On being left-handed

[lpetrich]

This northpaw wishes to acknowledge the latest famous southpaw to come out.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Happy #lefthandersday to all my fellow southpaws out there
May your smudges be few and your left seat empty " / Twitter

If you've suspected that she is left-handed from how she held the mic in her "Come Back" speech, she has confirmed it. She joins numerous other notable people:

Buzz Aldrin, Jason Alexander, Tim Allen, Aristotle, Justin Bieber, Simon Bolivar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Matthew Broderick, George Bush I, Julius Caesar, David Cameron, Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Eminem, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Lady Gaga, Judy Garland, Bill Gates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jimi Hendrix, Caitlyn Jenner, Steve Jobs, Angelina Jolie, Uhuru Kenyatta, Jennifer Lawrence, Jay Leno, Lee Hsien Loong, Paul McCartney, Benjamin Netanyahu, Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Barack Obama, Mary-Kate Olsen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Trey Parker, Ron Perlman, Gordon Ramsey, Ronald Reagan, Keanu Reeves, Julia Roberts, Seth Rogen, Babe Ruth, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Jason Sudeikis, Alan Turing, Leonardo da Vinci, Prince William, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg

Babe Ruth is one of numerous notable left-handed baseball players -- that's where "southpaw" came from.

Left-handed world leaders include Barack Obama, Prince William - Business Insider
Barack Obama - Top 10 Lefties - TIME
Mary-Kate Olsen - 29 Lefties that'll make you wish you were a member of the southpaw club - Pictures - CBS News
International Left Handers Day: Famous Left-handed People, Left-handed Facts and Left-handed Products Revealed

 

[Politesse]

Dammit, I knew she was a leftist but this is a bridge too far. Fucking communists teaching our kids to write with Satan's hand, where will this end??

 

[lpetrich]

What Percentage of People Are Left Handed? at LeftyFretz, "Left-Handed Guitar Resource". This is one of many sites with resources for left-handed people and left-handed versions of a variety of items.

According to that site, about 12% of people are left-handed, or 1 in 8.

In the US, at least, the fraction of left-handed people has grown over time: 1860: 2%, 1880: 2%, 1900: 2.5%, 1920: 4%, 1940: 10%, 1960: 11.5%, 1980: 12%, 2000: 12%. That clearly indicates that left-handedness has grown much more accepted over time, and that many left-handed people are no longer forced into right-handedness.

Left-handedness is accepted in a lot of Western industrialized nations, but still not as much elsewhere in the world - Why Are There So Few Lefties in China? - Seeker

What's more, studies on Chinese-Americans in California show a similar rate of left-handers as the rest of the U.S. population -- so there is nothing about being Chinese or Asian that makes a person less prone to being left-handed. But being born in China does mean you will likely be forced to function as a right-hander, Kushner concludes.

But China is hardly alone in this. Elsewhere in the world there are still very strong cultural stigmas against left-handedness. In many Muslim parts of the world, in parts of Africa as well as in India, the left hand is considered the dirty hand and it's considered offensive to offer that hand to anyone, even to help. The discrimination against lefties goes back thousands of years in many cultures, including those of the West.

Why Asian Parents Force Their Kids to Be Right-Handed

Unfortunately, lefties seem to have far more troubles if they live in Asia, where superstitious beliefs somehow survive in households with breakneck internet speeds. In South Korea, for instance, left-handedness has long been associated with impurity — giving or receiving items must be accomplished by the right or both hands.

 

[southernhybrid]

Apparently not all lefties are leftists as my Trump supporter, shallow, wealthy dentist brother in law is left handed. According to my husband, his mom did try to get his brother to become right handed. I think that was more common among the parents of my generation. You know. The so called greatest generation. That generation really hated non conformist, generally speaking of course.

 

[lpetrich]

Right, Left, Right, Wrong! - Famous Left-Handers

The author concludes from documentary evidence that these people were not left-handed but right-handed:

Rembrandt van Rijn, Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Benjamin Britten, Bob Dylan, Glen Campbell, Robert Plant, Mark Twain, James Michener, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Linus Pauling, Sigmund Freud, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Munroe, Robert de Niro, Jim Carrey, Sylvester Stallone, River Phoenix, Ben Hogan and Romário.

Evidence like pictures of which hand they liked to write with. Some of the past people may have been left-handed people forced into right-handedness, however.

These people are ambiguous:

Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Serge Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Enrico Caruso, Pablo Casals, Carly Simon, Sting, Celine Dion, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka, Germaine Greer, Ramses II, Simón Bolívar, Otto von Bismarck, Gen. George Patton, Fidel Castro, King Louis XVI, King George II, King George IV, King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, John F. Kennedy, Colin Powell, Clarence Darrow, Bobby Fischer, Greta Garbo, Betty Grable, George Burns, Danny Kaye, Ginger Rogers, Rex Harrison, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Terry-Thomas, Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Shirley MacLaine, Woody Harrelson, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Mickey Rourke, Kenneth Branagh, Joel Coen, Marcel Marceau, David Letterman, Steve Forbes, Isaac Newton, Albert Schweitzer, Alan Turing, Neil Armstrong, Gerhard Berger, Johann Cruyff, Pele, Bobby Charlton, Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier.

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Albrecht Dürer, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joan of Arc, Henry Ford and Aristotle.

There are some sportspeople who play left-handed and are otherwise right-handed, and some who play right-handed and are otherwise left-handed.

Likewise, there are many movie and TV stars (e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Harpo Marx, Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, etc) who are widely reported to be left-handed, even though they have been widely photographed writing with their right hand and perform many other basic tasks right-handed.

Right, Left, Right, Wrong! - List of Famous Left-Handers - has annotations for ambiguous and doubtful cases.

 

[WAB]

Funny - I started a thread today called "Southpaws" in the lounge. Only just now noticed this.

Anyway - lefties are all superior. I have it on authority from Giorgio Tsoukalos that left-handedness was inherited from ancient aliens.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I sympathize with lefties because of the old-school word for lefthandedness, sinistrality. Sounds like a Marilyn Manson box set, dunnit? Equally heinous, the medical word for nose job -- 'You need a rhinoplasty!!'

 

[4321lynx]

Funny - I started a thread today called "Southpaws" in the lounge. Only just now noticed this.

Anyway - lefties are all superior. I have it on authority from Giorgio Tsoukalos that left-handedness was inherited from ancient aliens.

Is it then a leftie plot to keep the two threads separate?

 

[WAB]

Funny - I started a thread today called "Southpaws" in the lounge. Only just now noticed this.

Anyway - lefties are all superior. I have it on authority from Giorgio Tsoukalos that left-handedness was inherited from ancient aliens.

Is it then a leftie plot to keep the two threads separate?

Yes. Us lefties are all about making sure people are divisive and at each other's throats. We are a special people. Some day, ye shall worship us.