# Gender Guesser **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476 "2012-06-27T16:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/21 "2012-06-28T00:27:12Z")
20 y/o lesbian here who’s written a lot of fiction. Everything I put in scores as astronomically male. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/22 "2012-06-28T00:31:03Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > Weak emphasis could indicate European. > > Weak emphasis could indicate European. Reminds me of the Graham Norton bit, “Gay or European?” ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/23 "2012-06-28T00:50:50Z")
I think I’ve done this one before. They always seem to peg me as male for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/24 "2012-06-28T01:10:29Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/25 "2012-06-28T01:54:49Z")
> [@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. > [@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. \* ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/26 "2012-06-28T01:57:43Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/27 "2012-06-28T02:07:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/28 "2012-06-28T02:09:33Z")
Or no women with writing styles identified as women are posting their results. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/29 "2012-06-28T02:25:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/30 "2012-06-28T02:26:03Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/31 "2012-06-28T02:33:15Z")
> [@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? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/32 "2012-06-28T05:32:48Z")
# 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. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/33 "2012-06-28T13:54:36Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/34 "2012-06-28T14:11:11Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/35 "2012-06-28T15:22:16Z")
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\* 1. \*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. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/36 "2012-06-28T16:15:55Z")
> [@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!” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/37 "2012-06-28T16:42:11Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/38 "2012-06-28T18:55:43Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/39 "2012-06-28T19:00:22Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476/40 "2012-06-28T19:17:32Z")
I tried another story, and came up with these results : Genre: Informal Female = 2361 Male = 5501 Difference = 3140; 69.96% Verdict: MALE [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-guesser/626476.md?page=3)