

  32. I hope, some day in the distant future, you grow balls enough to write positive things about India.

    I can tell you have big balls, clarifier. By your fearlessness and priapic metaphor, you have balls big enough for all of India. By themselves, your balls are enough to make all of India proud – and Sepia Mutiny hang her head in shame.

  33. Re: “…I hope, some day in the distant future, you grow balls enough to write positive things about India….”

    Sepia Mutiny never writes anything positive. Riiiight. Have you ever even read any of the posts on this blog? Way to blanket a whole group of people with ignorance. It appears you don’t have the balls to do any research on a topic before opening your mouth. If you don’t like it, maybe you can grow the balls to click on the mouse and close your browser=)

  34. OK I know I’ve come to this party late, but this was priceless. ‘Fck’ – Delhi number 1 by a mile. ‘Cnt’ – number 1 is TEHRAN. Oh stop looking at me like I’m puerile.

  35. grumble…desis, sex, sexing, talking, touching, porn?…pleeaaase…not happening. well it is, but no one’s talking about it. reminds me of a Sting Op that happened at home a while back…

    my mother has a penchant, like many i suppose, to take it upon herself to discern the usefulness of things i explicitly request not be misplaced, mishandled or otherwise fucked with in any which way.

    it was several weeks out from my wedding that was to take place in Punjab that she’d decided a full-scale sweep of the house was in order as she readied the helm for the arrival of her beautiful bahu rani. she fluttered about, wiping this, washing that, when she came across a tattered cardboard box tucked away in a far corner of the basement.

    i remember not so much the words as i do the squeamish uneasiness in the tone of her voice when she called me into the study for a “chat”.

    mom: Beta, what this is? Me: what’s what is what are why am i heeeere? mom: kamine! tameez se baat karo! me: sorry. what did you want? mom: where you find this PORRRRRRNO? me: wha? PORNOS? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

    (surely she wasn’t referring to that old empty center-channel speaker box whose dimensions fit perfectly the size of a DVD case where i thought it best to stash my favorite compilations of the dirtiest, filthiest dick-tugging trash in case of a rainy day and/or the apocalypse so i could escape to a porn-laden paradiso unnoticed? surely she didn’t mean THAT!?)

    and right before me was produced a yellow, plastic grocery bag, that in a previous life was quite likely to have held fresh ingredients for aloo ki sabzi and bengan bharta, but was now replete with case-fulls of smut as i stood there watching with still-motion guilt as each one spilled onto the floor by my feet.

    “Whore Fest IV”, “I Know Who You Blew Last Summer”, “Jaw-Breakers”. . .

    oh. my. fucking. word.

    why couldn’t i stick to the basics? how did this blip on my hormonal radar go unnoticed when my sexual discretions leap-frogged from JC Penny underwear models to “White Chicks on Black D…” you know the rest.

    my first inclination was to sound my internal alarm and bring out the troops. maybe some blame-game mixed up with blatant refusal and topped off with benign naivete might do the trick.

    but my eyes kept darting to and fro, between the glaring evidence splayed across the floor and the hollowed look on my mother’s face. and the fact that neither of us could keep ourselves from staring at the cover of “Cream Pies II” further obstructed our most earnest desires to deal with this swiftly.

    it was at the height of this deafening malaise that we’d both realized no crime had been committed nor fault been attested.

    and then it happened. a brilliant smile awakened her face like a rainbow breaking through a lonely cloud.

    mom: BETA, WE LOVE THE SEX! me: huh? mom: (approaching me with renewed tenderness) OUR CULTURE HAS ENJOY THE SEX FOR SO MANY YEARS me: oh, i know it has. i think that’s beautiful. mom: come! ask your Daddy. he knows too about the sex! we know more of the sex than the Americans do! it is written in our books! me: i’ve heard…but…these movies, i have absolu- mom: CHUP KARO OR MERI BAAT SUNO!. mom: IT SAYS HERE IN OUR GITA, THAT … me: yes, i know. ok, sorry, yes, and so ?… mom: …THAT THE MAN WILL ALWAYS REQUIRE THE WOMAN AND THAT…

    and so went the birds and the bees…

  36. AC,

    ROFLMFAO

    Funniest comment of all time.

    Please please pretty please make a movie version.

  37. AC- that was great. Where’s your blog???? 🙂

    Commentors are on a roll with the hilarity today….

  38. clarifier is right!

    try porn, sodomy, child porn, anal, blowjob, bestiality etc…. US and UK lead hands down.

    I guess, ‘sex’ is taboo in India. So, people look for it on the net. Here, ‘porn’ is way more taboo than ‘sex’.

    btw, try ‘actress’ 🙂

  39. Hi Dhavaak — all the photos were taken in Singapore. The Marche cow is on Orchard Road. And thanks for your good wishes!

  40. I’m rapidly becoming quite a fan of our new friend AC 😉

    A worthy potential successor to our dear departed hero Punjabi Boy !

    I’m going to add AC to our fictional Desistan’s “Ministry of Snark”. He can sit on the balcony with the rest of us bad boys and hurl wisecracks down at the masses.

  41. rest of us bad boys and hurl wisecracks down at the masses.

    AC is the prime minister of funk, he will decide who gets to sit with him and “hurl wisecracks”

  42. AC…Fabulous reporting right there. Pray, how did that conversation end? Did mom and dad give you a full fledged lecture on the sex? Hee hee

  43. how did that conversation end?

    it hasn’t [ended]. it just gets recycled into other more palatable modes by which a parent can regain composure through context.

    like my father calling up my eldest sister and asking “IF ANY PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE ON CONCEIVING A THIRD GRANDKID AND IF THERE’S ANYTHING [HE] CAN DO TO HELP”.

    Viva La Revolución

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