5 Shocking Discriminations Against Left-Handed You Won’t Believe Existed
Revealing the Hidden Battles Faced by Lefties In History.
If you’re a left-handed person, then the following must come as no surprise to you. But as a right-handed person, it baffles me how unaware I was of this minuscule privilege I had.
Why has there always been such harsh discrimination against left-handed people? This stems from the ancient Anglo-Saxon word ‘lyft’ that means ‘weak’.
Moreover, in many European languages, right also refers to ‘correct’, making it symbolic of justice and righteousness. Opposingly, left was used for awkwardness or aloof behavior (and unsurprisingly that stuck).
1- Academic Prejudice: From Classroom Desks to Surgical Scores
There has always been a prejudice against left-handed people in academia, from classroom desks to simple stationery like scissors. They have always been catered to right-handed individuals, without any additional aid for the minority.
The awkward positioning of joint desks leads to sore backs and sour moods every day of their lives. Moreover, if they are medical students or residents, they get treated harsher than their right-handed peers, with surgeons giving them lower scores, constantly nagging them for holding the equipment differently, etc.
If this wasn’t bad enough for the lefties, in most of Europe it was mandatory for people to write using their right hands. Worse off, using the left hand to write was banned with punishment in Albania during the 1970s.
This was the start of a painful process for left-handed people to start learning to use their right side. On a positive note, they became ambidextrous which would someday make for a cool party trick. And it also allows them to be more creative and think outside the box. (ambidextrous = people who can write with both their hands).
Even everyday materials such as cameras and computer setups are catered towards right-handed people, making it arguably difficult for lefties to adjust to using their non-dominant hands.
Left-handed people who enjoy gaming would also take longer to adjust to the right-handed consoles and keyboard commands on their PC.
2- Demonic values of left-handed people
Being a majority, the right-handed people deemed themselves superior. The awkward motions of left-handed people trying to function in a society that was built for right-handed people aided in making them look weird.
This wasn’t always the case. Celtics for one related left with femininity and fertility. Moreover, in Christianity, the left side is also associated with immortality.
However, in the “Book of Matthew”, it is said that those divided on the left side during the day of judgment are destined to end up in the scorching pits of hellfire.
Not only were the left-handed people shunned from society for making up just 10% of it, but they were accused of witchcraft and being possessed by demons, making them use their left (wrong) side.
3- Positives of being a leftie
Studies have shown that left-handed people have stronger hearing, they can catch slower-changing sounds such as syllables and intonations.
This is because the right side of their brain controls their left hand, allowing them to pick up on the slower changes in sounds.
The entire opposite is true for right-handed people, allowing them to be better at noticing quicker sound changes like consonants.
You can even try this yourself by listening to a speech and waving a flag. Using either hand allows you to hear the speech differently.
The way the brain of left-handed people works allows them to develop a wider range of abilities along with superior language skills in their youth.
4- Emotional turmoils of left-handed people
Psychologists have claimed left-handed people are obsessed with cleanliness, along with being awkward and stubborn.
This is possibly due to the intensive amount of criticism they had received in their youth regarding the way they do things differently.
Lefties are known to be more affected by fear and negative emotions tend to capture them quicker as well. This is due to the imbalance in the right and left sides of their brains.
Lefties are also accustomed to having many developmental disorders such as depression, autism, and anxiety disorders. Moreover, due to everything being catered toward right-handed people, lefties are known to end up with more bone fractures.
So are left-handed people good or evil?
Despite all the prejudice, both left and right-handed people are equal. Lefties should be accommodated accordingly, in both academia and in real life too.
Not every left-handed person is bad in nature, just like how you would never expect every right-handed person to be either good or bad.
In fact, some of the most revolutionary people we know are left-handed such as Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, Nikola Tesla, etc. This proves that left-handed people are not bad and should not be discriminated against in any field whatsoever.
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