Handwriting

Posted by on . 4 comments.

Natt Nightly wrote about handwriting and gender the other day.  I don’t think my gender would be identified by someone just from my handwriting (though two choices does give anyone pretty good odds).  I do associate both neater and more rounded handwriting with feminine and messy or almost childish handwriting with masculine.  I’m not sure why and I’m not really sure it’s valid.

So, what do you think about my handwriting?

Comments

  1. Mike says:
    September 15, 2008 at 7:31 am

    I don’t have time to look it up right now, but I remember reading studies where double-blind testing allowed most people to correctly identify the gender of a writer ~85% of the time.

    I’m no gender essentialist, but I do believe there are cognitive differences (note that I did not say inequalities) in men and women that are likely to express themselves in different writing styles. Now, whether these differences are genetic, sociocultural, or some incomprehensibly complex amalgam of both, who knows?

    Also, forensic investigators are correctly able to establish the gender of handwriting far above chance, so there is something to it, at least.

    My handwriting is typically male — extremely illegible, even to me after a time.

    Reply
  2. Eugenie says:
    September 15, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    your handwriting looks a lot like Theo’s.

    And to be honest, my handwriting is like that too.

    I remember when I wrote a note on Theo’s whiteboard and he didn’t notice it for a few weeks since it blended in so well. When his housemates noticed it they teased him good. (Oh sweet nothings…)

    There also was the time when I was trying to figure out how to spell gonorrhea on a folder (where we kept the attendance sheets for the swim lessons). My co-instructor Gina and I were cracking up trying to figure it out, and I ended up writing it about 4-5 different ways.

    The next day my boss came to me and asked why Mike (my co-instructor) decided to write gonorrhea wrong 5 times on the attendance folder.

    When my boss was about to go ream Mike a new one I had to tell him it was me…. (I didn’t get shit either, which was great….hooray for being second in command… I did get told to practice my penmanship..)

    I think handwriting tends to go with the stuff you study. I know some male english majors who’ve got pretty “girly” handwriting.

    …pun intended

    Reply
  3. Carole says:
    September 15, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    What your handwriting says about you is that you are talkative but a selective listener. You have been criticized as a child enough that you are critical of others. You also don’t want any advice because you expect it to be just more criticism rather than helpful. You like to have control of your environment so everything is just as you like it. At the moment your goals are of a short term variety and at the time of the writing you were juggling too many things to be comfortable. You also are a bit of a procrastinator. You set priorities on what needs done but don’t allow enough time for each and in the rush to finish mistakes can happen.

    Reply
  4. Eugenie says:
    September 16, 2008 at 7:35 am

    Carole- thats intense! I would like to see what you would have to say from my handwriting… I’m quite curious

    Reply

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