Left Handedness
I’m left handed. A trait I inherited from my mother.
Schools used to force children to write right handed. They were punished, often beaten for not doing so. They even had their left hands tied behind their backs to prevent them from using them. Their writing would have been impaired as a result. So they were branded stupid, or clumsy. The result was trauma. Stammering and learning problems were caused by these “teaching” methods. Left handers were 18 times more likely to stutter than right handers. Schools were a hostile place that abused and traumatised left handed pupils.
This resulted in a higher incidence of diagnosed mental illness among left handed people. They were disadvantaged. This brutality and persecution wasn’t phased out from UK schools until the 1950-70 period. In China left handedness was oppressed until quite recently. In Enver Hoxha's Albania left handedness was declared illegal.
Although the systematic state persecution of left handers has now ended, there remains a lack of awareness among the general population. This “prejudice of ignorance” pervades. Especially among designers for some reason.
The language of handedness reeks of prejudice. The opposite of right is wrong. The Latin for right is “dexter” (hence dexterous) but left is “sinister”. Sinister! The English word “left” comes from Old English “lyft” meaning weak or useless. In French we have “gauche” meaning awkward or clumsy. In Italian the word “mancino” meaning left handed also means weak or crippled. It has a second meaning of dishonest or a fraudster. The phrase “cack-handed”, also meaning awkward, clumsy, literally means “shit handed”, the left hand is the one you use to wipe your bottom with you see. Left handedness has been strongly stigmatised.
There are lots of talented left handers in history. Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Raphael were all left handed. Jimmy Hendrix used a right strung guitar left handed and developed a whole new style of playing. Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie were all left handed. Yet for years we were branded as stupid, clumsy, weak and sinister.
Western writing, left to right, is designed for right handed people. Even when we are allowed to use the natural hand, left handers are more likely to smudge the ink. The writing hand covers up what we’ve just written. Early languages were written in stone or on clay tablets, so smudging ink wasn’t an issue. It was only with the development of papyrus and ink that left to right became an advantage. Early Greek scripts alternated left to right, right to left. West Asian scripts (Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew etc.) descended from the earlier right to left Phoenician scripts, which predate ink. So they stuck with the right to left form. Western writing started later, with vellum and parchment, so began with ink technology. So they adopted the left to right form. Making writing harder for left handers. Especially when you have your hand forcably tied behind your back.
There are still barriers for left handed people. These are mostly now annoyances. For example, scissors are right handed. It is a feature of the way the blades overlap. The blades don’t press against each other if you use the other hand, so they don’t cut properly. Some also have “ergonomic” handles which makes them practically impossible to use left handed. You can buy left handed scissors, which are great, right handers won’t ever “borrow” them. With scissors the overlapping of the blades is a physical design constraint. But shaping the handles to make them harder to use is just thoughtlessness and incompetence on the part of the designers.
The mouse and the computer keyboard are two more examples. You can swap the mouse buttons over in software, which some people do. I’ve just learned to adapt. I use mine left handed with right handed buttons. Many mice are symmetrical – which is good design. Some, especially the so called “ergonomic” designs, are shaped so they are pretty much impossible to use left handed. Keyboards are another example. These come with a number keypad on the right hand side. I never use these. I buy special “ten keyless” keyboards, without the number pad. But the cursor keys and navigation keys are all still on the right hand side.
I once enrolled on a language course at a local college. They had what are known as “student desks”. These are chairs with an L shaped desk attached. These are almost completely unusable for left handers. I raised this with the college and they told me I should have informed them beforehand that I was disabled. Disabled! I got my money back for the course. I was depressed to find such institutional incompetence at a college.
The kitchen is filled with lots of handedness hazards. Scissors, of course. But can openers are a good example. These are almost always right handed only. So you to struggle to use them. Kettles are another fail. They often have a level gauge so you can see how much water they have in them. This is often only visible from one side, so you can’t see it if you hold the kettle in your left hand. Poor design. Stupid design. The solution is to have the scale on both sides, or on the pour line, or have a glass vessel. Yet another inherently symmetrical object turned into prejudice by thoughtless designers. Even potato peelers can suffer from handedness if they are badly designed by thoughtless right handers.
Another stupid, thoughtless example would be banks and post offices. They used to have counters, with pens chained to the counter, so you wouldn’t steal them. These were always tied with a wire or string too short to reach the left hand side of the counter. Very hard to use.
There are lots of examples. The decoration on cups and mugs is almost always right handed only. Unthinking right handers manage to make inherently symmetrical objects into handed things. They aren’t exactly the tools of oppression, but every time I see one I’m reminded of how ignorant and thoughtless many right handers are. It simply never occurs to them.
Another funny example is cake forks. These have typically three prongs, with one a bit wider to act as a knife. But it is always designed for the right hander. Right handers aren’t even consistent here. I hold the knife in my right hand and the fork in my left. So when I use a cake fork I naturally use my left hand. Right handers are so dependent on their right hands that they have to swap the fork into their right hand. Ambidextrous cake forks appear occasionally and always make me smile. And one cafe I went into had left handed cake forks. And very good Dutch apple cake.
But, as I said earlier, these things are not the tools of oppression. They are just residual thoughtlessness.
Left handedness has attracted abuse, systematic bullying and prejudice. Handedness was once bullied out of people, leaving the victims traumatised and disadvantaged. Today we are more enlightened – though most right handers are still oblivious. The stigma has gone. But the badly designed kettles persist.
Imagine being drafted into the military for a war. You are forced to fire a gun. The gun could be symmetrical. But it isn’t, of course. You will be forced to shoot right handed. This will put you at a disadvantage. You will be accused of being clumsy, stupid, awkward (those words again). You will probably be punished for it. If you did fire left handed you’d find that the spent cartridges eject straight into your face. The bolt is on the wrong side. Researching this piece I found that the UK Police Force now use the FN 15 ASR semi automatic rifle, which is the first fully ambidextrous rifle. Progress (of sorts) at last.
It turns out that handedness isn’t binary. It is a spectrum. I write left handed. I use the mouse, hold a glass left handed. But I play guitar right handed, throw right handed, play tennis right handed, use a screw driver right handed. I can hold a paint brush in either hand, so decorating is a bit easier. You can be left eyed or right eyed. Left footed or right footed. I’m left handed, right eyed and right footed.
Left handedness is a natural neurological variation that is strongly genetic. Right handedness is neurotypical. Left handedness is neurodiverse. Handedness is a spectrum. Not a binary.
The level of left handedness in the UK population has gone up from estimates 100 years ago less than 3% to around 10..12%. This isn’t because there are more left handers. It is because left handedness was not recognised, it was oppressed and people were bullied into conforming. Today it is recognised. There are still barriers, but right handed people have finally removed the systematic oppression and abuse of left handers, even if most are still oblivious to it.
It is time we did the same with other natural neurological variations.