In which I have women's problems

[steepholm]

I was miffed by the GenderAnalyzer's conclusion that I was 99% male - based on certain 'strong indicators' that seem to be scattered through my LJ. Personally I can't see what these are - perhaps I'm the last to know - but I'm curious whether the analyzer works by looking at vocabulary alone, or collocations, or more nebulous things such as sentence structure. Or some combination of the three. Or, of course, something else entirely. (For what it's worth, it seemed to think quite a large proportion of my predominantly-female flist was male as well.)

Anyway, since it only looks at the latest page of one's blog in making its decisions, I should be able to sway it at least by a few percentage points, simply by including some vocabulary and phrases that seem more likely to appear in 'female' posts.

So, for the sake of testing the system, I'm dropping in the following:

My husband was in Miss Selfridge the other day, trying on make-up, when in came Victoria Beckham wearing a gorgeous ruched skirt. He's such a fangirl for David (squee!) that he didn't even notice. You know what men are like! If only I hadn't been at home with cramps, some knitting and the latest Stephanie Meyer I'd have been able ask for her autograph.

Results shortly...

ETA: Interesting - it wasn't swayed at all. Those strong indicators of maleness, whatever they are, seem to have overwhelmed everything else, and 99% likely to be a man I remain. Hmm.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

99% is impressive. I'm 70% likely to be a woman (the clue might be in the username, do you think?).

On the other hand, if you click through to the 'Did we get you right?' page, the vote is something like 52% yes, 48% no. Which isn't far off the accuracy you'd get by tosing a coin, is it?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I was 99% male, too (though I did eventually find one woman friend who was 100% female). I note that the poll on "Did GenderAnalyzer give the correct result for your blog?" is running at 52% correct, 48% incorrect. Without knowledge of likely gender bias in blogs, that sounds plausible for random results, doesn't it?

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I'm quite gender neutral, but female at a guess.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I got female - probably all my exclamation points and parentheses. I have to admit I was rather hoping for male, which just goes to show ... something, doesn't it?

Perhaps you need a Buffy icon rather than your rather solid looking island.

[sovay]

I dropped my livejournal in and got 84% male. Go know.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I tried it on my public blog, and am 76% male. IIRC, it looks at the kinds of verbs you use first -- so people who write at all like academics tend to be seen as male :-)

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

My work blog it is 91% sure is written by a man.

My LJ, it is 100% sure is written by a woman.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Seems to be doing the rounds: http://karinmollberg.livejournal.com/28233.html?thread=318025#t318025 I am 100% female as Karin Mollberg butt 99% male as http://community.livejournal.com/theboringclub/profile so who am I? Will I ever really get to know?