[Serious] Please convince me gender is binary

[bennyboy]

Actually, it's probably BCD (Binary Coded Decimal). It's a series of 8-bit binary numbers, each representing a decimal value which probably represents an ASCII character.

Not particularly clever, just designed to impress someone who isn't computer-savvy.

No, it is binary and *not* BCD. Convert to hex and compare to an ascii table (don't use decimals at all).

ASCII is a lost art.

And a real clever art it was-- the ability to use register shifts to see if you have a capital letter, for example.  Quite smartly done, overall!