Why does MSN Messenger think I am a woman?

[Goji]

Necessary information: I am not a woman.

But MSN messenger seems to think I am. Every day when I start it up, it presents me first with a totally unnecessary welcome window. I never spend very much time looking at it, but I usually manage to catch a glimpse of what is on it while I'm closing it.

There are always a couple news stories. But there are also links to articles, which are quite prominently featured in the window. And every single one of them, that I have ever seen, are written for women, and only women. Today it wants to tell me all about the do's and dont's of bikini wearing. Last time it wanted to warn me about "bad boyfriend habits". I also briefly read an article about how to keep your boyfriend interested in you after a few months of dating.

At least the last two articles could potentially have been written from a gender-neutral perspective. There are plenty of bad habits to spread between the sexes, and I'm sure boyfriends want to keep their girlfriends interested as well. Yet they were completely, 100% focused on women. MSN never shows me any other kind of article. And it shows me these articles nearly every day.

I thus conclude that it thinks I'm a woman. Which is funny, since I don't recall telling it my gender. Maybe it thinks my email address is girly sounding. Or maybe since I mostly talk to girls (I have more girl friends on MSN and more guy friends on AIM *shrugs*) it assumes that I am one too?

Or maybe it just knows that guys are not going to waste their time reading articles featured on MSN messenger welcome windows, so anyone who actually *does* end up reading more than a line or two has to be a woman?

Come to think of it, that's kinda harsh if true. I have more faith in the women I know than that.

 

[Trekker4747]

Could be any number of reasons from the people you talk to -and their genders- and the type of web searches you do (MSN-M likely is talking to IE.)

Internet "thingies" are odd like that.

On a related note, once a long time ago -when I was in highschool- I got a free pair of pantyhose in the mail addressed to "Ms. [my first and last name.]"

I do not have a first name that is commonly used for both genders.

 

[Kestra]

Maybe because it still remembers you as Iris, as many of us do.

Edit:
I got put in boy's classes in school all the time. My name is "Rakhee" which I pronounce as "Rocky" so you can imagine the confusion that ensues. I was in gym class and home ec with all guys for about two weeks before they got around to switching me to the proper section.

 

[Goji]

Eh. I don't use Internet Explorer, only Firefox, and it knows nothing about Iris.

When it comes to this board, doubts about my gender date back much further than my username switch, by the way. That's what I get for being a newbie with a non-gender-specific name and a female avatar.

 

[RoJoHen]

I never thought you were a girl.

 

[Kestra]

^ I used to think you were a girl, RoJoHen.

 

[RoJoHen]

^ I used to think you were a girl, RoJoHen.

Welcome to the club.

 

[Goji]

Wait... RoJoHen's not a woman?

 

[RoJoHen]

Wait... RoJoHen's not a woman?

 

[Spot's Meow]

My old job had MSN.com as the home page and I would notice every time I glanced at the stories that pretty much all of them, besides the actual real news stories, were for women. Even the financial section seemed geared towards women. I guess that's just the demographic they're going for.

 

[Hermiod]

Wait... RoJoHen's not a woman?

Nobody's saying you are a woman or anything, it's just that I found pictures of you in a photo frame and a wallet that I just bought.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Wait Goj? You're not an emo-chick? Damn it!

Don't worry Goj, at least your middle name isn't feminine...