Okay, that’s it. I’ve had it. Everywhere I read about “lefties” this and “lefties” that. The “lefties” that control the Concordia CSU. The “lefties” that rally against Bush and hold up signs saying that Saddam is their hero. The “lefties” that decry corporations, capitalism, and just about everything about our society. We use the term as easy shorthand to describe anyone on the extreme left of the political spectrum, even though “rightie” is rarely used for the opposite. And I admit I’m just as guilty of it as anyone else.
I’m tired of it. As a lefty, I want – no, I demand that my good name be restored.
Yes, that’s right, I am left-handed. A southpaw.
Left-handed people make up about 10-15% of the population. We’re right-brain dominant, which makes us more creative and abstract in our thinking. It also makes us the only people in our right minds!
Famous lefties have included Julia Roberts, George Bush (Sr. – don’t know about Dubya), Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Benjamin Netanyahu, Helen Keller, Jimi Hendirx, and perhaps most importantly, Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons. (Anyone remember the Leftorium episode?)
Contrary to popular myth, we’re not possessed by the devil, nor are we more likely to die early. In the sixteenth century, lefties were burned at the stake for witchcraft. In the not-too-distant past, lefties were thought of as evil (the latin word for left, “sin”, literally means sinister) and were forced, often violently, to use their right hands. As a result, my grandmother always wrote with her right hand. Luckily those days are behind us, and now us lefties are free to write with our left, and equally free to rub over our words as we write. With the keyboard replacing the fountain pen, this is less of a problem nowadays.
We’re statistically more intelligent than righties. We can sometimes be a bit clumsy, but don’t blame us – blame the insensitive world who designed everything from a stick shift to a pair of scissors with righties in mind. We’re sought-out as baseball pitchers, and we’re over-represented in successful domains such as science, politics, and the arts. And we even have our own day! That’s right: August 13th is International Left-handers Day.
So the next time somebody calls you a lefty, smile; you’re in good company!
If you’re a lefty like me, I’ve compiled a list of interesting resources and links:
- For Southpaws Only!
- The Lefthanded Universe
- Famous left-handers
- Lorin’s Left-handedness site
- The Left Handed Liberation Society
- alt.lefthanders Frequently Asked Questions
- Left is Right
Lefthanded and proud!
Same here 🙂
me too
So, do you find it hard typing with your left hand tied down?
(That’s what the teachers did to a left-handed relative of mine when he was a kid. Ah, the “good old days”…)
By the way, I’m right-handed, but I play golf and hockey left-handed. I’ve never figured out how that works.
I don’t play hockey, but my dad tried to turn me into a golfer when I was a kid . . .and I was a lefty playing right-handed. Mainly because that’s what he was, and I was using his old cut-down golf clubs.
I rebelled though and quit, so now I’m just a lefty who doesn’t play golf.
As for typing, it would be kinda hard with either hand tied down. It’s sort of a two-handed activity.
Sinister, eh?
Cheers
French for left: Gauche.
Mr. 1¢ — love your blog, by the way.
Your handedness is not unusual. I’m the same. Right-handers tend to be left-handed hockey shots, because you need the dexterity in the hand nearest the butt end, not in the hand nearest the blade.
Canada has the highest proportion of lefty golfers in the world (think of our best golf pro), largely because people pick up their first club after they’ve picked up their first hockey stick.
In my childhood I found I hit better from the south side of the plate, so gave up batting right. When I first joined the cadet force, I started shooting right-handed, and stayed that way through my whole time in the reserves — simply because instructors asked, “are you left- or right-handed?”
Then I found out it ain’t quite that simple. I was talking to a psychologist (just socially, not in advance of a court appearance or anything) and he had me try a few physical tests. It turns out I’m one of a very small minority of “right-wired” people, whose right brain controls their right limbs. Thus it’s no surprise that I’m better as a left-hand hockey shot or batter; but I’d be a better golfer if I went right-handed, and a better rifle shot if I went left-handed (using the “controlling” left eye to sight).
Thus endeth the neurology lesson, on which I hope to be corrected and enlightened by anyone that actually knows this stuff in detail. ;o)
The genetics are even more interesting and poorly understood. There are multiple genes involved, which is why some of us have odd mixed dominance, as Jim does, or myself. I write lefty, but can only scissor right-handed (drove my 3rd grade teacher nuts when she tried to be progressive and got the lefties in class left-handed scissors). When I was an archeologist, I had the advantage of being able to switch hands for digging, trowelling, screening or bone-picking–and thus work twice as long before wearing out. The dominant theory about inheritance of handedness 20-30 years ago was that the more extreme allelic variations were lethal, but that mixed dominance genes were more adaptive than pure right-handed (presume dominant) dominance. I haven’t seen much on the subject since–maybe soemthing will come out of all the genomics research going on.
all you southpaws are invited to learn Hebrew, it’s smudge-free in your case….
Asher, yes, that was my claim to fame back in Hebrew class . . . I used to laugh at all my right-handed friends who were smudging THEIR words for a change.
Right on (er…) from a fellow non-leftie left-handed person.
You mention:
” The ‘lefties’ that decry corporations, capitalism, and just about everything about our society.”
If capitalism and corporations are the only two aspects of society that you can come up with, I definately wouldn’t be placing you in the “statistically more intelligent” category.