How do people (mis)type you?

People mistaken me for an extrovert because I can be friendly and charismatic, but this extroversion is only in short bursts and depends on my mood. I do prefer to be left alone most of the time.

Last night a woman started yapping to me while we were waiting in line. After hearing all about her current situation I decided it best to not tell her the truth and just smile and nod. I don’t know why people like to tell me their problems. It’s mostly useless information to me.

Then there is @Ren who thinks I’m an INFP. lolz
 
Happy Phantom said:
People mistaken me for an extrovert because I can be friendly and charismatic, but this extroversion is only in short bursts and depends on my mood. I do prefer to be left alone most of the time.
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Sounds like me, to be honest. I'm also called friendly and charismatic quite often IRL. But then when it comes to "delivering" on these qualities, well... I suddenly realise I've only one point left on my social health bar and so I disappear (without charisma).

Happy Phantom said:
Then there is @Ren who thinks I’m an INFP. lolz
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INFP or ISFP, I'm not sure. You and Atlas have common traits and he's ISFP.
 
Ren said:
Sounds like me, to be honest. I'm also called friendly and charismatic quite often IRL. But then when it comes to "delivering" on these qualities, well... I suddenly realise I've only one point left on my social health bar and so I disappear (without charisma).



INFP or ISFP, I'm not sure. You and Atlas have common traits and he's ISFP.
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My son is an ISFP and we get along very well. I’m still an INFJ though even though MBTI isn’t real.
 
Happy Phantom said:
My son is an ISFP and we get along very well. I’m still an INFJ though even though MBTI isn’t real.
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Maybe you're an ENFP?

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Fidicen said:
Yeah, me too :blush: ...until I realized that I can never show them to anyone. Either you're in a position to do more interesting things than write poetry, or then you're pining away in a bedsit thinking of someone far away, which might appear more or less creepy. Poems written about real people are often self-indulgent and, if read by anyone, have unforeseeable consequences, usually something that makes life more complicated even (or especially) if the poems are enjoyed.
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I think I relate to that. I've never shown people poems I wrote about them, except once to my mom for Mother's Day. But the majority of my poems have been about "things" - like nature, or somewhat abstract states of feeling. I've also written plays containing characters blending traits from different friends, but my friends don't necessarily know that. In those situations, it's been easier to share my work.

Ginny said:
Odd... I'm not at all poetically inclined. :relaxed:

But I guess that wasn't really encouraged either. I was/am more into prose.
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Over time I've also become less poetically inclined. I don't think it's odd, it really depends on what feels most natural to you I guess. Truthfully, when I was younger I turned to poetry in part because it's quicker to write a poem than a short story. The poem can be bad, but if the main purpose is really some kind of personal catharsis - as it often was for me - then it doesn't really matter. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but there is a degree of truth to it I think. Many of my poems were just "for me". These days I feel more passionate about writing in itself, and I'm far more interested in prose writing.
 
Ren said:
I don't think it's odd, it really depends on what feels most natural to you I guess.
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You are surprisingly ignorant as to what I meant. I was refering to the difference in "traditional" gender roles when it comes to poetry. Tbh, I never believed poetry was something intrinsically female, but then again men have always used poetry to get girls. From Shakespeare, Lord Byron to the tragic cases of music artists today. But I guess there is something intrinsically abstract and emotional about poetry and music, which is said to be a more female trait. Make of it what you will, I just found it odd that the two INFJ males did poetry while one female didn't.
 
Ginny said:
But I guess there is something intrinsically abstract and emotional about poetry and music, which is said to be a more female trait. Make of it what you will, I just found it odd that the two INFJ males did poetry while one female didn't.
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I'm very gender-neutral when it comes to these things so it was likely to go over my head ^^

And no, I did not find it odd that two INFJ males wrote poetry while one female didn't. I hope that makes me.... progressive rather than ignorant? :disrelieved:
 
Ren said:
I'm very gender-neutral when it comes to these things so it was likely to go over my head ^^

And no, I did not find it odd that two INFJ males wrote poetry while one female didn't. I hope that makes me.... progressive rather than ignorant? :disrelieved:
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And what does that make me?
 
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Ginny said:
And what does that make me?
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Realistic as regards most people, I would say. The societal gender bias does exist when it comes to the categories of thought and emotion. On that front I would say that I am just different than most guys, but I might be overstating my case.
 
Ren said:
Realistic as regards most people, I would say. The societal gender bias does exist when it comes to the categories of thought and emotion. On that front I would say that I am just different than most guys, but I might be overstating my case.
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I think you're avoiding the question, but maybe that is for the best, regarding the current setting.
 
I don't think there's anything particularly masculine or feminine about poetry. Maybe my Nordic upbringing has something to do with it. Plus possibly the fact that Finnish doesn't even have gendered nouns nor separate words for "he" and "she", so even if I hadn't received education on the subject I might still think there's not that much difference between men and women, at least not in essence.

Still, my impression is that poetry as a hobby is more common for teenage girls than boys, but the canon of accepted and revered poets is predominantly masculine. Also it seems that a lot of girls/women leave poetry behind once they hit their twenties, so the division of genders in poetry is more equal for adults. This is just based on anecdotes; I've heard quite a few women say that they used to write poems when young, but then stopped completely. Maybe it's so unusual for boys that those who stick with it have been more dedicated from the start to push against the prejudices.

Yet, even in a more conservative society I imagine it's not necessarily shameful for a boy to be interested in poetry because there are male role models. Of course that also depends on the social class and other factors since in some circles anything that's not explicitly masculine is considered suspicious if not effeminate. But it's certainly not as unusual as ballet as a hobby, and budding poet boys can always refer to Bukowski if there's a need to prove something. Also it depends on the education. In high school I might have been surprised to hear of other boys writing poems, but not so much at the uni studying humanities.
 
Ren said:
I think I relate to that. I've never shown people poems I wrote about them, except once to my mom for Mother's Day.
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Hahaha this reminds me of when I was in college. I shared my poems with a couple of friends, who died of embarrassment on the spot. To my everlasting relief, neither of them have mentioned the incident since.

My favorite poets are men - John Donne, Shakespeare, and my favorite poem is by a man, Robert Graves. But, this could be because poetry was an accepted form of occupation for men back then, and women were largely excluded.
 
Chickensoup said:
My favorite poets are men - John Donne, Shakespeare, and my favorite poem is by a man, Robert Graves.
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Ah, Donne, I actually almost mentioned him in this thread as a counterexample of how writing poems about people might turn out good. After all, he managed to produce a good amount of love poems while still having time and energy to beget 12 children and work as an MP. But he probably didn't bother with changing the diapers.

In poetry there's a lot of fluff that isn't very touching, but sometimes you discover a line that describes something that you've experienced with words so precise that you're just struck by it in a way that's even less common in prose.

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. (Marlowe) or
I wandered lonely as a cloud (Wordsworth)...

Derailing, derailing! Are feelers failing
to keep the boat of discourse sailing
toward the answers, always writing
about the moon, nocturnal lighting
and not the topic, members straying,
compelled to ask: "What was I saying?" :tongueout:
 
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