I'm A Guy??!

by hilzoy

Andrew Sullivan posted a link to this site that tries to figure out your gender based on your web browsing history. I tried it, with amusing results:

"Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 5%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 95%"

Sigh.

It does provide some indication of what its conclusions are based on. In my case, the Financial Times seems to have been a big tip-off to my alleged male identity, along with MacRumors (which I can't recall having visited in years.) RealClearPolitics and the National Review are also pretty heavily male.

I suppose the moral of this story is: stereotypes are dangerous. Also: if you want to make a widget like this, it's worth giving some thought to identifying and overweighting sites that might be dead giveaways. In my case, the guy-ness of the Financial Times seems to have outweighed the fact that I bought bras online, which I don't imagine many guys do. I suppose the fact that I read financial news more often than I buy clothes explains why this wasn't the obvious clue to my gender that it ought to have been.

Comments

[Jesurgislac]

I'm 50% Male 50% Female. Hermaphrodites have more fun!

[OCSteve]

And here I had you pegged for the Ladies Home Journal, Martha Stewart Living, and the Food Network site.

{ducks}

[Porcupine_Pal]

Recall the headline several years ago: 'help, my Tivo thinks I'm gay!'

[Ron E.]

It said I was 100% male... which I am. I guess it works sometimes.

[Woozy]

Oh yeah? It said I am a lumberjack and I'm O.K.

[tgirsch]

Egad, this sort of thing seems to have "Trojan Horse" written all over it! I have spyware software installed that actively tries to prevent web sites from analyzing my browser history, and folks here are allowing it voluntarily, and even helping?

[Eric Martin]

Woozy FTW!

[marcel]

In my case, the guy-ness of the Financial Times seems to have outweighed the fact that I bought bras online, which I don't imagine many guys do.

I dunno. I'm a guy, and if I were the sort of guy who was inclined to buy bras (not that there's anything wrong with that), I'm pretty sure I'd be more comfortable doing it online than in a store.

[Ugh]

OT - well, apparently the Bush administration is capable of doing at least one thing competently: running show trials. Hamdan found guilty.

Smell the justice.

[Greg]

I have the opposite, I'm a guy but it gives me 84% odds of being female. I am curious though how different the numbers would be if I ran the test from my home PC. People browse differently home vs. work.

[now_what]

100% male for me also. Anyway, I'm off to go drink some whiskey and shoot at stuff.

[Anne E]

It said that I'm 55% female. What interested me is that my my male side was mostly because I check several British papers online most days. Do British women not read the papers? Or only male Americans are geeky enough to read foreign papers?

Hilzoy, I think your "bra test for gender" needs refinement. My ex bought me underwear many times. He bought me the slinky, sexy stuff, whereas I bought comfortable utilitarian stuff. The gender determination program needs to consider the kind of underwear involved.

[Ugh]

I take that back, apparently they can't even run show trials right as it looks like they found Hamdan not guilty of one of the charges.

[EL]

I wonder how Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama might come out. Of course, we can't test McCain so it would be unfair to test Obama.

[libarbarian]

I got the perfect score: 69% male :).

[Zifnab]

RULE 15: THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET

Yesh, do none of you visit 4chan?

[cleek]

i'm 100% male

cnbc.com (1.99) more than offsets wholefoods.com (.6)

[ara]

Dude. I'm 66% female. WTF.

[Mike Schilling]

I'm only 58% mail, the big female factors being

1. My bank. (I would have though that old West imagery would signify a male bank. Go figure.) and

2. The online video games my son plays.

And apparently baseball-reference.com isn't a useful clue.

[russell]

54% male, 46% female.

myspace is tipping me into female territory. But myspace is also where every amateur-to-obscure-professional band and musician in the world parks their content these days.

ebay also seems to skew female these days. Go figure.

allmusic appears to have saved me from terminal gender confusion.

Thanks!

[Linda]

It thought I was a male too. I have no idea what paradigm it is using to draw conclusions.

Linda (been a female for about 68 years now)

[Linda]

It thought I was a male too. I have no idea what paradigm it is using to draw conclusions.

Linda (been a female for about 68 years now)

[Hartmut]

42% female, 58% male but it only listed alternet, photobucket and imdb. I keep my history clean. Why it ignores youtube, I don't know.
Who are you going to believe, the analysis or your lying anatomy?

[LFC]

Hilzoy, your bio does say you like to "wander around looking for birds". If you're a serious, hard-core, female birder, you are certainly part of a minority in a male dominated activity.

[AndyK]

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 1%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 99%

I believe my teeny estrogenic component is almost entirely the result of research I did about two weeks ago for an article (no, really, honestly, it was all for my job, I swear): my two strongest femme indicators were safeway.com and traderjoes.com, which I doubt I had ever been to previously, but had to refer to repeatedly (along with gelsons and wholefoods).

What's ironic -- or at least amusing -- is that I was assigned to do a shopping article in part *because* I'm such an obvious fumbling male stereotype, domestic-affairs-wise.

My *third* highest femme pointer was barackobama.com. What are the implications of that?

[novakant]

It seems some of you never clear your browsing history and allow scripts to access your private data. I don't want to spread paranoia, but that's a bit like letting a perfect stranger on the street know the bank you're with, the business you're in, your email provider, your political orientation and your hobbies. Check out Firefox' privacy settings and noscript.net, if you're uncomfortable with that.

[Nombrilisme Vide]

RULE 15: THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET

I always preferred the classic formulation:

"The Internet: where the men are men, the women are also men, and the children are FBI agents."

More seriously, I'm torn between decrying its limited scope of judgment (it only found two sites that it could even judge me by; go go clean browser history and obscure browsing habits), and using this as to launch a polemic on the limitations and misapplication of statistical inference - I'm still holding a rationalist grudge after years in a field where the empiricists held the day.

Hmm... in-ter-esting. I confirmed a spelling on merrium-webster.com in the course of writing the above and it added 3% to the female probability. That's an interesting observation, hehehe.

[Altoon]

Since I've been female for nearly 60 years, I found it funny that this gizmo gave me a 99% probability of being male.

I think reading politics blogs did it.

[hairshirthedonist]

To expand on novakant's point, it's a bit like letting a total stranger pull down your pants and examine your genitals. (Well, not really, but that would be a really good way of determining your gender.)

[Jesurgislac]

hairshirthedonist: it's a bit like letting a total stranger pull down your pants and examine your genitals.

1. No, it's not.

2. Clearly neither you nor novakant do the obvious: clear your browser history on a regular and frequent basis.

[Gary Farber]

"Clearly neither you nor novakant do the obvious: clear your browser history on a regular and frequent basis."

But in their favor, they do clean their genitals on a regular and frequent basis.

[tgirsch]

In support of what Anne E says, I've bought bras on-line for my wife many times. She's a very difficult size to fit, so on-line is about our only option. And the truth is, I just have a lot more time to deal with it than she does.

[novakant]

2. Clearly neither you nor novakant do the obvious: clear your browser history on a regular and frequent basis.

Erm, maybe it was unclear, but that is exactly what I suggested people should do:

In FFs privacy settings you can totally disable history or set it up so that it is automatically cleared after each session or any number of days. If you want to do it manually, it's useful to disable the confirmation dialogue, so that you only have to hit Ctrl+Shft+Del ever so often and be done with it. Additionally you can disable scripts that would make such operations possible in the first place.

[hairshirthedonist]

Jes, I clear my browser history at home all the time. My work PC is locked down so I can't. I have no choice but to take my chances. But Novakant's point, I think, was that, if the subject site can examine your history to determine your gender probabilities, you (not necessarily you, but anyone) haven't cleared your history. I also think Novakant advises against allowing your history to be examined, if you're not clearing it. If you are, there wouldn't be much point, right?

And re: 1. No, it's not.

I know. That's why I wrote "Not really...". Sometimes I kid.

[LT Nixon]

Can that program determine which ObWi commenter is most likely this guy.

[hairshirthedonist]

But in their favor, they do clean their genitals on a regular and frequent basis.

Just to be clear, we each clean our own, like, separately ... far apart ... not together ... not touching, um, each other.

[PercyPercy]

I scored 94% male, despite being unmistakably female. It never occurred to me that I could buy bras online--but I'll definitely be checking that out. Never thought I'd be getting tips on buying underwear from ObWi.

[Jesurgislac]

I know. That's why I wrote "Not really...". Sometimes I kid.

So do I.

[redwood]

hilzoy,

I know it cannot come as any comfort to you know that I too am gender dysphoric.

the question really is Is your ring finger significantly longer than your index finger?

I'm guessing it is.

[Justin Slotman]

I was hoping I'd be one of the ones who could trick it but I read too many gaming blogs to be anything but male. :(

[gil mann]

I don't understand my results. What does it mean if you get back "55% disaffected manchild, 45% pervert?" That's "male," right?

[Dan S.]

"I tried it, with amusing results:
"Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 5%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 95%""

Hey, as a guy I got:
"Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 95%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 5%"

Well, then.

petfinder (0.47) and the humane society's (0.35) apparently what really threw it. The petfinder bit's potentially useful to know, since I put up homeless pets for the animal shelter . . .

[Elayne Riggs]

If you'll recall, Hilzoy, I thought you were a guy for the longest time, as I didn't realize your pseudonym was your surname. But then, I thought Digby was a guy for years...

[Josh]

Uh, Elayne, "Hilzoy" is not Hilzoy's surname. Hilzoy's surname is the same as that of the old sailor in Maine who sings in a lush baritone voice about men having sex with seals. Perhaps they are related? (Hilzoy and the folk singer in question, I mean)

[Dan S.]

"the old sailor in Maine who sings in a lush baritone voice about men having sex with seals.

You mean pinnipedophiles?

(And great, now my browsing history is completely screwed . . .)

[Hartmut]

I boosted my maleness to 61% by browsing movie sites (imdb etc.). What would happen, if I went to youporn? ;-)

[hilzoy]

Josh: yes; he's my Dad's cousin.

I am, however, not related to the astronomer who gave us the wonderfully named Bok Globule.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

I always thought Hilzoy was female from the tone and tenor of her prose -- not very muscular and heavy.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Two different results:

My home computer, which I share with my wife, called it 54 percent female -- I guess because she uses that one more.

Here at work, where only I use this particular computer, it's 50-50.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Dan S --

Do you live near Newark, Delaware?

I am down to one dog, having lost CoCo in June and Bowser in July.

Want another - an English Setter type would be high on my list -- and have been browsing various sites at work, knowing if I actually went to the ASPCA I'd come home with one.

My wife, however, gets very, very mad at me just by me mentioning the fact that I want another dog. She is very content with a one-dog household; I am not.

Olga keeps giving me, "We can't afford to pay our bills and you want another dog?"

Which shuts me up -- and makes me mad.

Thanks --

[Jeff]

I am, however, not related to the astronomer who gave us the wonderfully named Bok Globule.

How about the Swedish Chef -- Bok, bok, bok!

[maryQ]

Wow! That was fun. I'm less of a guy than you, but still a guy (76-24). A guy named Mary.
I'm at work, so that may skew it, bu still, the only site I've been at that has a male-female ratio of less than one is my friggin' online bank account.

Men read news and science, women bank online.

[hilzoy]

maryQ: looking at my history, I also find that MapQuest is used more often by females. Cue predictable jokes. ;)

[Sean M. Brooks]

Dear Hilzoy: I hope you are well.

I don't know if you recall this, but I met you a couple of times. You are definitely NOT a guy. (Smiles)

Sincerely, Sean

[Sean M. Brooks]

Dear Hilzoy: I hope you are well.

I don't know if you recall this, but I met you a couple of times. You are definitely NOT a guy. (Smiles)

Sincerely, Sean

[AndyK]

I have a cat in a black box with a randomizing gender assignment switch that is triggered when I open the box. I have no way to access the cat's browser history without opening the box. Until I open the box, is the cat hermaphroditic (or maybe gender-neutral)? If it stays that way after I open the box, does that mean that the switch is broken? If the cat turns out to be female, does that mean that this whole line of speculation has been shredding her dignity?

If the cat emerges with nine tails, do I deserve to be beaten with it?