Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Bitchery reader Eggs sent me a link with the subject line, “You’re a man, baby!”

Seems there’s a Gender Genie online (of course there is) that uses an algorithm to identify words which betray gender. Developed by professors at Bar-Ilan U. and Illinois Institute of Technology, the Genie analyzes texts and scores them according to weights given to “Masculine keywords” and “Feminine keywords.”

Eggs was kind enough to score two pieces of my writing from SBTB, and sure enough, I’m a dude.

The Genie prefers a sample of over 500 words, so I’m going to plug in

Now, writing from my personal blog scores a significantly female verdict. But my writing on SBTB, which is more analytical and often much more cranky, is decidedly male. What’s up with that?

More curious is the sample of words used to develop the algorithm. “Not,” “where,” and “with” are high-scoring feminine keywords, along with “should” and “her,"while “around,” “are,” and “What” are more masculine. Since when did dudes co-opt the conjugations of the verb “to be?” Interesting that the algorithm thinks that men are more declarative in writing while women are more suggestive and hesitant.

The idea of forensic linguistics drives me into fits of wiki-googling, but some of the generalizations in the New York Times article don’t ring entirely true either.

I have to wonder, much like eggs asked in her email, what’s the “Gender Genie” gender of my favorite authors? And, more to the point, can one write something that’s 100% male or 100% female?

Here’s the kicker for me - I just fed this text into the Genie: by a score of 758 to 379, I’m so totally a dude. 

Emdee gave me a heads up as to today’s Dear Abby, wherein the discussion of romance novels continues in response to last September’s letter from a concerned mom whose daughter was reading romance.

Abby received many a reply from current authors, including Bitchery member P.C. Cast, who all told Abby that her perception that romance is about unequal power structures between the protagonists is a bit outdated. Author Kate Douglas did mention that her romances are “‘sexual fantasies’ containing graphic descriptions’ but her reply seems to have been couched in a caution that parents should be aware of what their kids are reading - though that doesn’t preclude them from reading romance.

Several readers wrote in to defend their love of the romance, as well. My favorite is “Never Promiscuous, Always a Feminist” who said, “I was normal, curious and shy around boys—but nonetheless longed for romance and adventure. Those books were “spicy,” but they filled that niche without any risk to my physical health or reputation. I lived vicariously through them and avoided getting into “real life” trouble because of it!”

When we first wrote about the original Dear Abby letter, I asked for recommendations for heroines who were strong, independent, and self-relient heroes.

This time I have to ask: if you were giving a young woman curious about romance her first experience with the genre, what book would you offer?

Have you seen the Christmas catalogs that come a-pouring in the mailslot every day? Holy McCow. They started in the beginning of October. Too early!

But it’s never too early for gift ideas, even if you’ve got a writer who needs a birthday gift, or a friend who fishes having a big anniversary.

Check out this incredible gallery of bookshelves made from books done by artist Jim Rosenau. His collection of shelves and sculptures crafted of hardbacks is really freaking cool.

Now to start saving my Smart Bitch pennies and hinting to the hubby how much I need a bookshelf - made of real books. 

Natalie over at RT send me a heads-up that RT is hosting their annual Best First Line contest - and the entries are almost as interesting as the comments.

So much of what the editors have to say are rules for writing fiction - rules with which I can’t always agree. I understand things like “show, don’t tell,” and how vagueness is boring. But the others? “Start at the beginning of a conversation but the middle of the action?” I can think of a few examples where that would be as boring and vague as starting a novel with “Hey, you.”

Which one do you like? And what do you think of the best of that list, and the worst? 

In a very tongue-in-cheek account of the recent news articles, and I admit I giggled at the idea that “every hoo-ha is worth looking into,” DCist asks if the ad in question made you “angrier than that time daddy took away your beloved wild horse and half your inheritance because you made off with his darkly handsome sworn enemy?”

Snort.

The comment appearing as of this writing asks why we should “walk on eggshells to avoid offending stupid people?” Then, the same person calls us romance readers “illiterate.”

A different kind of snort.

We here at SBTB poke fun at romance. I mean, have you SEEN the cover snark? But we do it because we love it unashamedly, and read our romance with glee and pride. We know we’re not dumb.

But the comment? Pfft. Right up over that one’s head. Perhaps the issue isn’t so much one of intelligence vs. stupidity. It might be more as to whether people are secure about their intelligence in the first place.