INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY: FROM GEORGE SAND TO EVE BABITZ


Today, 8th of March, is International Women's Day.

Following my three recent blog posts detailing my artificial intelligence (AI) experiment about finding who had the most books written about them using Google's AI tool, Gemini, I thought I'd so another blog post to mark International Women's Day. (I thought I'd squeeze one more post out of the experiment given the many months it took me to complete!)

Don't worry this post is much shorter than the previous three blog posts and will focus on women and not the limitations of Google's Gemini.

After searching for the number of books, whether autobiographies or biographies, written about nearly 11,000 people, and after discarding many no search results plus unquantifiable search results, I constructed Google's Gemini's top twenty people with most books written about them. Napoleon Bonaparte, with over 60,000 to over 300,000 books, is top of Gemini's list.

As well as many surprising names on the top twenty list, there's no women on Google's Gemini's list! In fact only 50 people of Gemini's top 250 people are women. It seems Gemini doesn't like women! I suspect that isn't the case but that its search results for women only reflect women's under-representation throughout history and in society.

Below is Google's Gemini's top twenty list of women with most books written about them.

  1. Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (aka George Sand) - hundreds of biographies

  2. Mata Hari - approximately 250 books

  3. Ruth Bader Ginsburg - 58 books

  4. Queen Elizabeth II - over 50 biographies

  5. Billie Holiday - more than 40 books

  6. Marilyn Monroe - at least 37 books

  7. Isabella I of Castile - at least dozens of books

  8. Mary Cassatt - dozens of books

  9. Empress Dowager Cixi - dozens of books

  10. Imelda Marcos - dozens of books

  11. Jiang Qing - dozens of biographies

  12. Joan Crawford - over 22 books

  13. Jennifer Aniston - 18 books

  14. Josephine Baker - over 17 books

  15. Bridget Riley - over 15 books

  16. Shirley MacLaine - 15 books

  17. Martha Washington - over 12 biographies

  18. Alma Mahler-Werfel - over 11 books

  19. Vita Sackville-West - over 11 books

  20. Eve Babitz - over 9 books


Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (aka George Sand), the French novelist and women's rights campaigner:


So the French win again. After Napoleon Bonaparte's victory, the French novelist George Sand is top of the female pops. It must be the cheese they eat and the wine they drink!

Other notable search results, presented in order of books written, include: Maya Angelou (7 autobiographies), Chelsea Handler (7 books), Trinity Rodman (at least 6-8 biographies), Joy Adamson (7 books), Daphne du Maurier (at least 6 books), Ghislaine Maxwell (at least 6 books), Tori Amos (6 biographies), Barbara Cartland (6 autobiographies), Pamela Des Barres (6 autobiographies), Scarlett Johansson (at least 5 biographies), Nancy Reagan (at least 5 books), Krystyna Skarbek (at least 5 books), Joan Sutherland (at least 5 books), Hillary Clinton (5 books), Simone de Beauvoir (5 books), Sylvia Kristel (at least 4 books), Barbra Streisand (at least 4 books), Billie Jean King (4 books), Linda Lovelace (4 books), Liza Minnelli (4 biographies), Patti Smith (at least 3 books), Diane Keaton (3 autobiographies), Sharon Osbourne (3 autobiographies), Sabrina Carpenter (probably three books), Patty Hearst (at least two books), Sarah Ferguson (2 autobiographies), Joan Jett (2 books), Theresa May (2 biographies), Carly Simon (2 autobiographies), Tina Turner (2 autobiographies), Pamela Anderson (at least 1 book), Jennifer Lopez (at least 1 book), Serena Williams (at least 1 book), Adele (1 book), Cate Blanchett (1 biography), Stormy Daniels (1 autobiography), Virginia Giuffre (1 book), Martina Navratilova (1 autobiography), Marie Pasteur (1 biography), Liz Truss (1 biography), Ivana Trump (1 book), Kemi Badenoch (0 books), Kim Basinger (0 books), Bonnie Blue (0 books), Kim Cattrall (0 books), Charli XCX (0 books), Bo Derek (0 books), Kim Kardashian (0 books), Joan Rivers (0 books) and Ursula von der Leyen (0 books).

However, the following women, presented in surname alphabetical order wherever possible, had to be discounted because Google's Gemini's yielded either no or vague search results: Julie Andrews, Marie Antoinette, Jane Austen, Joan Baez, Brigitte Bardot, Beyoncé, Boadicea, Emily Brontë, Kate Bush, Queen Camilla, Catherine the Great, Helena Christensen, Cleopatra, Marie Curie, Doris Day, Princess Diana, Marlene Dietrich, George Eliot, Queen Elizabeth I, Ella Fitzgerald, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Kamala Harris, Audrey Hepburn, Whitney Houston, Joan of Arc, Frida Kahlo, Grace Kelly, Eartha Kitt, Olga Korbut, Lady Gaga, Sophia Loren, Madonna, Meghan Markle/Sussex, Golda Meir, Angela Merkel, Kate Middleton/Windsor, Joni Mitchell, Florence Nightingale, Georgia O'Keeffe, Rosa Parks, Eva Perón, J K Rowling, Jane Russell, Sappho, Mary Shelley, Britney Spears, Meryl Streep, Nicola Sturgeon, Taylor Swift, Elizabeth Taylor, Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, Melania Trump, Harriet Tubman, Queen Victoria, Dionne Warwick, Mae West, Oprah Winfrey and Mary Wollstonecraft. Many of these women would have certainly troubled Gemini's leaderboard.

Eve Babitz, the American artist and author:


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANDREW CONRU AND HIS PHILANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES

Image
Below is a blog post that I submitted on Adult FriendFinder yesterday. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was denied twice. I'm posting it here for safekeeping. ________  MESSAGE TO BROCK PURPURA, FRIENDFINDER NETWORKS' CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER I'd   be very grateful if Site Support could pass this message to Brock Purpura, the chief executive officer of FriendFinder Networks, the online dating company that runs Adult FriendFinder and other dating platforms, or at least alert him to this message. Many thanks. Before going on, I want to stress that this blog post is factual and in no way is it intended to be inflammatory, quite the opposite. The post doesn't contravene the site's terms of use so I very much hope it will get approved for release when reviewed. Many members here are very concerned about recent news about Andrew Conru, the owner of FriendFinder Networks, and particularly news of his philanthropic activities. The news became public late last week. The news is...
Read more

DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION

Image
A pair of Oxford bags being worn by the man on the left in the 1930s: Dedicated Follower of Fashion was a 1966 hit song by the British band the Kinks, a much under-rated band in my opinion. Like most people, I don't regard myself as susceptible to fashion. But I suspect I am whether consciously or unconsciously. Recently I made a list of all things fashionable in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s - clearly I have too much time on my hands! The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were the decades when I was in my teens, twenties and thirties and perhaps most likely to be a fashion victim. What I listed down as fashionable were things that can be perhaps regarded as fads, fashion that didn't endure. I excluded jeans, t-shirts, trainers/sneakers and branded clothing as these fashions still very much endure to this day. I also excluded musical fashions. I then put a tick to those fads that I succumbed to and a cross to those I didn't. On my tick list are platform shoes, Oxford bags (see photo abo...
Read more

ORIGINAL VERSUS COVER: PART FIVE, KNOCK ON WOOD

Image
Eddie Floyd: Here is my fifth post in the series in which I'll argue that the cover is better than the original version of the song. This time I'm going to compare Eddie Floyd's original version and Amii Stewart's cover version of the song, Knock on Wood . Knock on Wood was a hit song for Eddie Floyd in 1966. The single was released by Stax Records, an American soul music record company. Eddie Floyd's Knock on Wood : In 1979 Amii Stewart, an American soul and disco singer, had a massive hit with her cover of Knock on Wood . Her song is widely regarded as one of the classic disco songs of its time, the late 1970s/early 1980s, the heyday of disco. Amii Stewart's Knock on Wood : As a diehard disco man, I'm obviously going to like Amii Stewart's disco version more than Eddie Floyd's soul version. I can dance to Amii Stewart's cover version whereas I can only listen and maybe tap my foot to Eddie Floyd's original version. Many artists have covere...
Read more