When Mark Liberman recently pointed out that the Gender Genie is freely available on the web to check the sexual identity of writers, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to just run a quick double-check on my own sexual identity, not that I would need to, of course.
I chose at random a short passage from one of my recent blog posts and ran it through the algorithm; the paragraph I selected was the top paragraph from "This isn't poetry, this is abuse":
Cursed as I am with the habits of a scholar, I actually read the little bits of paper and newsletters that arrive in the envelope with every bill I get, just in case I need to know anything that they tell me. With my latest mortgage bill I received a special extra slip of paper containing a poem called "What we can do for you!". It is so bad that readers of a delicate disposition may decide they don't want to look at it.
The result: female score 155, male score 127. So I am female.
I guess a lot of guys would be a bit shaken by a result like this. But here in laid-back, tolerant, bisexual Santa Cruz, a confident, secure guy like me can deal with it. Yes, sirree. No problem about my masculinity. Nope, none at all. Oh, no. Babe magnet, that's me. Did I mention I drive a truck?
Posted by Geoffrey K. Pullum at January 15, 2004 05:55 PM