A co-worker asked me a very interesting question the other day - "Do you still write like a man?"
I was like, hmmm.... I write a lot at work especially considering that I am a teacher. So I compared my "male" handwriting - to me, it looked like an unhappy person who had sloppy handwriting.
Now I write much neater, smaller, and of course - NO hearts above the "i"s. even that is too tacky. lol
How's yours?
Mine is still horrible, infact its worse! lol! I have always had horrible handwriting! My teachers used to tell me to stop letting my chickens dip their feet in ink and scratch over my homework!lol " whats this chicken scratch?" I had an interpreter from 1st grade all the way through highschool, a friend that always had to read my work to th teacher, haha. My mom said I must be destined to be a doctor. After seeing their handwriting, maybe ;)
lol, google "gender differences in handwriting" and you ll find a lot of interesting things...
Yeah, doctors have horrible handwriting, but even the female ones write neater than the male ones, lol
Googleing! lol even all the male hand writing is neater than mine!
Personally I think it's just selective perception and that we tend to 'see' more examples of messy male handwriting and neat female handwriting. There might be some tendency slightly one way or the other but I've seen numerous counter-examples.
As for my writing? It hasn't changed. When I write quickly and enthusiastically it gets rather messy but if I pay a bit of attention, it's reasonably neat.
My handwriting is so bad that I avoid writing if at all possible. I have got it into my head that a person's handwriting reveals a great deal about them, as my handwriting is appalling I shudder to think what that says about me.
I would absolutely love to have a beautiful copperplate hand. I have seen examples of W.C Fields handwriting and his writing was beautiful even exquisite. The Victorians wrote very well. I have seen a copy of Inspector Abberline's* witness statement and his writing was beautiful especially so when you consider he was taking down dictation and didn't have time to prettify his handwriting.
* He of Jack the Ripper fame.
When I did a fashion course I was amazed at the patience the girls had for craft(applique,knitting,beading etc) and the lack of patience the one or two boys had. I forced as much patience as I could but I'm fairly boyish in that regard(which make sense).
My handwriting has always been the most atrocious I've ever seen. I attribute this to a desperately unhappy primary school experience more than anything else. I've been trying to improve it lately.
Great thread idea!
Code. I hated people looking over my shoulder in university, so I made it impossible for anyone but me to read anything. So now I can write like that, or I can write neatly but slowly.
I taught myself how to write like a female when I was in the 9th grade. I went from the ugliest, non-legible handwriting to probably 80% female looking handwriting. I still have issues spacing my letters out and making them level.
Palmer Method perfect. Not my fault. Nuns with rulers made sure of it.
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 25, 2011, 03:48:37 PM
A co-worker asked me a very interesting question the other day - "Do you still write like a man?"
I was like, hmmm.... I write a lot at work especially considering that I am a teacher. So I compared my "male" handwriting - to me, it looked like an unhappy person who had sloppy handwriting.
Now I write much neater, smaller, and of course - NO hearts above the "i"s. even that is too tacky. lol
How's yours?
It took me months to unlearn years what I had learned about my handwriting. My penmanship is parallel to a woman's handwriting as is my signature.
It was as difficult as changing my voice.
If I write things in a hurry, my handwriting could resort back....like the writing on the hebrew translation in my avatar....I had to write a series of things to study for and I had just a couple minutes to write it all down.
My writing hasnt changed. I've always wrote Bubbly =) And color usually pink and sometimes those smelly pens banana was my fav
Quote from: tekla on December 25, 2011, 07:44:37 PM
Palmer Method perfect. Not my fault. Nuns with rulers made sure of it.
I had nuns and rulers too, but it didn't help, but maybe thats why my writing is so horrible, i'm still shaking waiting to be smacked across my knuckles with the ruler!
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 25, 2011, 03:48:37 PM
A co-worker asked me a very interesting question the other day - "Do you still write like a man?"
I was like, hmmm.... I write a lot at work especially considering that I am a teacher. So I compared my "male" handwriting - to me, it looked like an unhappy person who had sloppy handwriting.
Now I write much neater, smaller, and of course - NO hearts above the "i"s. even that is too tacky. lol
How's yours?
My handwriting is the same. It's fairly neat and small. You cannot tell a persons gender by their handwriting. Some men's handwriting is neat and feminine and some women's handwriting is a mess and would be seen as a man's handwriting.
My signature.. that's just scribble lol! Forgot about that feature!
It really depends on what I'm writing. If I'm at work it's your typical engineering letters so it looks just like everyone else's. My normal handwriting is pretty neat. I know quite a few woman who have worse handwriting than I do. But my words can be illegible when I am in a hurry.
My signature has always been a step below chicken scratch. lol
Kia Ora Ms Daz,
::) How is your handwriting?[/u] What's that ? ;) ;D
Metta Zenda :)
Perfecting neat, 'girly' handwriting was one of my earliest memories of gender expression. Even far before I learned I was trans - I was drawn toward making my writing neat and pretty from about the age of 10. I loved the comments that it occassioanlly drew from girls and made me feel like I was closer to being one of them. I am a real perfectionist when it comes to my writing and I still am to this day (I still live full time as male). I guess I tried to find feminine activities to make myself feel better in a subtle way. I often look for the most minuscule thing to make me similar to the girls I envy. For my whole life I've hid so its something I can freely and openny take pride in without criticism.
It's essentially unchanged but a little smaller and neater... of course also much depends on the mood I'm in! :-)
I like my handwriting.
No idea what a handwriting analyst would have to say though?
"This curl here, that wiggle there, inverted, exaggerated loops ... etc. etc. ---
Ah! A perverted personality, a naughty female in a male body?" Hum.
Hey, just a dilly joke, I hope to be forgiven, eh?
Axélle
My handwriting changes with what I'm doing. My professional handwriting is a scrawl - typical. My note taking is clear and has codes, a sort of personal shorthand. My private letter writing is neat. But when I want to make sure that I communicate properly, I type.
I had Christian Brothers and rulers if we were lucky, thick leather straps were the norm.
Cindy
Amazing the sort of implements (rulers, canes, belts, etc.) used to achieve a 'good' handwriting...
My mom was said to have had a good 'handwriting' [eine gute Handschrift] - in this culture, at the time, it meant to be able to deal out fairly hard smacks to the face or the bum!
Did it improve my own "Handschrift" --- I guess it did, in more then one way...
'Nature and nurture' as the saying goes :-)
Axélle
Mine has and always will be chicken scratch. Almost. But it has changed and I didnt think anything of it until now. My S's were the first to change. they are now bubbly and girly and so now are my F's. I haven't found a way I like writing K's but my signature is evolving. I had a crappy teacher back when I was first learning to write. She tried to make me write with the right hand but I am left-handed. Needless to say the left beat the right. ^_^
But it left me hating to write. Which I now find funny because I love to write stories. Thank you to all the Trans Women who helped bring the computer into the home. ^_^
OK - so WHO writes with hearts here or at least have tried it before???
FESS up! LOL
Haha, I don't even dot my I's; there's nowhere for hearts to go. :D
My handwriting is... weird. It slants left, looks simultaneously rounded and pointy, and I form a bunch of my letters rather weirdly. I went through phases throughout adolescence of changing the way I wrote a certain letter. Happened for 6 or 7 different letters. My signature is pretty chicken-scratchy. You can see my initials, the letters that descend, and the star I add at the end. :-X
I'm actually rather curious to see examples of people's handwriting. I've done a little reading on handwriting analysis, and it really interests me.
why don't we all take pictures of our handwriting and post it here????
Hmm??
Let s write in homage of this forum -
"I love Susan's Forums" and upload the pic here!
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 26, 2011, 01:26:50 PM
why don't we all take pictures of our handwriting and post it here????
Hmm??
No way.. You would think i am a 3 yr old child. I sign stuff like a DR who just scribbles real fast
I've always had very feminine writing. I don't quite understand why your handwriting will change depending on your transition.
And MS Dazzler, I don't use hearts, but I definitely use crosses and big circles. Lol.
Ahh, my handwriting is really terrible. One of my teachers had me rewrite one of my exercise books because she couldn't read it and she said she wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't read it either. She was almost right, it proved to be quite challenging to decode my own handwriting, but I prevailed. :D I really want to improve my handwriting but I didn't put a lot of effort into it, mainly because I rarely use it anyway.
Matter of fact many schools are not teaching cursive writing anymore.
http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive (http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive)
I wonder if it changes based upon whether a person is right of left handed?
I'm a southpaw here, and my handwriting used to be so terrible I actually had trouble reading it myself.
After years of strenuous practice from taking notes all day (<--- History major.) and copying from girls, I now get girls complimenting my handwriting style.
If only I could interact with the world solely through written letters, I would pass 100% of the time. : ::)
Girls write dainty, pretty oh so girlishly, while boys, big nasty smelly boys have disgusting depraved handwriting. That seems to be the thinking by the responses so far. I wouldn't say that my sister's handwriting was neat etc and my mother writes in such a small cramped style that her writing is difficult to decipher.
I tried to upload a picture of my handwriting from my computer but I don't see any option to do so here ???
Quote from: tekla on December 26, 2011, 02:52:46 PM
Matter of fact many schools are not teaching cursive writing anymore.
http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive (http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive)
I can't imagine not writing cursively - it's so much easier and quicker to join letters up. I'd compare it to typing with two hands or one hand.
My hand writing has always been and continues to be horrid. I tend to be a nervous person and my handwriting is probably a reflection of this - when I write, my hand is usually tense.
Quote from: Happy Girl! on December 26, 2011, 04:40:00 PM
Girls write dainty, pretty oh so girlishly, while boys, big nasty smelly boys have disgusting depraved handwriting. That seems to be the thinking by the responses so far. I wouldn't say that my sister's handwriting was neat etc and my mother writes in such a small cramped style that her writing is difficult to decipher.
Well I am not a big smelly boy as I always prided myself as being clean but my penwomanship is challenged. I always print so that my writing can be deciphered.
Quote from: tekla on December 26, 2011, 02:52:46 PM
Matter of fact many schools are not teaching cursive writing anymore.
http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive (http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=schools+not+tea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=schools+not+teaching+cursive)
I always thought it was a useless, "skill" how much illegible handwriting have you seen ? I block print, with perfect height and spacing like the dehumanized machine that I am.
http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html (http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html)
Quite simply, my handwriting is awful :/ back in junior school, the teachers were pretty heavy on handwriting, making us write joined up all the time, so my writing used to be pretty neat, but since then, at secondary school and college I've usually only had to write notes and any essays were typed on a computer, so now my handwriting is pretty much illegible - even to me! I'm starting to make an effort to regain my old writing - which got me compliments from girls, as it was rather pretty - wish me luck!
My handwriting is atrocious. I actually feel accomplished if someone else can read it.
when I was in 2nd grade, my handwriting was terrible. My teacher used to make me practice every day until it was legible. Now my handwriting looks like hers did. As a guy it looks weird, loopy and neat, but it is legible and feminine. Great issue to bring up. It is something we do everyday, and handwriting can have masculine and feminine traits.
Eh I guess you could say I write like a guy.
I write messy and angrily.
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 26, 2011, 04:43:35 PM
I tried to upload a picture of my handwriting as an attachment from my computer but I don't see any option to do so here ???
Can a mod or veteran answer this question please??
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 27, 2011, 11:44:34 AM
Can a mod or veteran answer this question please??
Upload it to a picture hosting site like photobucket or such, then post the img code here or a link to it.
I know that but I meant uploading as an attachment directly from my computer -
below this text box is there option listed as "+ Attachments and other options", but when I click on it, there is no option showing to upload a file from my computer as an attachment.
I doubt they would want to use up that much drive space by doing that. Maybe they should just change that to "Options."
So you are saying on this forum, we can't upload pics directly from our computers. Ridiculous.... I could do that on other forums
My writing is small and very neat, but I don't write in cursive. I've always gotten compliments on it for as long as I can remember, so it must be pretty good.
My dad was a doctor, and I'm an artist. I'm lucky if someone can decipher my cuneiform. On the plus size, my signature is almost impossible to replicate. Yay?
My printing is nicely done... I don't think I could write in cursive if I tried though. I have never been required to, so honestly... I forget.
I wouldn't mind messy writing though, if the reason was because I was in a rush. As long as I could read it...
Oh. I used to do hearts above the Is. It was purely by accident, however, and when someone was reading my work, he was pretty surprised, as I was in guymode when that happened. I changed that aspect of my writing pretty quickly :p
Awful, with my tactile neurotrophy in both hands. I still try with the crosswords and puzzles in the morning paper. Possible cause is with contact with lead solder caused by punctures from handling PC boards during repair. I am having a hard time feeling my boobs for the monthly self exams!
Joelene
Mine looks fast. Lots of swooping and sharp end points. It's constantly the object of scorn for anyone who must read it, but I gotta get it down on paper before it leaves.
I did learn cursive writing at school, but I abandoned it already before I even finished primary school. I can still do it, but it's very slow for me.
My handwriting has been about the same for a few years now, but it's definitely somewhat different from when I was in secondary school.
Here's what it looked like some years ago while I was at university... still looks about the same now! Sorry for all the mathsy bits :P
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1097.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fg356%2Fapplecustardpie%2Fpde-page.jpg&hash=9dd77d271ba27fcfba462a443f7b07ab6fe88685) (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1097.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fg356%2Fapplecustardpie%2Flebesgue.jpg&hash=cd189cacf1dc730161130c38cae64cb6b309a187)
Okay now you guys post yours!!
Quote from: Joelene9 on December 28, 2011, 12:36:13 AM
Awful, with my tactile neurotrophy in both hands. I still try with the crosswords and puzzles in the morning paper. Possible cause is with contact with lead solder caused by punctures from handling PC boards during repair. I am having a hard time feeling my boobs for the monthly self exams!
Joelene
I have my hands beaten almost completely numb, from a combination of power tools and hammering at work, it sucks.
I didn't hand write for ages ::) I replace it with computer during high school and I newer need it as a computer rat and IT specialist ;D
I just draw my chaotic sketches but did not write full sentence for at least 5 years
People tell me I write so purrrdy!
I always write bubbly when I have enough time, I wrote like this since as a child I saw the other girls do it and like it that way. My writing is atrocious just when i am in a hurry!!!
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 26, 2011, 12:33:12 PM
OK - so WHO writes with hearts here or at least have tried it before???
FESS up! LOL
I did, but only to my love in love notes and love letters
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1224.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fee376%2FKaz2Mella%2FPicture480.jpg&hash=f62174beac12e54996d2476a2bfc6c7c754fcc77)
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 27, 2011, 12:08:08 PM
I know that but I meant uploading as an attachment directly from my computer -
below this text box is there option listed as "+ Attachments and other options", but when I click on it, there is no option showing to upload a file from my computer as an attachment.
Argh! I am the creator of this thread and cannot upload a picture of my handwriting!!!
Mod or some veteran - answer my question ???
Quote from: MsDazzler on December 28, 2011, 05:50:07 PM
Argh! I am the creator of this thread and cannot upload a picture of my handwriting!!!
Mod or some veteran - answer my question ???
It's quite common for net forums to disable or restrict the uploading functionality of forum software for a wide range of reasons though (often for bandwidth reasons but also many other reasons), so it's convenient to register an account at an image hosting site so that you can post pictures to forums that restrict uploads :) Besides, you can delete the pictures afterwards if you do that. The images I uploaded earlier were hosted on photobucket.com.
Otherwise, web sites like http://imageshack.us (http://imageshack.us) let you upload without registering.
This is totally bizarre - then why is there an "attachment and other options" option below the text box?
After running around, I finally found my answer, lol.
Here is my sample:
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi52.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fg6%2Fdazzlerdazz%2Fhandwriting.jpg&hash=db8c9be833d7c10a84463d7825c4433ce9a176e3)
I submitted mine... let's pony 'em up, the rest of you!
Depends on the language. My handwriting in the Latin alphabet is very feminine due to basically emulating the handwriting of my female best friend growing up. My Russian handwriting looks feminine to me because cursive is still widely used in the language and just writing that way makes it look kind of florid, but I'm sure a native speaker's eye would be more discerning. And my handwriting in Chinese and Japanese is utterly horrible. :/ I pretty much only write in the two languages via a keyboard these days, so when it comes to writing some of the more complex Chinese characters by hand I totally go to pieces and they wind up looking pretty messy. :'D