The Gender Genie
 

http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

It's an interesting little algorithm. Basically, based on the words it determines whether your style of writing is more "male" or "female". How accurate it is I dunno but it is curious to think of a writing style as being more one way or another. It never really dawned on me.

It says Robert Louis Stevenson's writing is that of a female. Go figure.

Words: 656
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1221
Male Score: 1174
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

It's so weird that it assigns gender to certain words!

Even weirder, anything I write for work comes out as "Male"

Anything I write that is personal is "Female"

:|

*struts*

Male...

*spits*

What I think is weird is that a bunch of the words are real mundane words that you basically cannot have a conversation without. "who" "when" "to" "about".

It says I'm male... :|

I think the genie is confused :seeingstars:

The question that I often have is: how is how we write genderized? Especially in english which doesn't have "gendered" versions of words (excluding the he/she, etc.) For example a nation in french can be male (e.g., Le Canada) but there isn't anything like that in english (e.g., Canada).

The Gender Genie says female. I can't even write masculine!

I did it twice.

In the first piece I used the masculine pronouns hy and hym, but "regular" female pronouns. The genie found me by a huge percentage to be male (so much for my femme ego, LOL.)

In the second piece I used the masculine pronouns he and him along with she and her. The genie found me (by a small margin - ouch!) to be female.

Interesting.

Smooches,
Keri

Exactly.

Then the question becomes, what paradigm are they using? Me thinks, it's the same old, same old.

Maybe so, but I think the programme looks at how the writer combines those words, and I also think it's running off the usual idea that feminine = personal, emotional while masculine = logical, objective, impersonal.

The "feminine" words are words more likely to have a higher frequency in casual conversation or methods of self-expression or fiction writing. The use of pronouns in general is considered "feminine," while proper essay format or professional writing (excluding fiction and certain forms or journalism) rarely uses pronouns. Therefore professional/objective/logical writing: male. The male words do not include pronouns at all. Similarly, past vs. present tense verbs suggest passive vs. active writing (was vs. are/is, or "be" which suggests combinations like "may be" or "would be" instead of at least the portrayal of certainty). If one is writing a persuasive essay, one is less likely to use the past tense, and more likely to use an active present tense. Fiction writing is more likely to be unhindered by the rules that constrain formal writing.

The only words that puzzle me as far as where they fit into the paradigm are "and," "the" and "a."

I think there is a reason why Jesse found that Stevenson's writing was feminine, while others found that texts written for business were masculine, personal writing feminine.

My first entry was from a philosophy essay I recently wrote:

Words: 736
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 997
Male Score: 1173

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

I then put in a portion of text from a short story I wrote:

Words: 684
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1046
Male Score: 833

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

I thought it would be interesting to compare H.P. Lovecraft's writing. The results for his short story Pickman's Model:

Words: 662
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1147
Male Score: 862

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

Compared it to his essay Americanism:

Words: 784
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 465
Male Score: 1271

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

Coincidence? I think not ;)