Planner Community vs Planner Community

 

Source: Pen Addict blogpost.

I've been working my way through all of my podcast episodes and trying to get up to date with them. The themes of my podcasts go from politics to planners to culture to paganism. So, the other day I was listening when I heard in Best Laid Plans by Sarah Hart-Unger an interesting observation. Sarah was addressing a question from a listener about how come there are no planners for men who identify as "men", or not many, or something on that line. I assume that, by "men" Sarah and her listener meant a person who identifies as a cisgender, heterosexual man and who has a taste that fits the archtypal cisgender, heterosexual man's taste.

Sarah took this chance to talk about what she perceives as a Planner Gender Divide existing, at least in America, where men don't use or feel the need to use a planner, because that's something others take care for them, such as the wife or the assistant.

I think I was doing something and was only half listening, but this words picked my curiosity, because it's not my experience that "men don't plan" or that "men relegate planning to wives/assistants". Not everybody around me does analogue planning, but a lot of people do planning on digital calendars and platforms. Then, I also follow Mr. Philofaxy and read the Philofaxy Blog, and procure to be there for every virtual planner meet up the Philofaxy group has every first Sunday of the month on Skype, where I meet with several men who... well... plan. In filofaxes. My mind went to all the content creators I  follow - who are many - and though a lot are women, several are also men. So I was thinking why was Sarah saying that there is a gender divide in the planner community, and that most American men don't carry a planner because someone else takes care of that.

Thinking about the creators I follow, I found a pattern among the people I follow, where female content creator tend to be more aesthetic oriented, using decorative elements like stickers, washitape, scraps to collage or even watercolor their spreads. Female content creators also tend to do Plan with Me videos where they show week to week how they plan for their week, often in an aesthetically pleasing way. The male creators I follow are more often than not, more practical - both in planning as well as in journaling. They tend to be less concerned with aesthetics and more with the functionality of the entries they do. They also do more reviews of products such as binders, paper, pens or inserts, but don't tend to show a flipthrough but explain how to do something they have found works for them.

One could say that women often offer an aesthetic inspiration while men tend to offer tips, advise or practical information to enrich decision making processes.

On the other side, the male content creators I follow, often veer into other areas, and journaling or planning can be just one video in a series regarding tips for achieving a happier life or more productive habits. Of course, there are many that have channels dedicated to planning and journaling, but others just touch on the subject once and then move on to other topics.

So, back to Sarah, what could be the issue? Why have they not seen these men? Well, maybe the men around her were not planning in flashy planners, maybe they plan in their phone calendars, and maybe they don't need to plan to the whole household, but instead reserve the planning for themselves. That's one option, after all, for many people "planning" isn't a hobby but a tool, and don't even use it daily. A lot of people often plan quite simply with a wall calendar and scribble in it things like doctor appointments, but they tend to remember when to pay their bills or when they have to got to work.

The other thing might be the algorithm of Sarah's searches, where maybe seeing that she prefers videos of homemaker planning or aesthetic planning or plan-with-me videos, the results she gets and the content that's recommended for her come from female creators.

However, if someone is looking for a planner for a person with a taste that alights with what Western marketing often associates with cisgender males with traditional masculine inclinations, there are plenty of options, such as filofax, plotter, hobonichi, travelers notebook and pretty much any generic, undecorated planners.

One thing I learned from Sarah, though, is that often what we see is true to the slice of the world where we move. She did was very clear that this was based on her own observations and her own experience. As so, I think we might benefit from trying to break from our algorithms, cast a wider net and try to learn more outside the view we normally hold.