Lefty Discrimination

Do people stop and stare when they realize that you're signing your name with your left hand? Do you have problems with scissors? Is the ink on all of your papers smudged from dragging your hand through it when you write? Do you get red lines on your hand from using spiral notebooks? Are you unable to follow the directions for opening a Hershey's bar?

I'm working on a paper about "Lefty Discrimination," or the ways that our predominantly right-handed society causes problems for people who prefer their left hand. So, are there any other lefties on here who have lefty-related problems? Any stories, experiences, etc. would be helpful!

I think the biggest issue with left-handness is the dinner table. Always have to sit on the outside left edge or you bump elbows!

Haha. Well they make left-handed scissors. Ink also smudges for right-handed people, though. Spiral notebooks are obnoxious though...do they make left-handed notebooks? Doing a cartwheel is difficult. Volleyball is odd because you can't do the same steps if you are a hitter haha.

I really can't think of much else right now....

Hehe, I wasn't thinking about the dinner table issue. Actually, it's been drilled into my head so much that I have to sit there that I just look for the left edge without even thinking about it now. I often use spiral notebooks starting from the back as well as the front, but it's still a bother. I'm going to take up mirror writing.

Thanks for your other examples, Via! Let me know if you think of any others!

My friend is left handed - as is my sister.

It can be awkward sometimes, like the whole table issue. She has to sit on my left when we're in lessons other wise we bump into each other.

Also, light switches in the bathroom. You know, the ones that hang down and you pull on? They're always on the right hand side as you walk in....just an observation. It doesn't really affect you much but it's still the norm to provide for the right handed.

Alainna
xxx

I'm left handed and hate when I smudge my work when writing. It's really hard. You know where discrimination comes from? If ya want to know I'll tell ya.

I'm a leftie. It's quite annoying when people like to point it out. In class, I often had to sit at the end of the table, so I wouldn't bump into the person next to me. When I was younger, they didn't have left handed scissors in my primary and such so I had to learn to use right handed scissors with my right hand. Yeah, it is annoying when my writing or drawings smudge. Sometimes I have to raise my hand up, so nothing rubs against it.

I can't use the knife and fork properly because I get mixed up with what to use, and I am rubbish at being given directions. Because I was deprived of left handed tools, such as a potato peeler, a pair of scissors, a tin opener, ect. I have learnt to use a lot of things with my right hand. But my drawing and writing will always be used by my left.

I'm ambidextrous but predominately left handed. I had to learn to use my right hand with certain situations such as, those lefty scissors? Well, there hardly seen anymore so I've trained my right hand, and now I can cut with either. I can hold a sword in both my right or left, feeling comfortable, though for some reason, in hand, the sword feels better in my right.

I bat right handed, but throw and kick left. I couldn't throw or write with my right hand if my life depended on it!

Yes, it's very hard to write in any type of wire bound book. My hand either smudges the ink or I keep hitting the spirals. Very annoying. My left hand has been blue on more than one occasion while my right is pretty and spotless.

Some people have given me the cocked eyed look when they see me sign left handed. Mostly, they're amazed we still exist. It's like left handers are worshiped, lol! Back in the day, to write with your left was considered a sin, and your knuckles were smacked with a ruler, either by a teacher or a Nun.

As I'm typing, I'm primarily using my left to scroll up and down, whereas, once again my right wants some action and keeps bumping into it's mate. I guess my brain realizes the right hand has been useful in the past, so why does the left do all the work?

Basically, I had to learn to adapt.

Haha fishr, I'm like the complete opposite of you. I am ambi too, but I bat left and kick right (but don't have a dominant side on the field). But I can also throw right or left handed. I can't write left very well, but I can do a lefthanded cartwhell almost as well as the right. It's so weird!

yeah, volleyball was weird. it was like, "Oh...she's a leftie...that means she's a right-side hitter!" which sucked, 'cause I'm a terrible offensive player lol. the dinner table is weird, as is biology class because we all sit at tables. but ultimately I don't feel too discriminated against lol.

Ah. In volleyball, I serve lefty but I spike either right or left. I'm stronger in the left hand though. Goes back to where I'm able to switch a sword in either hand and it doesn't bother me.

Here's an article about it in the Daily Calafornian. The link is http://www.dailycal.org/article/16026/o ... he_lefties

I read an article recently about left handed people being more prone to accidents (I think it was in the Sunday Times in the UK), because of tools etc being designed more or less for right handed people, even things where you wouldn't think there would be a difference.

My little brother's quite glad about that though; here they still have military service, and he has a good excuse that if he ever has to do it, he can just tell them they can't give him a gun because they're not designed for left handed people!

Eh, this is kind of old, but oh well.

I'm a righty, but (in my school, at least,) no one really notices lefties. We have separate desks, so they don't bump into anyone, and no one really watches you write. In elementary school everyone used to notice, though.

Also, is the scroll bar on the left side because of that? It seems that it would be harder to get to for a lefty. Plus, in school the mouse is on the right side. O.o Computers are discriminating!

~JFW1415

Bumping elbows at the table is a biggie.

And those damn right-handed scissors.

I'm a lefty. Scissors aren't a big problem for me if they are modern scissors. The old clunky metal ones just don't work..it's not that my hands don't fit, it's that they simply don't work unless you use your right hand. When I was younger, making crafts at my grandma's house was hard because all she had were those horrible metal death traps...

My math teacher (who is left-handed) makes a big deal about leftys vs. rightys. One things I can think of off the top of my head is that in most sports brackets, losers advance to the left and winners to the right.