Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Anyone's handwriting change while transitioning?

I had to hand write a list at work the other day and I noticed it was a lot neater than my normal chicken scratch.
Now I just wrote out a check, something I don't do very often as I pay everything on line. I looked at the check and didn't recognize the handwriting, yet I wrote it, I know I did, I just watched my self.

It looked a lot like a girls handwriting. An unexpected but pleasant change!

My handwriting has gotten a touch more rounded and is occasionally neater. Not by design though. Most of the time when I am jotting something down in my ever present notebook I am a bit frenetic. I have books going back to high school and I can't read some of them anymore. I write like a blind doctor. I was a graffiti writer and devealoped quite a few of my own fonts over the years, those leak into my handwriting a lot. My signature is a controlled scribble.

So to answer your question, yes, but the difference is negligible, it has just added to the chaos.

My handwriting is ugly as it's ever been even though I've been drawing since I was 3 years old. I think sometimes it is sure to out me somehow. I have consciously tired to make it more girly and "loopy" but I haven't been able to nail it all the time.  :icon_blink:

My handwriting did change and was also more rounded and neater.  I enjoyed practicing my new signature last year.

I wonder what will happen as cursive is no longer being taught to grade school kids.  Will they grow up printing their signature?

Yes my handwriting changed. I thought nothing of it  but it's probably a multitude of mental and physical changes at play. Or perhaps nothing.

My new signature though is much nicer than my old one.

I noticed only recently that my handwriting reverted to how it used to be when I was young, before I cared that it was too girly and consciously tried to change it.

Quote from: iKate on November 22, 2015, 06:39:17 PM
Yes my handwriting changed. I thought nothing of it  but it's probably a multitude of mental and physical changes at play. Or perhaps nothing.

My new signature though is much nicer than my old one.

Ya, I didn't try to change it, it just came out that way. I've definitely relaxed and become more at ease since starting HRT and coming out to my friends.

Just one of the little perks of transitioning I guess.

Interesting. Mine hasn't changed. Not that I write very often, mostly just signing my name, but it's the same as it's been since I can remember.

Quote from: Ashey on November 22, 2015, 07:44:51 PM
Interesting. Mine hasn't changed. Not that I write very often, mostly just signing my name, but it's the same as it's been since I can remember.

Since my name has changed, so has my signature. My old signature did not match my newly changed name.

Hand writing, what's that. No kidding! When I started coding in college we used coding forms to write the program before we went to a keypunch to produce the card deck as time on the keypunches was limited. Because the forms had columns, printing was the only way to get stuff to line up correctly. Then came the day I was reviewing my class notes and I found I couldn't read my own handwriting. The solution was simple, print everything.

This worked great until one day when I went to replace my auto insurance. They wanted me to write something in hand writing before I got my policy. Needless to say after over 30 year without writing, I couldn't so the agent made a notation about that and I still got the policy.

My hand writing has had a wide spectrum of evolution. From a very miniscule almost microscopic on paper, to a slight reversed italicized, my basic quick chicken scratch which incorporates loops and stars, hearts or smiley faces with the words.

My signature as my previous self was pretty, always has been, I had incorporated a musical tone within the writing itself, had sharp, crisp tones, as well as a star notated at the end of my first name, as well as my last name was crisp and at the end encompassed my name as a whole as a returning loop through. Which I am still able to produce with my eyes closed.

At my base mid transition, while I wait so I can change my name. My signature has reverted to my last name portion of my current signature. And I am trying to incorporate something to a similar fashion for when I do officially change my name, which has no connections to my name as I am going yo go with my mothers maiden name. By the full name though as a representation, seems to be a more bubbly kind of signature rather than having the old style involved.

Kate <3

My handwriting has always been girly. I remember also drawing little flowers and stars along the margins when i was in school. Now i dont repress it anymore.


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my handwriting is awful, terrible, heck my printing is utterly illegible, when I read old things I wrote it has nothing to do with actually reading, rather select words or shapes trigger memories of what I was writing at the time and I just remember, if its too old for me to remember its useless.

it was so bad in school I was required by the school to type all my notes and all non math homework was typed up and printed out...like really bad...I was actually tested three times in my youth for various learning disabilites because it was so bad they often assumed it had to be medically related which when I think about it given they never even tried to hide what they where doing likely did nothing good for my self esteem and self hatred.

Suffice it to say I have seen no actual change in my writing, not that I have used a pen all that much in the last few months..I mean I can write sorta legible, it just takes me 5 times longer than most people and it lookeds like a third grader did it.

Serena

My handwriting has changed in that I seem to enjoy writing by hand so it looks a bit more... Legible? I don't have fancy handwriting, not even 'pretty' handwriting (I've been told that only... three times in my entire life. Soooo....), but now I seem to enjoy taking more time to write, not like everything is a huge rush like I alwaaayyysss seemed to write like.

Well, having nerve damage handwriting is something I practice, however it has bicome much softer indeed.
Could kick myself though, last week I began with mi new gender therapist (just moved) an I signed mi olde name.. UG..... :/

Yes, it has developed more of a flair when writing capital letters. I recall having an handwriting analysis done at a fair many years ago and was told handwriting will vary depending on one's mood. Guess I'm happy!

Love,
Clare

I love calligraphy. I was a little disheartened when I heard that they were taking cursive out of school curriculums. My handwriting has stayed pretty much the same... my OCD forces me to labor over my handwriting. Except for my "J's" and "&"... I didn't care for the look of them so I created my own. LoL...

My cursive has degenerated over the years to the point that I can't even sign my name. I usually just do a bunch of loops for my signature that no one could ever duplicate... or read.

I've been an engineer all my life. If I need to write something, it is typed. On checks or other things where I do have to use a pen I print very neatly... architectural neat.

Cindi

Mine hasn't changed however I did receive many compliments by teachers growing up on how my handwritten was "nice" or "girly".

I worked REALLY hard on making mine look better, basically redoing all of my mechanics from square one to try and make everything look neater and re-write all of my mental bad habits in terms of letters and numbers that I was shaping wrong, and yes, effort does pay off. After about 2 weeks of forcing yourself to write things in a new way, it becomes second-nature, so now my handwriting looks much better.

Mine has become somewhat (probably more than somewhat) prettier, a bit more rounded and so on. That said, my original handwriting was a complete mess, so it's still not what I would call pretty. I also at times have hand tremor because of medicines, which obviously affects handwriting. But all in all, yes, it has changed. I have no idea how people would "gender" my handwriting (which is pure and utter nonsense anyways, you can't determine gender from handwriting), I guess it would depend on the person seeing it and also on my mood, degree of hand tremor and whether or not I was in a hurry at the time of writing.

Also, in general, I rarely write by hand at all except when signing stuff or in rare cases filling in forms which can't be filled in electronically. Oh, and finals at university, but even then I use a computer for everything except math, electronics (drawing circuits in MS Word is kind of a hassle) and other courses where the test isn't text-centered. I can go weeks without touching a pen in extreme cases. I suspect frequency of handwriting also plays a huge part - if I wrote more stuff by hand, I'd probably also get better at it.

People have always complemented me on my handwriting since I was about in my mid 20s.  I had quit writing cursive by then as that did look like chicken scratch.  I print everything in a neat upright and slightly rounded style and have gotten so I can print much faster than trying to write cursive.  It's neat and very easy to read.

My bank used to call me a human typewriter...printed everything neatly and in small font.  My mom was a calligraphy artist and I was trained in cursive writing.  The cursive has slipped into disuse to a degree where I have to think about shaping the lettering.

The other day, I noted the printing in something I had jotted down.  My lettering was way more fluid with a lot of the sharp edges rounded.  Still very legible, but definitely different.  I figure it is just that my hand musculature has atrophied some and so I am gripping the pen differently.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on November 29, 2015, 06:27:41 AM
I worked REALLY hard on making mine look better, basically redoing all of my mechanics from square one to try and make everything look neater and re-write all of my mental bad habits in terms of letters and numbers that I was shaping wrong, and yes, effort does pay off. After about 2 weeks of forcing yourself to write things in a new way, it becomes second-nature, so now my handwriting looks much better.

Would you be able to share the process you used to make your handwriting more "girly"? Mine still looks horrible even when I slow down. Thanks!

Interesting topic! I do a lot of translation work of Buddhist root texts and always do my first draft by hand, because it enables me to really absorb the text. I've often been told that my handwriting is very feminine and meticulous, but when I see other women's handwriting, it's almost invariably rounded.

So does this handwriting "pass" as feminine? Is it actually possible to determine gender identity on basis of one's handwriting?

The picture is a random page of my translation of Ye Tsongkhapa's Book of three inspirations (this one: http://promienie.net/categories/philosophy-spirituality/buddhism/dharma-collection/item/112-three-inspirations (http://promienie.net/categories/philosophy-spirituality/buddhism/dharma-collection/item/112-three-inspirations))

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs30.postimg.org%2F64pfgeo00%2Fhandwriting.jpg&hash=40c5bb3daef0ab965e338fbb76301febcd528585)

I found an interesting page about the subject over here:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/physical/handwriting/ (http://www.tsroadmap.com/physical/handwriting/)

Back when I was in high school, my English teacher said that my writing looked like hieroglyphics. Unfortunately, it still rings true to this day.

Quote from: Naomi71 on January 06, 2016, 03:25:46 PM
I found an interesting page about the subject over here:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/physical/handwriting/ (http://www.tsroadmap.com/physical/handwriting/)

Great link, thanks!

Mine is as bad as ever, fun part of that is that growing up and even now I would sign my name as Michelle and people thought for sure it was Michael unless they looked super close :)

  One thing that has changed though is my artistic styles, I'm a professional artist and once I was able to be in total girl mode it all comes so easy and natural whilst in boy mode it was duller and often a struggle.