Time wasting tool of the day: GenderAnalyzer

Jaime // Posted 18 November 2008 at 20:42

78% Man - I'm assuming that's because I like music, films and comic books.

Ruth // Posted 18 November 2008 at 22:30

They were right on mine, but only at 53% certainty. Human 'beans' for the win. I did smile at their "we are pretty much accurate" - it's not a lot better than 50/50.

Clare // Posted 18 November 2008 at 22:47

My blog about humanism and a humanist perspective on life comes out as 82% likely to be written by a man. I suppose women don't write about deep issues like the meaning of life or use those long academic words...

My friends who have tried it with their livejournals (three in total) have found it at least 98% sure in the wrong direction.

Mephit // Posted 18 November 2008 at 23:59

67% man for me. Oookaaay.

Kez // Posted 19 November 2008 at 10:07

I wonder if they just count the number or references to shoes, handbags and make-up (or conversely, football, beer and cars), and base their assessment on that?

Ooh look, this post must be 50/50!

liz // Posted 19 November 2008 at 14:02

My blog is apparently written by a man, and it has the word 'lady' in the address....
stupidy stupid

Feminist Avatar // Posted 19 November 2008 at 14:50

My blog was 68% male.

I have done this experiment before a while back and got a higher ranking as male on a different site. And this led to a discussion on a number of blogs (can't remember where now) about its innacuracy- and what we figured out was that the more formally [as in grammatical style] you wrote, the more likely you are to be classed as male- so the more over-qualified amongst us, and those who write for a living, tended to be overwhelmingly ranked as male. Apparently, it doesn't so much judge on content as length of words, use of adjectives and conjunctions, etc, to figure out gender.

Soirore // Posted 19 November 2008 at 15:21

I was 64% man. And the correct answers are only 54%. Are they just randomly guessing?

Rosalind // Posted 19 November 2008 at 15:27

My work blog is 94% man; in fact part is written by a man and the majority by me, a woman. It is about careers. I'm guessing that there is some seriously sexist thinking going on.

Renee // Posted 19 November 2008 at 19:24

My blog was apparently written by a man as well. It was 80% certain. I would really love to know how they assigned gender traits. It truly is an exercise in essentialism. I also find it particularly ridiculous considering the name of the blog - womanist musings clearly implies female.

Caroline // Posted 19 November 2008 at 20:10

My blog came up as a man's, 70% certain, yet as with other commenters I put the clue in the title! Suspect it's the same sort of principle as the older tool Feminist Avatar describes: the more you use "I", "me", etc the more likely it is to think you're female; write in the third person and it assumes you're male.

ethnic midget // Posted 19 November 2008 at 20:14

58% certain mine was written by a man. Perhaps they assume everything is written by a man - that would account for their being right only about half of the time!

Kathy // Posted 19 November 2008 at 20:19

Thanks for the link, that was good for a giggle. It thinks my LiveJournal is 98% male. Must be all my talking about embroidery...

Anna // Posted 19 November 2008 at 20:33

78% female.
Dear me.

Kate Smurthwaite // Posted 21 November 2008 at 16:24

Yup apparently I'm 73% woman. Although I always thought I was 100% woman!

Chameleon // Posted 22 November 2008 at 09:28

Mine was analysed as being written by a man with a score of 71%. Which amused me.