So here I am at my tedious data entry job (anyone who tells you that copy editors can always find work is either lying or sadly misinformed), and I get a change-of-address card from a woman in Texas. It so happens that this person was born in 1978 – but really, I could have guessed without even looking it up in the database that she was born in the 1960s or '70s. Why? The handwriting. It’s bubbly.
The thing that I find remarkable is this: I live in Illinois. I grew up here. And yet this Texan woman’s bubbly handwriting is exactly the same as the bubbly handwriting I grew up seeing girls use in Illinois. If there weren’t another name signed to the card, I’d swear it was my sister’s writing. (Another funny thing: If you put my handwriting and my sister’s side by side, they are almost the same … almost. It’s like they belong to one typeface in which mine is the roman font and hers is the bubbly font.) In other words, bubbly seems to be independent of geography. It could have been transmitted, but my intuition tells me that it probably just popped up independently all over the place as penmanship instruction in grade school became less fascist (I base this theory on the fact that every woman I know who’s over 50 years old writes with perfect standard cursive, straight off the charts above the chalkboard, or as close to it as their manual coordination allows).
Of course, bubbly writing is not standard cursive; nobody is teaching bubbly penmanship. So what is there about girls’ brains (or at least American girls’ brains – I don’t know whether this phenomenon exists elsewhere) that creates this uniform tendency to write bubbly?
If by bubbly you mean very rounded and each letter is too wide, I have seen it in some friends’ handwriting.
I first saw it in school. Our old headmistress was in love with the “Palmer” method, where you spend days making loops and patterns like a bunch of §'s all run together. Most of us got it right away, but some made round shapes instead of oval loops and couldn’t be convinced they’d misunderstood the instructions. Their handwriting was nearly too wide to read, and a couple words filled a line. I think the fact that you could make happy faces inside all the letters added to the charm.
I have been stymied by this one also. Although there are many women who don’t write bubbly, I have yet to find one man who does (although he or they are probably out there). Even so, the bubble writing is apparently sexually dimorphic. Why…???
Yeah, I’ve never seen a man dot an ‘i’ with a heart, either - which in my book is a good thing.
I know exactly the bubbly style you mean - could it just have been inspired by the pop culture of the time? We had a lot of bubbly imagery back then - Peter Max art, inflatable furniture, lava lamps. It was a roundish era.
I (born in the early eighties) have bubbly handwriting. I have it because I wanted to imitate my mother’s handwriting when I was little. I remember just waiting nd waiting until they stopped grading us on handwriting (their way) so that I could write my way (bubbly).
for what it’s worth, a grapholigist will tell you that bubbly writing is indicative of person with an open, extroverted personality – well, a “bubbly” personality sort of. of course, there’s a bunch of other factors that they would have to take into account, but that’s the generalization.
i have seen bubbly writing occur in men, although at a much lower frequency than women. i don’t think the writing style is at all indicative of the 60s or 70s, as i’ve seen it fairly frequently in my generation (80s, 90s)
with the graphology example, before you think it’s kooky and pseudo-science (which, I admit, it is, but there is some truth to certain aspects of it) there are certainly guesses you can make about a person when you see their handwriting. when i see bubbly writing, i associate that with a sweet, “cute” personality, and much more often than not, this is what i get.
Another thing you see in a lot of bubbly writing is a very large x-height. For non-typographics, this means that the body of each lowercase letter is very large in proportion to its ascenders and descenders. This probably tends to exaggerate the appearance of roundedness.
Neither my sister or I were much inflicted with the bubbly handwriting, though my sister did occassionally dot an I with a heart or circle.
The tragedy is that handwriting doesn’t appear to be taught in school at all. My daughter is in the fourth grade and has TERRIBLE penmanship. We have been to four different public schools (we move alot) and none of them have ever addressed penmanship (or penpersonship) at all.
It may be fascist, but bring back the handwriting! At least then, writing can be read.
As someone who has studied graphology for many many years, I can assure you that “bubbly” writing is a distinct graphological trait. Very very generally, it indicates a person with a very childlike and self-centered personality, and in an adult, it shows someone who has retained a rather low maturity level. In women, it shows a strong “little girl” component, and a woman with this kind of writing is likely to have stuffed animals in her bedroom well into her '30s. It can also indicate a kind of narcissism and vanity which shows as an overiding concern with ones personal appearance and clothing, as well as an inability to be concerned with anything other than the present moment and one’s present state of being. In other words, a low frustration tolerance and inability to delay gratification. These people are very practical minded however, and are the kind of people who get things done very reliably day-to-day. They are often good diplomats, because they can put up a very smiley front no matter what they are feeling. Other characteristics are friendliness, naivete, formality, constructivness, femininity, kindness to children & animals, lack of guile.
A lot of people brought up in Deep America and who were exposed to not much more than Saturday Morning TV and Capt Crunch during their childhoods and teenage years tend to retain many childlike characteristics in their handwriting and personalities into adulthood because of the lack of exposure to more broadening and adult influences.
I have always assumed that graphology is a crock. It uses blanket statements that could apply to anyone, and a lot of cold reading. I don’t think it has anything on palm reading.
But, bubbly cursive is an interesting phenomenon. I grew up in the great northwest in the 80s, and I have seen it that exact style of writing from the girls I went to school with. I guess the question is: do women from different generations write like that? What about English speaking girls not from America?
Send your writing to a competent graphologist and see what you get. I assure you your jaw will drop to the floor. It’s never wrong; but the skill of the interpreters vary.
Thousands of European firms use it every day to screen job applicants, and have been for decades. It’s starting big-time now in America. It works because there is hundreds of years worth of empirical data compiled by researchers correlating various writing characteristics with personality types. Also, your writing can not help show something of you, because it’s you that’s doing it and nobody else. If it weren’t true, then everyones writing would look the same. The very fact that you can recognize the writing of someone you know among other writings shows that personality is revealed in it, and you instinctively pick that up.
I’d be just as happy if the stopped teaching cursive writing all together (some schools have). Printing is easier to write and easier to read. Contrary to popular belief, printing is not slower to write than cursive.
NicholasD: I sent a sample to a graphologist once, and the analysis was couched in terms so general that they could apply to almost anyone, especially to a person disposed to think well of himself. “You have a noble character; you are sometimes unsure of yourself; you are honest, etc.” Admittedly, there were a few things in the analysis that seemed to fit me to a tee, but then again there were other things that missed the mark completely. I’m not convinced that it’s completely bogus, but I have yet to see a scientific, controlled study, that validates it. If you know of one, tell me.
bibliophage – printing may be faster than strict cursive, but apparently the fastest form of writing is print-handwriting, where you connect some of your letters, but cross your t’s and dot your i’s as you go along. you can also do things like cross your t’s with the leading stroke to a “th” combination, etc, etc, etc. when i write to my foreign friends, i tend to print because the american system of writing differs from others, and i find that printing does slow me down quite a bit, and becomes tiring.
but, yes, it is much easier to read.
as for graphology:
after dabbling in it for several years, i think there is a grain of truth in it, but that you can’t determine very specific things about a person’s characted. you can usually determine intelligence to some degree, mood, and if the person is stressed or relaxed or excited while they are writing. however, these things can be determined by non-experts just as easily. if you see writing that begins neat and starts getting sloppy and frantic, you know that something is going on. the person may be getting emotional, the person may really be getting into what s/he is writing or, simply, the person is in a hurry.
statistically, there has been evidence in support of graphological traits, but it applies to extreme psychological cases. mostly, serial killers and psycho/sociopaths of the such. once again, though, you and i can look at the writing and say “shit, something just ain’t right with this bloke.”
I worked with a guy once who had absolutely beautiful handwriting; I’ve never seen its’ equal. It was very flowery and feminine looking, but very even, and easy to read.
I envied him! It was a little incongruous, as he was a very muscular macho kind of guy.
Also, I knew a girl with wonderful penmanship.
She was left handed, but what got my attention was that she wrote upside down, from right to left, but when you turned the page around, it was perfect.
It was mind boggling to watch her write!
I know the bubbly writing. I could never replicate it. I fit the profile, child-like, bubbly, happy, sweet. I own stuffed animals, I’m into cutsie stuff. No go, though. My cursive is long and more “elegant” (spidery) it makes people’s eyes go funny after a few pages. That’s why I type everything.