In a society of growing awareness of discrimination, prejudice,
and the resultant discovery of many more 'new' minorities, there is still
a small group that has received no political or social recognition or relief
for their plight. One of the last truly persecuted minorities have little
hope for change. They are the people who were born left-handed. Left-handedness
has been looked at as many things throughout recorded history: The mark
of the devil, mental retardation, mental neurosis, rebellion, a nasty habit,
a social inconvenience, homosexuality, and criminality to name a few. Left-handed
people have been the positive minority since the early bronze age and there
is more than circumstantial evidence that places left handers in the minority
since the time of Australopithecus Afarensis(1) more than three million years
ago. Left handed people have been discriminated against in nearly all aspects
of their lives from religion to the languages we use and the tools we use
to live our daily lives.
Discrimination based on a person's ethnicity or race is deplorable in today's
'enlightened' society. To round up all red headed men and women and deport
them out of America is an absurd notion. To deny more than fifty percent
of our countries population the right to vote simply because they were born
female is another ridiculous idea. But by being the human beings that we
are we have managed to create reasons to discriminate one group over another,
to rationalize and justify outdated ideas to the world and to ourselves;
and we have outdone ourselves against all the left-handed people. The technology
and intelligence of our modern era has not improved the lives of the left-handed
individual and has at best is quietly ignored them.
The percentage of left-handed people in the world is highly debatable.
In fact modern scientist are no closer to determining the reason for being
left-handed than they were a thousand years ago. A popular answer for the
problem is that being left-handed is hereditary and passed along in a person's
genes. This theory seems to be supported in such examples as the famous
Kerr Clan of Scotland who were predominately left-handed as well as several
members of the Royal Family, King George II, King George VI, Queen Victoria,
the Queen Mother Elizabeth, and Prince Charles all of which are left-handed
as well. A recent study showed that two right-handed parents had a 9.5%
chance of having a left-handed child. The chances rose to 19.5% if one parent
if left-handed and rose to 26.1% of the children from two left-handed parents.
(2) The Geschwind
and Galaburda's "Testosterone" theory argues that a larger that
usual amount of testosterone in the amniotic fluid during pregnancy affects
the handedness of the baby. (3) This is not a completely accepted explanation yet and a wide
array of other environmental theories abound. Bakan's "Birth Stress"
theory states that during the birthing process great stress is placed on
an infant's skull and in many cases damaged in the process, often leading
to left-handedness. (5) The "Primitive Combat" theory is that early warriors
survived more battles when they carried their shield in their left hand
as it better protected the heart. This natural selection weeded out the
left handers. 5 The "Mother with Baby" theory says that women
learned to be right handed by caring for infants because women predominately
hold babies in the left hand. Some say that the baby is more comfortable
on the left side of the body since it is closer to the heart. Others say
that it frees up the mothers dominant hand for important tasks. But the
net result of this is that women have learned to become right handed and
passed it on to the world at large. (5)
Regardless of the causes for becoming left-handed, science has problems
just studying the phenomenon itself. If anything, our new science has only
fragmented the problem into many smaller and in no way easier ones. The
outdated cliché paradigm was that someone who was left handed also
had a dominant left foot, eye, and operated dominantly in the right hemisphere
of the brain. Yet this is easily debunked with the scientific study of psychopathology
and lateralization of the brain. (Which is just amazingly bizarre scientific
word games used to cover the fact that the scientist involved have no clue
about handedness whatsoever.) Individuals can be left handed in one activity
but right in another while being completely ambidextrous in others. There
are left handed, left brained, right eyed, and right legged people and just
about any combination thereof while only a small percentage of people are
truly 'left handed' in the clinical sense.
Yet how many of us are left handed? That depends on what is tested for
in the studies of course. Manual tests versus neurological tests. The wording
of test questions, the diversity of the test subjects, adequate sampling
of nationality, ethnicity, and equal representation of historical and religious
influences aside, the generally accepted number is about 11% of the worlds
population. In a study performed by Gilbert and Wysocki (4) in 1992 of 1,177,507 people showed
the following numbers:
"Men are more likely (12.6%) to be left-handed than women (9.9%)
Young people are more likely to be left-handed (14% for men, 12% for women)
than are the elderly (near 6% for both sexes)
People of Asian (9.3%) or Hispanic (9.1%) lineage are slightly less likely
to be left-handed than whites, blacks, or North American Indians."
All of this information and what does it tell us? In the
long run it does not tell us a whole lot. Regardless of what science has
to say about the subject does not change the fact that as a group left-handers
suffer indignities, inconveniences, torments, and in some times of our history,
death for a reason completely out of their control. In almost all religions
in the world today there is an extremely strong bias towards the right hand
and against the left. The full weight of the Old and New Testaments as well
as the Koran, the Zohar, and the Talmud are in favor of the right hand.
All blessings and just decisions are made from the right hand while deceit
and damnation arise from the left. In The Bible, King James Version, Jonah
4:11 God tells Jonah that Nineveh contains people so sinful that they "cannot
discern between their right hand and their left." The famous line,
"Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." Matthew
6:3, repeats the anti-left sentiment. In some modern concordances there
are no less that one thousand six hundred different references against the
left and the left handed. (6) From directional to emotional and superstitious the right hand
is at first preferred and later exalted in religion and has left an indelible
mark against the left-handed. During the Medieval period right up through
the Renaissance the left hand was linked to Satan and those who used their
left hand were thought to be possessed by devils, in league with Satan.
One of the qualifications to be questioned, or tortured, in the infamous
Spanish Inquisition was to be left-handed and often meant death. Left-handers
were killed, tortured, exiled, and harassed throughout Europe more than
any persecuted cultural minority for the simple fact that all religious
or ethnic minorities always had a left-handed minority within itself. The
persecuted among the persecuted.
Even before the onset of popular Christianity anti 'left' sentiment existed.
In Jamblichus' writings Life of Pythagoras, he describes rituals dealing
with early Pythagoreans. They "enter holy places by the right, which
is . . . divine, and leave them by the left, the symbol of . . . dissolution."
And it was later confirmed by Aristotle that they "call good what is
on the right, and bad what is on the left." (7) These early beliefs are thought
to have arisen from primitive sun worshipping cults in Mesopotamia. At a
time in human history where most of civilization was North of the equator
the worshippers would face south to view the sun. Hence life and progress
proceeded to the right and darkness and death from the left. A common theme
echoed throughout Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology.
Even the long history of language promotes hatred and dissension towards
the left-handed. The Oxford Dictionary defines 'Left' in the primary sense
as, "weak, worthless" and defines the directional equivalent as
the derived, or secondary, sense of the word. The Latin word for 'left'
is 'sinistre' and has left us with 'sinistral' which is the scientific term
for 'left-handed'. Incidentally enough the term for 'right-handed' is 'dextral'
which also means 'just' as in justice in Latin. Many other words that translate
into 'left' in English have secondary meanings as shown here:
Language: word: also translated as
French: gauche: awkward, clumsy
Danish: kejthandet: cat-handed
Italian: mancini: crooked, maimed
German: linkisch; awkward
Russian: na levo: sneaky
Portuguese: canhoto: weak, mischievous
Spanish: zurdo: malicious
Romanian: bongo: crooked, evil
There are also a great amount of words that have been
used to describe with contempt left handed people. The British English 'cack-handed'
meaning excrement handed. The Scottish 'gawk-handed' where a "gawk"
is a foolish person. The Australian English molly-dooker where a "molly"
is an effeminate man and "duke" is slang for hand. Cork-handed,
Bang-handed, Gallock-handed, Wacky, Spuddy-handed, Kay-fisted, Kefty, Corrie-pawed,
Back-handed, Clickey-handed, Coochy-handed, Cow-pawed, Gammy-handed, Kerr-handed,
Kitty-wesy, Scrammy, Skiffle-handed, Skivvy-handed, and Watty-handed to
name a few more. (8) In contrast the words describing 'right' often mean such things
as, straight, erect, just, correct, law, wholly entirely right, and upright.
The makeup of our language has spilt over into other areas of our lives.
Oaths are never sworn in with the left hand, the evil eye is the left eye,
hands are joined in marriage ceremonies by the right hand, people are born
to their 'birthright', America entitles every one in the Bill of Rights,
the political radicals are the leftists, et cetera ad nauseam
So we grow up in a world that has been taught from near infancy that being
left handed is a bad and sometimes evil thing. It is passed on to the child
from a very early age as the development and learning process begins. Many
teachers still today will punish children for trying to write with their
left hand. Among grade school teachers it still commonly believed that writing
with right hand could be taught to a child given the correct teaching. Couple
this with a sociological contempt of left-handers and you have a system
that can traumatize many children who do not feel they are 'normal,' feel
wrong or bad simply for writing as it feels naturally to them, with their
left hand.
In the newsgroup alt.lefthanders many people have expressed their own personal
experiences on the topic.
"I started my schooling on Guam, where corporal punishment
is still used. My earliest and most severe problem with being left-handed
was not a desk, or the ever-popular scissors problem. I had a teacher who
would smack my left hand with a yardstick every time she caught me writing
with my left hand. To this day I never forgot this, and to this day I still
heavily favor my left hand. I had to learn to adapt and make the best out
of what comes my way, and by doing so I have become adept at using either
hand in most situations. My primary role at work is computer support and
believe me you will not find to anyone's mouse on the left side of their
computer. I concluded long ago that societal norms in general are ruled
by the majority, and we have to learn to play by their rules if we want
to get anywhere. -anonymous, USA"
"In second grade I had a teacher who forced me to write with my hand
turned so that I held a pencil the same way a right-handed student would.
It was so unnatural for me and my handwriting was awful. I never understood
why it made any difference whatsoever which way my hand was turned as long
as I could shape the letters correctly. It was very upsetting to have this
"differentness" pointed out in front of other children. -anonymous,
USA"
"My fourth grade teacher, in an attempt to "cure" my left-handedness,
would force me to use my right hand to perform all of my school work. If
she caught me using my left hand, I was hit in the head with a dictionary.
It turned out that she believed left handers were connected with Satan.
Left-handed bias in the classroom has got to stop. In many ways left-handers
should be more successful in the educational environment. It's the tools
and paradigms that are their real handicap. -Michael Salazar, USA"
In addition to a teaching structure that has seriously
frowned on left-handed children, most schools are also inadequately equipped
to hold and properly instruct the left-handed. Pencil sharpeners, spiral
notebooks, scissors, desks, rulers, and sports equipment such as gloves
and hockey sticks are all designed for right-handed children. Writing over
the spiral of a spiral notebook on a desk that does not support the left
hand is difficult enough. Throw in the insistence of teachers of forcing
left-handed children to write right handed slow down the ability to take
notes and stay up with lectures in class. Left-handed children are often
misdiagnosed as impaired or slow because of this. They are often accused
of cheating during exams because of the way in which they must arrange the
desks in order to write efficiently.
Making it through childhood life suffering the taunts of all the right-handed
children because a left-handed child couldn't conform to the right-handed
world can last a lifetime. If the psychological obstacles that they face
were not bad enough, a left-handed person must live in a world that was
built from the ground up by right-handed people for right-handed people.
The following common tools all require left-to-right wrist turning movements
more comfortable for right-handers: corkscrews, rotary dial phones, analog
clock-setting & winding, screws, lightbulbs, door handles, and ice cream
scoopers. The following are specifically designed to be used in a right-handed
fashion: scissors, can openers, coffee makers, computer keyboards (numeric
keypad on right), calculators and pushbutton phones (left-to-right array),
golf clubs, wrenches, slot machines, gearshifts, playing cards, gravy boats,
rulers, bowling balls, vegetable peelers, voting machines, phone booths,
violins (and most other stringed instruments), saxophones, cars built in
right-lane countries, and most hand-held power tools. Because of this there
are jobs that are more difficult for the left-handed person to do as safely
and as fast as the right-handed. Meat slicers, drill presses, band saws,
textile machinery, production lines, and heavy equipment are set up for
right hand use. Recent research in this subject has proven the greater threat
of harm for left-handers in areas such as manufacturing and construction
over the threat for the right handed workers. (9)
The obstacles are ever present in the life of the left-handed person. The
left-handed comprise the silently discriminated minority that will always
be a part of any society. The effects of anti-left ideology and the resultant
difficulties can at best give one a mild identity crisis and a worse cause
severe emotional and psychological distress that has caused stuttering,
mental blocks, and depression that can keep otherwise normal men and women
out of society. Our ideas and beliefs about the left hand and about those
who are left handed are ingrained into us from generations upon generations
ago. It is one of the only persistent and common dogmas found in nearly
all societies the world over in the history of man.
Perhaps it is because of the nature of its intrinsic level of acceptance
and integration with society that it draws such little attention today.
Perhaps it is one of those simple ideas that is taken for granted simply
because one is never faced with anything to the contrary. Yet the discrimination
is real and it is not going away. Robert Hertz summed up the future for
the left-handed in this phrase.
"The distinction of good and evil, which for long was [compatible]
with the antithesis of right and left, will not vanish from our conscience
the moment the left hand makes a more effective contributions to human labour
and is able, on occasion, to take the place of the right. IF the constraint
of a mystical ideal has for centuries been able to make man a unilateral
being, physiologically mutilated, a liberated and foresighted community
will strive to develop better the energies dormant in our left side . .
. and to assure by an appropriate training a more harmonious development
. . ."
1. Levy, "Psychobiological Implications of Vilateral
Asymmetry," pg. 121.
2. McManus, I.C. & Bryden, M.P. (1992). The genetics of handedness,
cerebral dominance and lateralization. In: I. Rapin & S.J. Segalowitz
(Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychology, Volume 6, Section 10: Child Neuropsychology
(Part I), (pp.251-281). Amsterdam: Elsevier
3. Geschwind, N., & Galaburda, A. M. (1985a). Cerebral lateralization.
Biological mechanisms, associations, and pathology: I. A hypothesis and
a program for research. Archives of Neurology, 42(5), 428-59.
4. Gilbert, A. N., & Wysocki, C. J. (1992). Hand preference and age
in the United States. Neuropsychologia, 30(7), 601-8.
5. http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~ljelias/left.htm, Lorin's Left-Handed Site,
April 29, 1998
6. Barsley, Michael. 1967. The Other Hand, Hawthorne Books Incorporated,
New York
7. Hecaen and de Ajuriaguerra, Left-Handedness, p. 121
8. Fincher, Jack. 1977. Sinister People, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York
9. Coren, S. 1992. The left-hander syndrome. NY: The Free Press.