The second 'most feminine' sounding candidate is Donald Trump

(Image credit: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

published 14 March 2016

It's not exactly a shocker that Hillary Clinton is the most feminine sounding candidate according to Textio, a company that uses software to evaluate language. However, the second most feminine sounding candidate might be something of a surprise: Donald Trump.

Using phrases like "my beautiful family" and "lasting relationships," analysts found that Trump's speech tended toward the feminine, according to statistically significant responses to words by the different sexes. Trump, however, also skews very masculine in his speech, using insults like "moron" or phrases like "absolutely destroy."

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Software is imperfect at understanding human language because it misses important clues like gestures, tone of voice and facial expressions, said Robin Lakoff, professor emerita of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, who in 1975 published a book, Language and Woman's Place, that led to a variety of research on language and gender.Based on these nonverbal cues, she concluded that Mr. Trump was the most feminine speaker of all the candidates, even more than Mrs. Clinton — he gestures a lot, is very expressive, poses statements as questions and repeatedly explains himself, all of which are commonly feminine, she said. [The New York Times]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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