i ran a small experiment using the three different gender markers (male, female, and "other") on Lensa and the results were...interesting. the "female" setting had the most aggressive "photoshopping" or airbrushing or what i'm just going to call "weird interferance with the geometry of the face". it also was the only setting that removed my glasses from the final image for some styles ("fairy princesses" dont wear glasses i guess???).

i got "superhero" and "cyborg" for both my "other" and "male" avatar packs, but "fairy princess" only showed up in my "female" pack. "rock star" only showed up in the "male" pack, along with "astronaut." my "other" pack got "cyber scientist".

there were some persistent differences between the styles that were shared between categories. "Cosmic" for "female" looks very gaia-mystical-geometry-astro-goddess, while "cosmic" for "male" looks like Dr. Who.

i dont think this gender essentializing is particularly surprisng to anyone. as mentioned by @kattiidenberg , the female setting is quite aggressive about adding large breasts and also earrings to images. it's silly and disappionting in an undergraduate 101 feminist theory seminar kind of way that in the year of our lord 2022 we have image platforms that apparently have been set to provide images of "fairy princesses" to girls and "rock stars" to boys.

here's a comparison of "stylish" across the gender settings: other, male, female

here is a comparison of "light" (which is the painterly genre) between "other" and "female" (it didnt show up for "male"):

here is a comparison of "mystical" for "other" and "male", and then "cosmic" for "male" and "female":