Gender Genie - proof no one can tell

[icarus]

Okay, I am very consistently asked whether I'm a guy or a girl. I tried to keep it private more or less, because I was interested in whether or not people could tell from the stories.

The Gender Genie

According to this, my writing style is:

Skinny Dipping - Male.
A Deserving Man - Male.
Sex, Drugs and Death Eater Rock - Male.
Primer to the Dark Arts - Male.
Guy Talk - Male.
Beg Me For It - hold onto your hats -- Female?
At Fauntleroy & Diagon Alley - Female (not surprising).

So if you haven't been able to tell, well, neither can this program.

Comments

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Hmph...when I did it, it said conclusively that I was female. Not that it was wrong mind you, it's just that I'm peeved that I was so...transparent.

Suppose I'll have to work harder at it. ^_^

[thywillbedone.livejournal.com]

When I did mine, it also got it right off the bat.

damn

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. All my stories were read as female. Not surprising, I suppose. *shrug* Those are interesting results, though, since it does look at sentence construction rather than vocab, topics, etc.

[guntar.livejournal.com]

Heh. It guessed female for all my stories. Which isn't surprising, really, even though it's wrong.

[cursive.livejournal.com]

I've said elsewhere that I thought this test was ridiculous as it basically equates objectivity with maleness. But the genie couldn't decided about me either, although it tended to female.

I would have said you were definitely female, as you say you're interested in that.

[simmysim.livejournal.com]

well... i always assumed you were female. but i do that with pretty much all fanfic writers, so... ^^;;;;;;

[capitu]

I thought you were a guy until you said you tried waitressing so now I can tell. (with white to keep the mistery)

[mark356.livejournal.com]

I used to think you were male, because you write about them so well and write consistently about them, but that applies to just about every fanfiction writer on LJ. Also, Icarus in mythology was male. However, you were referred to by a few people as "her", and you have said nothing about your gender, so for the past few months I've thought you were female, but wasn't sure, and was wondering whether or not to ask you, because it woudl satisfy my curiosity, but also show that I'm concerned with gender, when I try to think that gender is only genetalia plus social construction. After all, how could you tell otherwise?

[venivincere]

Hmmm... I had mixed results with random paragraphs, but my complete stories were female. Very well, then.

I've always thought of you as someone I'd like to take on a date for coffee, regardless of gender. If you insist on keeping it secret, then I suppose we will be wearing paper bags over our heads and giant, shapeless muumuus. I'll remember to bring us both straws.

[tjstein.livejournal.com]

Primer to the Dark Arts was the first thing of yours that I read and I thought that you must be male. After reading your LJ, I'm not so sure...but have decided that it doesn't really matter. I'm surprised that Beg Me For It came up female...very odd as that seemed so very male.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think the only problem is labelling these styles 'masculine' and 'feminine.' Because if you drop a piece of conversation in, you'll note that it will come out feminine every time. If you put in a a piece of scenery description, it will come as masculine every time.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Try just putting a bit of scenery description. See what happens then.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I doubt sentence construction varies from male to female as much as it does from usage.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Mine was wrong, too.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I understand a little honest curiosity, and appreciate your integrity in the reasons why you didn't ask. So I'll tell you. Actually, I get asked a lot. Even after beta-ing four chapters of Primer to the Dark Arts, CLS couldn't tell. I consider it a compliment because one reason I started writing fanfic was that I was sick of reading feminised men. So when people ask, it says that I succeeded. But if I tell people up front, then they'll stop asking and I'll no longer know.

I'm a 36-year-old woman. I worked with the military, construction trades, and hang out with firefighters, outdoorsmen and mountain climbers. So. Manly men.

I still get complaints from the Harry/Ron crowd especially, little girls who project themselves into the role of one of the guys. "Ron's just using Harry!" No. He's not. They're sleeping together, no one said anything about a relationship. They're guys. "Draco's using Ron!" No. Once again, Draco's been up front about what he wants from Ron. Ron can say no. They're guys.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Sure! It'll have to ice cream however: I despise coffee. Read the above post.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That blew me away! Beg Me For It? Female?! The Ron-est Ron story that ever Ronned?

It's the conversational style. That algorithm is bullshit.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

[venivincere]

The truth is out, then, so we can dispense with the paper bags and muumuus. Ice-cream sounds divine. You're right about dialog being female and description being male; I noticed the same things when I was testing random paragraphs. In fact, it seems a much more accurate predictor of description and dialog than it does of gender. There might be a market for that somewhere, perhaps in code-breaking, wouldn't you think?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*grins* I look shitty in muumuus anyway, that's the real reason I came forward. Though it did sort of bug me what it mattered to some. *eyebrows raise*

Pick the place and time (so long as it's in the Seattle area. I'm game for ice cream, anytime. ;)

Icarus

I reckon...

[(Anonymous)]

I reckon you're female. In one of your journal entries, you wrote that you tried some "waitressing". If you were male, you would have written "waitering". Just one of those things that people write without thinking. Then again, you may have written "waitressing" purely to confuse people or for amusement factor...

I tried the test and it got my gender spot on, which is quite annoying, but what can I do? I'm not about to have a sex change just to see what happens lol.

~Lizard :)

[venivincere]

Oh goody! Another long train ride. 59 hours, to be exact. I'm just south of Detroit. Erm, may I look you up if I am ever in the area?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! I grew up outside Detroit, north, Union Lake (not far from Pontiac), West Bloomfield. Went to school in Detroit though, east side.

I don't know the downriver area too well. Where are you exactly?

Icarus

Re: I reckon...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't tried that hard to hide it, or no, I wouldn't have mentioned waitressing. I told tinderblast Brodie, CLS, tboy, mentioned it publicly in somniesperus's Live Journal a long time ago, a few others who asked (or cared). I always asked why they wanted to know (if they didn't say up front), and the only person I ever refused to tell was someone who refused to answer me. I never bothered to correct or dissuade others from saying I was male or female, I just shrugged over the whole question. At one point Brodie went out of her way to correct a Niffle that called me a 'he'. That didn't bother me. *shrug*

It's really something that wasn't secret, but I didn't feel there was any point

Icarus