A Small Victory

The Dusty brand blogad with the girl on it might confuse some people, I'll admit.

Why would that confuse anyone? It's an ad.

If male bloggers have the bodybuilding ad on their sites do people think they're women?

It's not the photo, it's the text, which reads:

"They have free desktops of their "Dusty Girls" making checking out the site well worth the effort."

The bodybuilding ad doesn't say "check out this guy's hot bod." The text of the Dusty ad also sounds like it's written by you, not the company, so it's you suggesting to readers to go check out the girls. Hence readers might think such a suggestion was made by a guy blogger.

You could run a sample of your writing through that 'gender analysis' thingy. I'm sorry I don't have the link to it.

Personally, I don't think a picture of cleavage is proof positive. There was that guy on "The Man Show" who got implants on a dare.

However, no guy would ever make up a story about giving birth. And it's not just that we simply can't relate (and don't really want to), it's more of a fear that such a treason would result in having our access permanently barred.

Hmm, not sure why the confusion. Do you think it is because you like the Simpsons (and comics, in general) and some pretty hard-core music? Umm, if so, my gender may be in question, too.

Anyone that actually reads your posts with any regularity would get that you are female. Really, it just takes a minute or two, but some people are too damn lazy.

Keep on keepin' on, lady. :-)

All well and good, but have you ever been mistaken for Condoleezza Rice?
http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2005/01/the_time_for_di.html#c3990198

prairie biker, there is a 'gender analysis' thingy??? If you ever find it, could you point the way?

I'm still not seeing the ad confusion. I think it's kind of obvious that they are ADs. And is there something wrong with enticing people to look at hot babes? Maybe I'm just too secure in my vague sexuality to think anything of it.

Another funny thing. No matter what you blog about, someone always has to come up with a "Well, I can top that" in the comments.

Maybe you should feminize the look a bit: a pastel background, some flowers in the corners and kitten instead of monkeys at the top of the comments page (everyone knows that boys like dogs and monkeys and girls like kittens and bunnies). Also instead of blogging about cartoons a more feminine route would be to blog about Desperate Housewives (idea for new poll who's hotter Mike or John? Another poll: if you were Bree what would you do? Forgive him? Slip onions into his food?) Plus, ditch the heavy metal music go with Nora Jones. Another thing, the word "Victory" in the title is warlike and quite masculine. "My Little Corner" as a title would be dead give away of your gender. Anyway that's one guy's thoughts.

T-Back shots. That usually settles it for me.

(idea for new poll who's hotter Mike or John? Another poll: if you were Bree what would you do? Forgive him? Slip onions into his food?)

I know not of what you speak.

But here's a bunny for you.

It's obvious to anyone who actually reads what you write that you're a woman, but some folks just have really short attention spans. Combine that with the fact that some of your favorite topics - sports, comics, etc. are thought of as being more male-oriented, and I guess you end up with a certain amount of confusion among those who don't focus well...

My blog entries went through the Gender Genie and all came out rightly finding me male.

A chapter of fiction I recently wrote came out pegging me as slightly female.

Either I'm very good at writing the dialogue of the three female characters I dealt wth in that chapter (along with four males), or ... I don't want to know.

Admittedly, one of the four male characters is not exactly Vin Diesel. But then again, one of the female characters almost is. (And they're married to each other...)

Also, they're none of them original characters. It's a "fanfic" story.

"Maybe I'm just too secure in my vague sexuality to think anything of it."

That might be right. I never thought you were a dude, so I'm not sure how people do; I was just thinking back to college, where amongst many men "enticing people to look at hot babes" would mean you were a fellow guy, a lesbian, or the best girlfriend ever, in descending order of likelihood.

I am a bisexual male trapped in a woman's body.

If I was crude, I'd help with the last sentence of your post by offering to let you borrow mine, as long as you promised to return it when you are done. And when I'm done.

If I was crude.

Wow. You have really nice cleavage. For a girl, I mean.

I put in two different blog entries. One said I was male, one said I was barely female.

What were the entries? I found your blog during the fourteen part blizzard series and never doubted your gender, but sometimes you write with your tongue practically coming through your cheek, those are very gender neutral.

Ok... two of my blog entries that are opinion pieces have me pegged as "male" (the jr high bullies one 1058 male/647 female -- the ward churchill piece 1156 male 593 female). Thinking that strong political opinion might be at work on the "gender" thing, I put in my recent vacation blogging ...and still got a 1655 male/645 female on 627 words (supposedly the genie "works best" on texts of 500 words.)

My fiction piece "Remembrance Box" scored 2192 female/1690 male... I'm glad of that! (ditto with my other fiction piece being 'female' writing)

strange algorithm

I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one who gets this confusion. As for the failure to grow a penis--did you check the medicine cabinet?

Big surprise. Gender Genie thinks I'm male, too.

The non-family posts tend to subjects that are ordinarily male sort of things to talk about: sports, hard rock music, comics etc. Which is not to say that you shouldn't talk about them, you should. Another thing that might confuse people...in Italy, michele is usually the male version of the name..rather like Michel in France. Just a thought.

I'm suspecting there are some really bigoted males out there who think if it's intelligent and interesting it has to be written by a male. A little bit of male egocentric thinking. I'm an old female and I've never had any problem figuring out who were boys and who were girls. Maybe they do. It's not your writing, it's THEM.

I'll wager it's your fondness for video games and comics, plus your taste in music and movies, and the fact that you don't hold back when you write that causes the gender confusion - can you tell if these people are regular readers or did they pick up on particular entries?

And I agree with you about the one-upmanship factor; I've probably been guilty of it myself. Sometimes I feel the way you do towards Lileks - you mirror the same things I'm going through with my daughter and very often, the timing is uncanny.

It's not hard though, to spot the self-serving commenters - I'd compare it to being able to tell if someone is lousy at typing or is just illiterate...lol.

Well, for what it's worth, I just ran across you recently and I thought you were female immediately. But I can't say why, exactly...I just thought picked up on it.

Coincidence? Or...SUPER PARANORMAL ABILITY!

Must be the latter..

For some reason, our hostess' appreciation of Coop Girls made me believe she really is female. Not sure why. But I agree with her taste.

Well, let me clear this up. I am all female.

No, Michele, (yer not gettin' off that easy), it's GOT to be this picture ... boobs 'n' Boston. Heh, heh, heh ... BWAHAHAHAHAAAAA! :-D

I never had any confusion over your gender.

If you were a guy, it would be called "A Large Victory"

jeez...

Hmmm, if all it takes to be proven female is cleavage, I just might be the next Libertarian Girl! Only I'm gonna be Neocon Bitch or something cool like that. Looks like I've got some shaving to do...

Skillzy - I do hope we're not talking along the lines of what was seen after the credits on the movie "Dodgeball".

That was just unforgivable. How Marcia Brady can stand living with a man like Ben Stiller is beyond me.

I commend unto you Dick for a Day, a late-90s collection of essays edited by Fiona Giles, in which a few dozen notable women are asked "What would you do if you had one for 24 hours?" The results are, um, interesting, perhaps even throbbing. (A sequel, Chick for a Day, posed a similar question to men, but somehow didn't prove to be quite as enthralling.)

"Just looked down my pants and, much to my chagrin, I have not grown a penis."

You poor guy!

Nick, that comment belongs in the Sarcasm Hall of Fame.

Damn, it was funny.

I must tell you, you can get one of these however http://www.bumpernuts.com balls for your truck