Now I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why she walks like a woman and talks like a man

[tree_and_leaf]

Via Aqueduct Amble: someone has written a programme which claims to be able to predict a blogger's gender by analysis: http://genderanalyzer.com/

It thinks tree_and_leaf is a man, which for the record, I would dispute. Am reminded of all those hideous old tropes praising women for 'the almost masculine force' of their intellect...

I wonder if it would be different if I unlocked a few of my broodier posts? I'm not going to, though, even in the interests of pseudo-science.

Comments

[expectare.livejournal.com]

I love that thing! It claims I am a man because I'm concise and talk about Plato.

[dameboudicca.livejournal.com]

My livejournal is written by a woman - but my blogspot (on the subject of women history) is by a man. I feel like I have a split personality...

[tree_and_leaf]

No, clearly you're just in touch with your masculine side...

I think it assumes that more formal or 'academic' writing is male. Which I find depressing.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I'm a man too, apparently.

[tree_and_leaf]

Are you sure it's not just the guns? Though what it is in my case, I'm not sure...

I must admit that I was vaguely pleased to be categorised as male - and then immediately horrified that I'd had that reaction. Ouch.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

I'm a woman, though I suspect my LJ name would have given that away. ;)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The site confesses to being only 57% accurate. (It was right in my case).

[tree_and_leaf]

Apparently most of my flist is... if you believe the computer.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, but only if the computer speaks French!

[tree_and_leaf]

I don't see how it could be accurate (57% is not all that much better than flipping a coin, really).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

If it said how many people that was based on (and, to be honest, if I could be bothered), I could work out if that level of (in)accuracy was statistically significant.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

It got me right. Probably thought that with all the posts about children and multiple cats it must be female. Sigh.

My username would only be helpful if the programme recognised obscure references from Havelok the Dane though!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I am not surprised at all to find that the site thinks I'm female!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It thinks I am male.

I wonder what blogs they are testing it on in the lab?

[expectare.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was thinking of this:

http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.html

I always copy and paste my papers into that it always says I'm a guy by about 75%.

[expectare.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I was vaguely pleased to be categorised as male - and then immediately horrified that I'd had that reaction. Ouch.

Given the criteria they typically use for such analysis, being "male" is a compliment.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

yup, I'm a man too. Stupid random pseudo science

[tree_and_leaf]

Really? Why?

[tree_and_leaf]

Goodness alone knows. Pink sparkly ones, probably.....

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, I'd be interested (a euphemism for 'intensely annoyed', probably) to see what criteria they were using.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Yup, apparently I'm a man too. This is interesting, since it suggests that the tendency to write extremely long, rambling sentences, which I would have thought would be a dead giveaway, is a masculine trait. Either that or it's confused by the posts about buses and Formula 1.

Either way, it's rather depressing.

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, yes, but it annoys me none the less.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

By the way, it does give you an option to tell you whether it's right or not. I told it that it wasn't. Perhaps it gets more accurate the more people do it... or perhaps not.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Based upon its prejudices, and my longer rambling sentences...

[tree_and_leaf]

But I ramble on all the time!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Point taken... theory exploded.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

...And now it thinks I'm female. God knows why. But I think it needs some work...

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

Obviously it saw your pictures as Bond. James Bond.

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

It thinks I'm a man, which some people anyway will be relieved to hear.

[dameboudicca.livejournal.com]

And I fear you might be right...

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

I got "man" for a post about an academic situation and "woman" for a post about cooking. Not so much pseudo science as old fashioned stereotyping. Who'd have thought the same human person could read Latin AND make chicken soup?!
I MUST DO SOME WORK NOW.