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Men vs. Women - FP Use


KCat

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I spend all day writing and on the computer. FP make writing more enjoyable. I am now morphing into a collector. My knowledge is slowly expanding. It's fun...what else can I say?

 

I didn't use a FP in high-school. Didn't know they existed. Did use mechanical pencils, though. Only recently did I get into finer writing instruments (6 years ago). Now I'm hooked (as I'm staring at my recent purchase - Parker 51 SE vista blue :drool: ).

 

People I work with write with the cheapest instruments that expel ink. On my desk I have a pen cup with "regular" pens and in another place, my nice pens. People walking by my desk know to use pen cup pens. Only a hand full of comments are made about my pens. Usually from the same people. Sometimes clients will say they like the way my BP's write (Parker Gel refill). I tell them, it's the ink, not the pen. I have one client who asked me to purchase his next pen for him. Cool. Spend someone else's money on something I love to do...buy pens.

 

I also love old camera's. Hey, I'm 30 years old and can only take so much technology.

 

Ipod, Mac, Blackberry, etc. yeah, I have em, but sometimes I like to step back a bit and be different. Ahhhhh, fountain pens to the rescue.

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After all, as everyone knows, REAL MEN love tools!

 

*COUGH!*

 

Not touching that! NOT. GOING. TO.

 

:blink:

 

Ohhhhhhhh...

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I think your husband view is incorrect. More men then woman notice my writing insturments as well as my watches. That is not to say a majority of the people I work with notice these itmes, clearly less then 5%, mostly men mostly successful small businessmen and people in the financial markets.

He should be happy to be married to a woman with such refined taste.

None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try” Mark Twain

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Guest Denis Richard
denis, i saw that dress you posted and didnt wendy o williams wear stuff like that?

 

sam

Who is Wendy O Williams ? :huh:

 

Denis... still fob-ish. :D

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Guest Denis Richard
I'm just glad no one seems overly offended. Sometimes it's hard to admit that aside from obvious physical characteristics (which even those can be deceiving) - we really can be very different (men and women that is) and our motivations may be different.

Except may be Mrs.Thatcher... :lol:

 

Denis.

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denis, i saw that dress you posted and didnt wendy o williams wear stuff like that?

 

sam

Who is Wendy O Williams ? :huh:

 

Denis... still fob-ish. :D

she was a punk rocker, wore the wierdest costumes. but i am 46 and you are somewhat half my age, so she was only a seminal figure on the music scene around 1982 or so

 

sam

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My wife and I are irresistably attracted to stationary stores, but she is uninterested in fountain pens despite my efforts to share my obsession.

 

Her pen of choice is the Pilot V7 roller ball. As a writer, she has them scattered around every room of the house, a cup full of them on her desk, a couple rattling around her car and a couple more in her handbag.

 

She just prefers the smoothness of a roller ball, without the fussiness of fountain pens.

 

The only pen of mine that I got her turned on to is a Parker Big Red roller ball, which she loves.

 

When it comes to writing, she is definitely a function over form person.

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  • 1 month later...

My father uses a fountain pen. I got into them via calligraphy, which I learned to do as a young teenager, in an effort to improve my bad handwriting. My mother worked in a jewelry store, and so was able to get me a Montblanc ballpoint and fountain pen at cost for a high school graduation present.

 

I the Montblanc in college, and off and on ever since then, but I really got into using fountain pens again in my residency. A fellow (female) resident used one, and that got me started collecting, as I didn't want to use my Montblanc in the hospital.

 

I've never seen anyone else, male or female, using a fountain pen. I would never give my husband a fountain pen, as he tends to destroy things. He likes to pull on pen clips, often breaking them off. He pulled on my Pelikan 400 clip; and probably would have faced intense wrath had he not managed to get it back into place. :angry: :lol: Actually, he has my old Montblanc rollerball, which I don't care for. So far it looks like it's in good condition and unmolested...

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I think that the fountain pen users I know are probably evenly split between male and female, though I have a vague sense that there are more men posting here. At work, there are five of us who use fountain pens regularly (out of 80), three women, two men; there are an overlapping five of us who use Pilot Hi-Tec C pens as well, and will occasionally geek out about them (all women); and there are two men who use calligraphy markers. In my immediate social life, I've got about ten women who use fountain pens, and two men.

 

Thing is, people get into them for different reasons. My ex wasn't into fountain pens when we were together (nineteen years, mind you), but he took a couple of my Hero pens when we split. Then he got involved with a mutual friend (amusingly enough, my fiance's ex, who is a vintage Parker worshipper), who took him to the Fountain Pen Hospital, and somehow walked out of there with three new fountain pens. When we were together, I liked lighter pens, usually plastic or celluloid; he likes more solid, metal pens. (He's a frustrated engineer -- this makes sense.) I may buy him one of those oddly-filling Parker pens, just to watch his techie nerves tingle.

 

Of course, now he (my ex) is lusting after my Sheaffer Legacy, because of the streamlined shape and the weight. Ha! I say -- he can get his own. (Or I'll buy him one when he turns fifty.)

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I think that the fountain pen users I know are probably evenly split between male and female, though I have a vague sense that there are more men posting here. At work, there are five of us who use fountain pens regularly (out of 80), three women, two men; there are an overlapping five of us who use Pilot Hi-Tec C pens as well, and will occasionally geek out about them (all women); and there are two men who use calligraphy markers. In my immediate social life, I've got about ten women who use fountain pens, and two men.

 

Thing is, people get into them for different reasons. My ex wasn't into fountain pens when we were together (nineteen years, mind you), but he took a couple of my Hero pens when we split. Then he got involved with a mutual friend (amusingly enough, my fiance's ex, who is a vintage Parker worshipper), who took him to the Fountain Pen Hospital, and somehow walked out of there with three new fountain pens. When we were together, I liked lighter pens, usually plastic or celluloid; he likes more solid, metal pens. (He's a frustrated engineer -- this makes sense.) I may buy him one of those oddly-filling Parker pens, just to watch his techie nerves tingle.

 

Of course, now he (my ex) is lusting after my Sheaffer Legacy, because of the streamlined shape and the weight. Ha! I say -- he can get his own. (Or I'll buy him one when he turns fifty.)

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So... a comment in the "does the pen make the man/woman" thread made me want to bring this up.  I did this years ago on acpp and it resulted in flame wars. :P

 

But my question is this - in your experience, have you seen mostly men or women who either used FPs or recognized your FP?  What do you think the split is in the general population. Let's say Western population because use in many Eastern populations is still common in primary schools.

 

My husband is sort of a "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" guy.  Not to the extreme of being a crotch-scratching, spitting, Neanderthal.  But nonetheless, you'll never see him wearing a pink dress shirt or shoes that are anything other than black or white.  He's Dockers and short-sleeved oxfords all the way.  So, his impression is that only "phoofey" men use FPs and that it's mostly women who are interested in them.  He doesn't frequent any of these boards and see the conflict in that opinion, his opinion is solely based on that bit of prejudice against "phoofey" (and I don't mean gay) men. Metrosexuals I suppose is a good description of how he perceives men who use FPs.  Of course, a pen show would quickly dispel that.  In fact, a lot of the faces I've seen in pen show pics, remind me of him! 

 

He sees that in my family it is all the females who are fascinated by writing instruments of all sorts (conveniently ignoring my brother who is on the constant search for the perfect notepad and the perfect mechanical pencil and who is anything but a metrosexual.)  Therefore, if it's just myself, my daughter, mum and sister who yammer on about pens all the time with my father (another non-pink guy) sitting on the fringes shaking his head and watching the football game, then it must be mostly women in Western society who have an interest in FPs.

 

so.. guys and gals, what do you think?  is the apparent "mostly men" that we see on the boards due to the fact that "mostly men" are into pen forums while the typical female FP user is probably not interested in obsessing on-line about these things?  Or is it really as unequal as it appears?   Do women just prefer to talk amongst themselves about pens?  I know for a while I didn't use other pen boards because there was a strong sense of a "good ol' boy" network, women being a minority to say the least.

 

what's the deal?

It seems to me that your husband has a serious attitude problem! To assert that fountain pens are only for women and gays is not only wrong, but really quite offensive. Maybe this is an American thing? Because it sure isn't the case in Europe - UK included. I'm a hairy chested, virile 39 year old male, with healthy and varied heterosexual appetites!

 

In England the use of a fountain pen is regarded as a sign of being a lady or gentleman of good breeding, probably with a private education, while biros are used by just anybody. I wouldn't say women necessarily use FPs more than men - it has nothing to do with sex and/or sexuality here, but more with class and education. Unlike the US, schoolkids are encouraged to use FPs here, and infact it is the younger generation that buys most of the lower end fountain pen models.

My impression is that America is a society that has become obsessed by technophilia and anything remotely retro is regarded as obsolete, weird or eccentric. This is a great shame, in my opinion.

Edited by marklavar
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Unlike the US, schoolkids are encouraged to use FPs here, and infact it is the younger generation that buys most of the lower end fountain pen models.

I guess this just makes me a kid at heart. I mostly buy "lower end" models of fountain pens. And in age I'm multiples of most of those young pen buyers' ages.

 

I just enjoy writing with my fountain pens and I think I'd get all paranoid if I had one that was really expensive. I'd always be worrying about damaging it, and it would never leave the house.

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

ink stained wretch filling inkwell

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