Well, I think the Gender Genie makes the assumption that women mainly write either about women or about themselves. Of the sixteen "female" words designated by the Genie, a quarter of them refer to women or the self: her, she, hers, me, myself. Then there are with, we, and and, which all imply togetherness or joining, as does your to a certain extent. And then there are not and should, which pass judgments.
The "male" words, on the other hand, are mainly just simple, effective bits of narrative, like said, the, a, at, to, and it. Men are supposed to be more spatially oriented, which explains why above, below, and around are considered "male" words; but as for the rest -- what, were, are, who, these, many -- most of them are bound to turn up in any decent story, aren't they?
Basically, I think the Genie can only identify women who write explicitly like women. Writing that comes up as "male" isn't really masculine, but rather genderless. Which explains why all the stories I like come up as male when I put them through the Genie. :)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 07:22 am (UTC)The "male" words, on the other hand, are mainly just simple, effective bits of narrative, like said, the, a, at, to, and it. Men are supposed to be more spatially oriented, which explains why above, below, and around are considered "male" words; but as for the rest -- what, were, are, who, these, many -- most of them are bound to turn up in any decent story, aren't they?
Basically, I think the Genie can only identify women who write explicitly like women. Writing that comes up as "male" isn't really masculine, but rather genderless. Which explains why all the stories I like come up as male when I put them through the Genie. :)