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This algorithm, The Gender Genie, can take a pretty good guess at whether the writer of a piece of text is male or female. I entered a block of text from my most male-sounding (or so I thought) story, written from a male P.O.V and this programme could tell a woman had written it. Which made me think that my male voice was completely inauthentic. So I tried it on someone else… the only book that immediately came to mind as being by a male but from a female first P.O.V was The Turn of the Screw. The programme won again, this time declaring the writer male, although only just. Which made me feel better

So I wonder, since the programme can tell (not 100% accurate though), can we all tell at some subconscious level whether someone is male or female by text alone?

The programme was less successful with text I had written in non-fiction mode, IE. a newspaper column and a letter, but I must admit my letters do tend to be a bit combative so I don’t know whether that is coming through in the words I choose… hmmm I can feel a gender identity crisis coming on

Thanks to Jen at Salt Office Life Blog for the gender genie link