Most languages have a gender for nouns; in French, a pencil is male, and a pen is female. But the thing is, this isn’t just a quirk of language: People often seem to feel that objects actually have a gender. I once roomed with a women who insisted that toasters were male, for example.

I can’t remember how the hell I got in that particular argument, but now we can settle it once and for all — because Paul Grzymkowski has set up an online project where people can vote on the gender of a particular object. That pack of Ramen noodes? According to the votes so far, 60.62% of people think it’s male. Meanwhile, 45.98% of people think ice pops are female, a sizeable 78.10% of people think a deck of cards is male, and 68.42% felt that disposable paper cups are female.

If you don’t see an object in there you’d like to see classified? Gryzmkowki’s taking suggestions here. Me, I’m wondering about whether a typewriter is a he or a she.

(Thanks to Boing Boing for this one!)