After Dustin’s presentation I really could not stop thinking about handwriting. I’m currently plagued with questions about why people write the way they write, the influences that go into it, and why is cursive dying out?
We touched on in class, briefly, on the gendered aspect of handwriting. Girls, traditionally, write in more looped handwriting, while boys write with more rigid handwriting. As I left class something hit me. Maybe handwriting is influenced by what we see. Hear me out. So products that are marketed to girls, I’ve noticed, tend to have more loopy text on them. It’s not rigid but more flowy – almost like what you would traditionally assume to be girls handwriting. Boys clothing and products, as I’ve noticed, are more likely to be more rigid emulating what we would traditionally would categorize as boys handwriting.
Now I’m not sure if I am just completely crazy but I think that might have something to do with handwriting. If we expose children to certain types of writing and branding that is effectively gendered, it might influence the way that children write. I don’t think it is the only influence but it could have something to do with it. I’m curious if any of you think about this. Do you think the type of text we are exposed to when we are learning to write influences how we write?
Either my eyes aren’t functional, or lego blocks = abstract art. Unless there’s some other explanation for my unintelligible writing.