Gender Guesser

[Anaamika]

In one of the myriad umkay threads somebody posted a link to the Gender Guesser and I thought this might be fun. I submitted a piece of writing consisting of 1154 words and got back:

Genre: Informal
Female = 1658
Male = 2183
Difference = 525; 56.83%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Genre: Formal
Female = 1436
Male = 1629
Difference = 193; 53.14%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Which is not entirely surprising to me; I've been told I write like a man before. I'm not really sure why, or what it means, but it's interesting.
What's more amusing is that it thinks I am European! Well, I've been through the airports in Europe a couple of times....Oh! And once I even had to stay overnight in London for a missed flight, so technically I have touched ground.

Try it and see what it categorizes you as!

[yellowval]

I submitted two pieces. The first is a column that I wrote this week. This is more representative of my informal style. The results were:

Genre: Informal
Female = 1748
Male = 1608
Difference = -140; 47.91%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Genre: Formal
Female = 1180
Male = 1202
Difference = 22; 50.46%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

The second one was for a more formal piece that I wrote this week.

The results were:
Genre: Informal
Female = 860
Male = 3573
Difference = 2713; 80.6%
Verdict: MALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 1153
Male = 2103
Difference = 950; 64.58%
Verdict: MALE

Very interesting. I'm a woman, for the record.

[Infovore]

I plugged in several bits from various fiction I've written, and except for one "weak FEMALE" all of them were either MALE or Weak MALE.

I'm not at all surprised, really. I've been told many times that I write like a guy. Fun little test, though!

[tdn]

That site makes my vagina cry.

Then again what I submitted was short and "soft" in content. I don't think I have many long writings.

[Ravenman]

Originally Posted by tdn

That site makes my vagina cry.

Verdict: STRONG FEMALE

[Iggy]

MALE, FEMALE, or weak MALE.

I'm a guy.

[Sailboat]

I'm a guy. I submitted this:

I like to drink beer, fart, and then chew on rawhide while watching football.

repeated enough times to generate 420 words. The results:

Total words: 420

Genre: Informal
Female = 1290
Male = 0
Difference = -1290; 0%
Verdict: FEMALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 120
Male = 60
Difference = -60; 33.33%
Verdict: FEMALE

I think it might not be working.

[StusBlues]

I submitted a couple of pieces I've done in the past year, one long, one short. FWIW, they are both written in the second person.

Both came back strong male in the informal genre, but weak female in formal writing. Interesting.

[madmonk28]

Genre: Informal
Female = 39
Male = 326
Difference = 287; 89.31%
Verdict: MALE

and

Genre: Formal
Female = 231
Male = 478
Difference = 247; 67.41%
Verdict: MALE

[Anaamika]

You guys need to tell us if you're male or female to start with!

[StusBlues]

Originally Posted by StusBlues

I submitted a couple of pieces I've done in the past year, one long, one short. FWIW, they are both written in the second person.

Both came back strong male in the informal genre, but weak female in formal writing. Interesting.

Originally Posted by Anaamika

You guys need to tell us if you're male or female to start with!

Avec les testicules, merci.

[The Great Sun Jester]

Originally Posted by StusBlues

Avec les testicules, merci.

Ah! A submissive male.

[StusBlues]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

Ah! A submissive male.

Only when I'm being formal.

[Chronos]

On a similar vein, I once wrote a script to determine gender from online usernames. As of when I'd abandoned it, it was up to about 95% accurate.

[Tapiotar]

Interesting. I submitted 3 informal emails. One came back weak male, the other two weak female.
I submitted a more formal excerpt, and it came back as male. I am female, but I lived and wrote in the academic world for a long enough time for it to stick, I guess.

[Der Trihs]

I submitted a "letter" I wrote some time ago, written in-character as a supervillain.

Genre: Informal
Female = 1165
Male = 1302
Difference = 137; 52.77%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 773
Male = 759
Difference = -14; 49.54%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

He'd be peeved.

Originally Posted by Anaamika

You guys need to tell us if you're male or female to start with!

<checks> Male.

[Drunky Smurf]

Originally Posted by Sailboat

I'm a guy. I submitted this:



repeated enough times to generate 420 words. The results:

Total words: 420

Genre: Informal
Female = 1290
Male = 0
Difference = -1290; 0%
Verdict: FEMALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 120
Male = 60
Difference = -60; 33.33%
Verdict: FEMALE

I think it might not be working.

I'm a male.

I submitted:
"I have a penis and I like having my penis in a vagina." until it hit over a thousands words. It responded with.

Genre: Informal
Female = 0
Male = 960
Difference = 960; 100%
Verdict: MALE

and

Genre: Formal
Female = 384
Male = 1152
Difference = 768; 75%
Verdict: MALE

I think it's working just fine.

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by Der Trihs

I submitted a "letter" I wrote some time ago, written in-character as a supervillain.

He'd be peeved.

<checks> Male.

You need to regularly check?

[Der Trihs]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

You need to regularly check?

Hey, you never know...

[Enkel]

Originally Posted by Sailboat

repeated enough times to generate 420 words. The results:

I think it might not be working.

You sure it didn't take that as nagging...

(For the record, I'm a female)

[Imago]

20 y/o lesbian here who's written a lot of fiction.

Everything I put in scores as astronomically male.

[Loach]

Originally Posted by yellowval

Weak emphasis could indicate European.




Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Reminds me of the Graham Norton bit, "Gay or European?"

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

I think I've done this one before.

They always seem to peg me as male for some reason.

[Rachellelogram]

I don't have any recent samples of formal work, it's been a long time since I had to write a paper. But both my informal samples, which I took from recent forum posts, indicated "weak male" (I am actually female).

The last time I looked at an online gender-checker, it simply measured the proportion of active verbs to passive verbs. I don't know if that's the way this one works, but I don't think active vs passive voice is a very reliable measure of gender. It's more like a measure of good or bad writing skill. People who've learned how to write at the AP or college level are less likely to use the passive voice (unless they're medical or scientific types, who pretty much have to use the passive voice in their career).

[Myrnalene]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

Which is not entirely surprising to me; I've been told I write like a man before. I'm not really sure why, or what it means, but it's interesting.

Originally Posted by Infovore

I'm not at all surprised, really. I've been told many times that I write like a guy.

Yeah, look. No. It told me I was a dude, too. I'm not.

If it keeps misidentifying women as men (which it does over and over again, going by the posts in this thread), it's not because we "write like men", it's because the thing is using some erroneous criteria to determine what "men" and "women" write like.

If you are a woman, the way that you write is how a woman writes. Hope that helps.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

I don't think they were in need of any help to begin with.

Do you not think men and women can have certain, distinctly identifiable writing styles and that it's possible for a person to write like the opposite sex?

[Myrnalene]

I believe that there might be a spectrum in writing styles, as there is in all human behavior, and that people of one gender might generally tend toward one end of the spectrum. I don't know if that's true, but I'm willing to allow the possibility.

That doesn't mean that women who tend toward one end or other of the spectrum "write like men".

The test identifies women as men over and over. So either the test is faulty, or no, men and women don't have distinct writing styles.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Or no women with writing styles identified as women are posting their results.

[Infovore]

Yep, you've got a pretty small sample size here. I haven't seen any of Anaamika's writing, obviously, but I am not at all surprised to be told I write in a male style. I always have. It's just the way I write.

[Leaffan]

nm

[Myrnalene]

Originally Posted by Infovore

Yep, you've got a pretty small sample size here. I haven't seen any of Anaamika's writing, obviously, but I am not at all surprised to be told I write in a male style. I always have. It's just the way I write.

What's the way you write?

[AHunter3]

Genre: Informal
Female = 14328
Male = 21522
Difference = 7194; 60.03%
Verdict: MALE
=============
Genre: Formal
Female = 17089
Male = 14596
Difference = -2493; 46.06%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

[StusBlues]

OK, this time to hell with the second person. I pasted in an article about vampires I published a couple of months ago:

Genre: Informal
Female = 3166
Male = 11353
Difference = 8187; 78.19%
Verdict: MALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 3806
Male = 6176
Difference = 2370; 61.87%
Verdict: MALE

[Inner Stickler]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

I
Do you not think men and women can have certain, distinctly identifiable writing styles and that it's possible for a person to write like the opposite sex?

It's quite possible for such a thing to exist. The problem of limited sample size cuts two ways, however and just as it's hard to say that the gender guesser is incorrectly labeling men and women, it's hard to say that women here are writing like men on the basis of one or two samples. The algorithm, for example sees the use of personal pronouns like I, me, you and she as female indicators. Well, if you submitted a post of yours from, say GQ where you answered someone's question, you may not have any pronouns at all, really and it will think you're male but not because its style was particularly masculine.

If you could have it crawl your entire posting history, then it might be interesting what it says.

[Barkis is Willin']

I submitted excerpts from 2 short stories that I entered in the SDMB contests.

1)
Genre: Informal
Female = 495
Male = 1195
Difference = 700; 70.71%
Verdict: MALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 352
Male = 576
Difference = 224; 62.06%
Verdict: MALE

2)
Genre: Informal
Female = 2270
Male = 1561
Difference = -709; 40.74%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Genre: Formal
Female = 983
Male = 1026
Difference = 43; 51.07%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Interesting because I personally thought 2) was written in a more masculine voice. The "formal" analysis (which, under their definition, is what my submissions were) did return the male verdict, but still weak.

[DMark]

Originally Posted by Sailboat

I'm a guy. I submitted this:

I like to drink beer, fart, and then chew on rawhide while watching football.

repeated enough times to generate 420 words. The results:

Total words: 420

Genre: Informal
Female = 1290
Male = 0
Difference = -1290; 0%
Verdict: FEMALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 120
Male = 60
Difference = -60; 33.33%
Verdict: FEMALE

I think it might not be working.

Maybe the computer was thinking, "wow, you can chew on my rawhide anytime you want, babe!"

[ZipperJJ]

I write a blog about baseball, and I make a point to not mention my gender (female). I submitted my top 5 most popular posts and they all came up "weak FEMALE" some with like a -10 difference.

I always sort of felt my blog posts were a bit girly for baseball, so I'm not surprised.

[gytalf2000]

I submitted an old Wonder Woman story that I wrote around 2003.
Here are my results :


Genre: Informal
Female = 291
Male = 682
Difference = 391; 70.09%
Verdict: MALE

[Greg Charles]

I'm scared to try. Even if I butch up my writing style, it would probably call me a "weak male". I don't need that kind of abuse from a machine.

Oh, yeah? Your momma runs Vista!

[gytalf2000]

I tried another story, and came up with these results :



Genre: Informal
Female = 2361
Male = 5501
Difference = 3140; 69.96%
Verdict: MALE

[Drunky Smurf]

Isn't "weak male" pretty much the definition of "female"?



d&r

[gytalf2000]

Originally Posted by gytalf2000

I submitted an old Wonder Woman story that I wrote around 2003.
Here are my results :


Genre: Informal
Female = 291
Male = 682
Difference = 391; 70.09%
Verdict: MALE

...


Oops! I just realized that I did it wrong. A story will be categorized as "Formal genre". Here are the correct results :



Genre: Formal
Female = 3883
Male = 3524
Difference = -359; 47.57%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.



Interesting! That was a sample from 2003. I am going to try a more recent piece in a minute.

[gytalf2000]

Okay, now I have inserted a recent mini-story from a recently published (April 30) deviation, "Ineffective Champion", at my Deviant Art webpage. Here is the result :


Genre: Formal
Female = 860
Male = 877
Difference = 17; 50.48%
Verdict: Weak MALE


I have segued from "Weak Female" to "Weak Male", and I didn't even have to go to Sweden for an operation. Awesome!

[Annie-Xmas]

Genre: Informal
Female = 153
Male = 417
Difference = 264; 73.15%
Verdict: MALE

Genre: Formal
Female = 394
Male = 283
Difference = -111; 41.8%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

I am no male, weak female or European. So there.

[Czarcasm]

I submitted The Declaration Of Independence(sans autographs) and got:

Genre: Formal
Female = 1039
Male = 1386
Difference = 347; 57.15%
Verdict: Weak MALE

[Infovore]

Just for shits and giggles, I plugged in an excerpt from "Twilight" that I found online. Here's what it said:

Genre: Informal
Female = 2018
Male = 2158
Difference = 140; 51.67%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

Genre: Formal
Female = 1267
Male = 1876
Difference = 609; 59.68%
Verdict: Weak MALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

[SCSimmons]

Threw in a chapter of a short story I wrote recently. Verdict:

Originally Posted by really stupid web page

Genre: Formal
Female = 769
Male = 674
Difference = -95; 46.7%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Weak emphasis could indicate European.

I'm MALE, dammit! A STRONG male! And totally not European.

I'm going to go cry and fondle my vagina now.

[SCSimmons]

Originally Posted by SCSimmons

Threw in a chapter of a short story I wrote recently. Verdict:

I'm MALE, dammit! A STRONG male! And totally not European.

I'm going to go cry and fondle my vagina now.

Oh, good--another chapter of that same story gives:

Originally Posted by maybe not that stupid of a web page

Genre: Formal
Female = 931
Male = 1687
Difference = 756; 64.43%
Verdict: MALE

Seems like a pretty weak tool to me.

[Allthegood]

I am female but I have some decidedly male personality traits. For the informal sample, I submitted a fairly whiney blog entry and got:

Genre: Informal
Female = 1646
Male = 1119
Difference = -527; 40.47%
Verdict: Weak FEMALE

Then for the formal sample, I submitted a copy of my resume. I haven't written anything formal for so long that I don't even have a sample handy, except for my resume. I got:

Genre: Formal
Female = 420
Male = 176
Difference = -244; 29.53%
Verdict: FEMALE

[CanvasShoes]

Weird. I submitted a post from my little love advice blog (which I thought was really girlie), and then a section of a work report I'm writing. With the exception of one "weak female" the other three scores were male. Funny, I'm a woman, and a girlie girl woman at that.

Though I have been told that I "write like a man" whatever that means.