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Gendered Text Project

About

George Orwell once argued that clichéd language produces clichéd thinking. So let's change the language.

Purpose:

1. Dynamically rewrite the gender of personae in texts
2. Challenge unconscious biases about gender and characters

Background: Unconscious biases on characters' gender continue in narrative fiction, both in print and on screen. Although, studies show that movies with women in leading roles and movies that pass the Bechdel test are more profitable, most roles, leading and otherwise, still go to men. Women fill less than a third of speaking roles in film, according to a review of the 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014 conducted by the University of Southern California. Men get more speaking time in ads, according the Gina Davis Institute's 2017 study. In most Disney princess films, the amount of time women get to talk or act is overshadowed by the male characters. Research has shown similar gender imbalances in literature - from children's stories, to award-winning literary fiction, to best selling genres like sci-fi and fantasy. Not to mention the challenges faced by female authors in getting published.

Method: The gendered text project is an open source website allowing users to radically alter the gender of characters in a story. Users can read selected texts already modified for this format or submit their own texts. To modify a text this project, first input a text to identify all the gendered nouns in a story. Then, manually tag each gendered noun with the associated character. Insert a legend with a list of characters and alternate names. Finally, choose a gender for each character to output a new, revised text.

Examples: Changing a character's gender changes the story in multiple ways. 

What makes a hero? Imagine Conan the Barbarian (a man) as Cuzha the Barbarian (a woman). The character remains an unparalleled warrior, adventuring in exotic lands and soundly defeating all foes, but as a woman instead of a man. 

What makes a villain? Changing the gender may change a character from a hero to a villain or versa. Take the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Instead of a paranoid, hysterical shrew screaming "Off with their heads" every other line, as a man, the character becomes a ruthless tyrant, a bloodthirsty dictator, someone to be taken seriously. 

Changing gender may also change sexual orientation. Take the example of Conan again. The character often takes a lover who fights by the barbarian's side in life and in death. What if it was Cuzha who seduces the Queen of the Black Coast or Conan who takes the King as a lover? A character's gender does not just reflect on that one character, but the whole story.

Purpose

Given a text with properly parameterized gender placeholders, this library will generate an alternate version of the text based on user preference of gender. Gabriel García Márquez' first sentence,

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

would become

Many years later, as she faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliana Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when her father took her to discover ice.

Try the Demo

Visit https://gendered-text.markfullmer.com/demo/ to see a demonstration.

Creating your own texts

0. The Word Map

Review the full list of currently available gender mappings in the code

1. Add Placeholders

Text must have personae gender indicators entered as placeholder text, as well as a legend that instructs the code which gender should be used for each persona.

For example, original the Hundred Years of Solitude sentence, above, would need to be entered as:

Many years later, as {{ he(Aureliano Buendía) }} faced the firing squad, Colonel {{ Aureliano Buendía }} was to remember that distant afternoon when {{ his(Aureliano Buendía) }} father took {{ him(Aureliano Buendía) }} to discover ice.

[[Aureliana Buendía/Aureliano Buendía:female]]

In order to render as male-gendered, the text could be entered as:

Many years later, as {{ she(Aureliano Buendía) }} faced the firing squad, Colonel {{ Aureliano Buendía }} was to remember that distant afternoon when {{ herd(Aureliano Buendía) }} father took {{ her(Aureliano Buendía) }} to discover ice. [[Aureliana Buendía/Aureliano Buendía:male]]

Note the use of "herd" to differentiate determiner & object. See Callouts**, below.

1a. Texts with multiple personae

The sentence from D.H Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, "He kept her because he never satisfied her", illustrates two personae working in tandem. The text would be parameterized as:

{{ He(Paul) }} kept {{ her(Clara) }} because {{ he(Paul) }} never satisfied {{ her(Clara) }}.

Adding the legend would generate the original text, while would reverse the roles:

She kept him because she never satisfied him.

and would generate:

He kept him because he never satisfied him.

2. Create the Legend

Text to be processed must include a legend, wrapped in double square brackets, which may appear anywhere in the text. An example legend:

Each element in the legend is wrapped in square brackets, and consists of the gendered proper names for the character, in the order . This is followed by a colon, after which indicates the gender that should be used in the dynamically generated version of the text.

So, using the legend above, the program will look for a character named "Mindy" or "Mork" and render this character as "Mork" with the male pronoun set. It will look for a character named "Charlize" or "Charles" and render the character as "Charlize" with the female pronoun set. It will look for a character named "Kate," "Ken" or "Kan," and render the character as "Kan" with a transgender pronoun.

Expected results

Text to be manipulated must include parameterized persona placeholders, wrapped in double curly brackets. Examples:

Combined with the example legend, the below placeholder would render as follows:

In comparison, with the legend , the same text would render as:

Example code implementation:

Callouts

• An idiosyncrasy of English language pronouns is that, while the male possessive pronoun "his" (as in "I like his shirt") is identical to the determinative (as in "That shirt is his"), the female equivalents differ (i.e., "I like her shirt" vs. "That shirt is hers"). Accordingly, male determinative pronouns must be entered as "hisd" (e.g., ) for differentiation from the possessive "his" (to avoid the result "I like hers shirt").
• Similarly, the female determiner ("I like her hairdo") is identical to the female object ("I like her"), but the male forms differ ("I like his hairo" vs. "I like him"). Therefore, the female determiner must be identified as "herd".