I was browsing reddit.com the other day and came across an interesting website. It’s called the Gender Genie and it uses an algorithm to predict the gender of the author of a piece of writing. I’m always curious as to how others perceive my writing, even if it is only a piece of software. I decided to take one of my blog entries and paste it into the Gender Genie. Considering that I’m male, the results were a little disconcerting.
According to this website, my article was written by a female. Just barely. I didn’t realize that my writing was so androgynous. It occurred to me that I should probably give the website a little hint to help it along. I decided to put in a little tidbit of information at the end of the text that would help it identify my true gender.
This time I received an even higher female to male score! It seemed more convinced than ever that I wasn’t male. The results made me wonder a little. If I don’t have a vagina and I’m not male, then what kind of freakish female does it think I am? Anyway, it was time to take a more direct route. I decided to feed it some information that, if the program worked as advertised, would in no way cause it to mistake me for a female.
Yet again it thinks I’m female, although my male score improved marginally. I suppose there’s no winning with this thing. Maybe I’m a girly writer after all. Or maybe this software is a piece of crap.
Don’t feel bad. The gender genie thought I was a guy on every piece I submitted. That includes my gender identity essay for my Women in Art course, in which I IDENTIFIED myself as a female.
Funny experiment. The program thought I was a woman too. I guess we must write very expressively or something? Just goes to show, statistics cannot be trusted. Loved your “Why Kids Do Drugs” piece by the way.
I submitted 10 of my blog entries. These are my results:
1. Female Score: 758
Male Score: 746
2. Female Score: 737
Male Score: 589
3. Female Score: 181
Male Score: 433 (Finally!)
4. Female Score: 852
Male Score: 1256 (That’s right!)
5. Female Score: 1047
Male Score: 1227 (3 out of 5 is pretty good)
6. Female Score: 695
Male Score: 852
7. Female Score: 416
Male Score: 520
8. Female Score: 527
Male Score: 263
9. Female Score: 1126
Male Score: 919
10. Female Score: 1028
Male Score: 1273
So am I 60% male? I guess that’s not too bad. I was hoping for at least the 80% range.
You analysis of the program is flawed. You aren’t rated based on your use of the words of male or female bodies. It is based on words that men and women tend to use more than the other. Apparently, you talk like a girl.
I know.
Thank you :-).
By the way - I happen to have a draft article on statistics that will be published today or tomorrow. Stay tuned.
It thought I was male, too. *woez*
very interesting..btw, at first glance , I thought the
red highlighted text( sans my glasses) said,
“i don’t have a vagina!” Cracked me up! Maybe
my brain was reinterpreting.WAAAY too Freudian!!
Had to share that with ya!
j
I don’t think telling it you are a dude and have a penis is the way it works, bro.
Funny, I did it twice and I got once male and once female, although it correctly predicted Eoin Colfer was male when I entered a verse of his poem from his book.
Where did you get this wp template? I’ve been looking the whole day for something like this but I’m about to give up :((sorry, I know it’s not really on topic)RegardsNaida
http://www.deanjrobinson.com/wordpress/redoable
It worked for me.
-Dick
Na, this fucking thing is flawed. It counts how many spelling mistakes you make. If you make alot your a mail, which is bullshit. Its just saying mails are stupid. Well I guess that makes most of you a decent writer. But thats site is fucked.
naw, if your mail you’re likely to be in the post. It doesn’t count mistakes anyway, it compares the counts of masculine and feminine words that it knows.