Male/female handwriting

[Natkat]

I dont belive in male or female hand writting, just pretty and ugly, or read-able and non-readable.

here is from my tablet. pretty ugly I know..

[Jill F]

I never thought about this until now.  I have always had atrocious handwriting, and I sometimes can't even read my own.  It's an effort I was never willing to make, I guess.

Maybe I'll start trying to improve/feminize it.  Should I start by putting a little heart over the "i" in Jill?

[invisiblemonsters]

honestly it could just be based off how women "should have" "neat" and "pretty" handwriting, wanting it to be nice themselves even. i say this because i see a lot of women complain about their handwriting being "messy" when it's all bubbly, neat and eligible but to them..it isn't and men..well..they don't care. that and people say it's based off hand size. who knows though, all i know is that feminine handwriting is more bubbly while masculine is more pointy and straight it seems. even when trying to write neat, i find men tend to still write straight and pointy but i've seen women break that stereotype (my teacher being one of them.)

[dalebert]

The real question is doctors. Why is their handwriting always total crap?

[AdamMLP]

I don't have a consistent handwriting style. I've been trying to stick to cursive this past year but sometimes I'll start writing entirely differently and then remember. It depends on who I'm thinking of (I can copy some people's handwriting pretty well), what pen I have and how my hands feeling. Its never been the same since I broke a bone in it in 2009.

I was jealous of girls' handwriting as a kid because their work always seemed so neat and legible, but never felt right when I tried to emulate it, it just looked awkward and false. If handwriting dysphoria is possible then I've had it.

Someone mentioned something that reminded me of college last year when a tutor refused to mark my work because it wasn't neat enough for a girl. It was mostly right what was in it, so there was no other reason for him not to mark it. I had to redo it even though it was neater than a lot of the guys.

[JamesG]

The real question is doctors. Why is their handwriting always total crap?

8 years of cadaver formaldehyde fumes?

[Umiko]

Male hand writing tends to be all over the place and messy, as female hand writing tends to be bubbly and full of artistic flavor so to speak. I know plently of females who's hand writing is worse than the typical male hand writing so i would say the is completely thrown out to see lol.

[Nero]

I wonder how much of this is innate and how much expectation. I mean, even if a guy's tendency was to write 'pretty', he may feel cause to adjust it. And likewise for a girl.
Anyway, my handwriting was probably pretty girly and everyone loved it. I wrote 'weird' because I hold my pen weird and my writing always bored hard into the paper. but it looked good and everyone envied it so... 

[Umiko]

my hand writing is like hopped on red bull with a serious case of bi-polar xD for some reason, it starts out soft than ends up scaring the hell out of people   

[katiej]

I wonder how much of this is innate and how much expectation. I mean, even if a guy's tendency was to write 'pretty', he may feel cause to adjust it. And likewise for a girl.

I have an 11 year-old boy and a 9 year-old girl, and it isn't even close.  Her penmanship is so much better than his.  It still hasn't developed into the stereotypical bubbly rounded girl writing, but it's definitely a lot neater than his, and he really couldn't care less.

My brother, on the other hand, has always had the handwriting of a 12 year old girl.  He's in his 30's, and isn't going to change.  It is what it is.

But I still disagree with most people here who say that there is no such thing as masculine or feminine writing.  Of course there are exceptions, and not everyone is going to conform to stereotypes.  But if you were to examine 100 samples of people's handwriting, I'd bet that most people could accurately guess on 75% of them.

It seems to me that a good portion of passability -- however you define it -- is in the details.  And if your aim is to blend in, you have to think about and conform to society's expectations of gender expression.  Handwriting is one of those details, and I refuse to be outed by my all-caps, very angular and stereotypically male handwriting.

[Nero]

It seems to me that a good portion of passability -- however you define it -- is in the details.  And if your aim is to blend in, you have to think about and conform to society's expectations of gender expression.  Handwriting is one of those details, and I refuse to be outed by my all-caps, very angular and stereotypically male handwriting.

I doubt you'd be outed by it. Handwriting differs so much. And female doctors... well had a few of those and...  yeah.

Anyway, handwriting is unique (it's used in forensics!  ). I don't care whether mine looks the way it does because I was born and raised a girl. I like it anyway. It's mine.

[katiej]

I doubt you'd be outed by it. Handwriting differs so much. And female doctors... well had a few of those and...  yeah.

You're right that it's unlikely I'd ever be outed by handwriting alone.  But if someone already has doubts and is looking for cues, it could work against me.  So I've developed a new style of writing that is a lot more typically feminine than my normal writing.  It still isn't quite as round or fluid as I'd like, but my hand just doesn't seem to want to do that.  But at least it gives me plausible deniability, and I think it'll improve with time.

Doctors are a whole different class of people.  I used to work in a hospital and had to learn how to interpret their writing.

[katiej]

Here's a sample of my before and after:

[Lauren5]

I've been told I should be a doctor because my handwriting is so illegible. If that were the only qualification required, heck yea, I'd take the job. But it involves blood, guts, and worst, needles.
Being adextrous doesn't help; I can write legibly with neither hand, and am otherwise mixed handed, so the only reason I (attempt to) write right handed is because it was drilled into me from a young age that that was the norm.

[Umiko]

I doubt you'd be outed by it. Handwriting differs so much. And female doctors... well had a few of those and...  yeah.

Anyway, handwriting is unique (it's used in forensics!  ). I don't care whether mine looks the way it does because I was born and raised a girl. I like it anyway. It's mine.

Yea, just write one way, than write another. sure fire way to get away with stuff when since forensics does try to match your hand writing xD just wear gloves though 

[Christine Eryn]

My handwriting is pretty damn ugly, no matter how hard I try to improve it. I've made several attempts to make it more "girly" but it's not happening. 

[MadeleineG]

My roman writing looks a lot like arabic script.

[Alaia]

Up until I was in junior high I used to write very neat and bubbly. I actually tried to emulate the handwriting from the girls I knew because I liked how pretty it was.

Then I started to get made fun of because of my handwriting looking girly... and I'm sad to say I succumbed to that peer pressure and let my handwriting become sloppy and messy.

Here's what it looks like now (top) and what it looks like if I try to print it cleaner and more bubbly (bottom):




Neither are really that feminine in my mind. It's something for me to work on. Changing handwriting is hard though, especially after years and years.

[luna nyan]

I write in a hurry.
So my writing usually look like chicken scratchings.  If I'm not pressed for time then I can write pretty neatly in a fashion that is "neutral"

[Hyacinth]

I dont belive in male or female hand writting, just pretty and ugly, or read-able and non-readable.

I have the same view. My handwriting has changed so much over the past five years, but I finally reached the point where I couldactually read it, about three years ago.  Here it is now.