Monday, December 10, 2007
Ann Coulter, an american ultra-right-wing political pundit, is frequently made fun of on the internet due to her inflammatory and intolerant views. A very popular meme is that Ann Coulter is actually a man. For example, the image at the right is alleged to be evidence of Ann Coulter's Adam's Apple. (n.b. only men have Adam's Apples)
I have just discovered more evidence pointing to her manhood, hiding in plain sight, published by Ann, herself! Ann's blog is overflowing with text ostensibly written by Ann. Large blocks of text can be analysed by software such as the Gender Guesser, giving a prediction of whether the author is a man or a woman.
At the time of writing, here's how Ann's Blog entires fared on the Gender Guesser. I have only included the informal writing results (appropriate for blogs).
Dec 5, 2007: They'll Never Forgive You (816 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
Nov 28, 2007: NYT: An Undocumented Newspaper (837 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
Nov 21, 2007: NYT: Suicide Manual for Dems (840 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
There appears to be a visible trend in Ann's writing.. The Gender Guesser isn't defininitive; there is room for error, but it's not biased by politics or rage. The Gender Guesser, an impersonal piece of software, thinks Ann Coulter is most likely a man.
Don't believe me! Go try it, yourself! Go pick any articles from her archives, and run them through the Gender Guesser. (But try to not actually read what she says - it will just make you mad) It is important for more accurate results that you only use large posts (greater than 300 words), and do not include text which has quotes from other people.
For comparison, you're welcome to test out samples of my writing, as well.
Dec 7, 2007: When Software Rulz (with an Iron Fist) (1051 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
Nov 25, 2007: Poverty, Education, and how to improve Life for Everybody (985 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
Jan 12, 2007: Tittie Love: More on the selective underpinnings of Permanently Swollen Breasts (973 analysed words)
Genre: Informal writing: Verdict: MALE
There is a bright side to this. At least if she ever came over to your house, you wouldn't have to tell him that his skanky old hooch is stinking up the place and to get it the hell off your couch; you could just tell him that he's a big asshole, kick him out, and be done with it.
Burton MacKenZie www.burtonmackenzie.com
13 comments:
'While Gender Guesser may be 60% - 70% accurate, it is not 100% accurate. This is better than random guessing (50%), but should not be interpreted as "fact".'
The Gender Guesser software isn't definitive regarding Ann Coulter; it's a statistical predictor, not an individual one. It cannot predict an individual any more than a smoker's chances of getting lung cancer predict a specific smoker getting lung cancer.
Rather, the prediction is "in a room with 100 people that are all writing in this style, the majority of them will be male". (The Bayesian algorithm will give you an actual estimated chance, e.g. "75% chance of being male", based on its training data)
For more information on how the algorithm works, read the paper (pdf) "Gender, Genre, and Writing Style in Formal Written Texts" by Argamon (Dept of Comp Sci, Illinois Institute of Technology), Koppel (Dept of Math and Comp Sci, Bar-Ilan University), Fine (Dept of English, Bar-Ilan University), and Shimoni (Dept of Math and Comp Sci, Bar-Ilan University).
Awesome post! I knew there was something fishy about Ann... and I'm not talking about the smell coming from her crotch.
Great blog you got here, MacKenzie. I clicked over to it from a comment you left on my blog. :-)
nn Coulter is an hate-filled, angry demagogue who spews filth, rage and prejudice to be sure. Heck, she might even be a man...but to but to base that call on software?
What rules does the software use to determine gender?
The author begs us to compare his writing with the software--but he is male. How about other strident, but female, writers (none spring immediately to mind) has he tested? Helen Thomas, Molly Ivins, Kathleen Parker, Ellen Goodman all make their points with humor and logic, whereas Coulter makes hers with hate, vitriol and fascist rhetoric...it seems the rules the software uses to judge the gender might easily be confused by tis stylistic difference, depending upon how the rules were generated and the software calibrated.
What an interesting project...and not just because it heaps more derision and scorn on Ann Coulter, f course, but that is a lovely by-product!
Ann Coulter is an awful person, it's true--presuming she's not a hoax--but there's no need to perpetuate this meme that she's "a man".
Political hoaxing aside, suppose she was born genetically male. So? She's clearly not presenting as male. That would make her transsexual.
The people participating in this meme are usually liberals--which I count myself as--so it seems ironic that they'd call someone they presume to be transgendered "a man". It's insulting to thousands of people who aren't hateful bigots like Ann Coulter.
andthisday, I agree with you. I feel that Ann Coulter is a force for ill will in the world, and have felt powerless to do anything about it. Until this idea dawned on me, that is. I think many in her audience are trans and/or homophobic (although ironically, I don't believe Ann is either of those), and hoped that the worth of her opinion in their eyes might be diminished by such an exposure. Or, at least, that's my rationalization in retrospect. For now.
I'm sure the .pdf is interesting - and everything. But having pulled excerpts from interviews with Marilyn Monroe, Amanda Tapping, Rita Rudner, and Angelina Jolie, let's just say that none of them are supposed to be men. Ann's in good female company, if these are supposed to be men. Worse, having pulled some excerpts of interviews with Clint Eastwood, Jim Brown, and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin - I'm - not going to be the one to go up to them and say, this .pdf-based scientilifical test formally pegged each of you as a "weak female".
Obviously, the 'test' isn't looking at how something is being said. It's looking at what is being said. Apparently some words or topics are 'female', and some are 'male'. That seems to be how it works. And in the above cases, it got it wrong 100% of the time.
I'm not a big fan of Ann's rude and offensive style; I don't know whether or not she's a man, but I'm not sure Gender Guesser is an accurate gauge. Gender Guesser apparently thinks I'm a man (I am most definitely female). I ran 27 of my longer blog posts (from miri.gaia.com/blog) through its analyzer and 26 of them came out thoroughly male.
c'mon folks, get a SOH!
OP is a bit of humor. Enjoy!
Or don't. Whatever.
Dr. Donald, I thought Helen Thomas was a man; oopsy! ;-D
@kidhendershot - I won't hold your hand if you're not willing to do the homework. I didn't reference the paper to read for your interest; it's to inform you so you'll know what you're talking about.
I ran four of my own blog posts through the Gender Guesser. Results: strong male, strong male, weak male, weak female.
I'm female.
But watching her, I still gotta say, she started life as a guy.
My writing said female and I am for sure a man. and your writing came back as female on the formal scale sir...
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