yes, i am left-handed (and special) :laugh3:

yes, i am left-handed (and special) :laugh3:

 

Does that mean you get transported around in a yellow bus, and visit "band camp" every year??:rolleyes:

right handed here,

Im left handed.

But I play guitar and bass right-handed and also drums...except I can play drums both left and right handed.

I agree with how it sucks that you smudge things wen u write...and when you use a pencil or an inky pen, you get smudges on your hand...gah!

i'm left handed too :cool:

I use computer mouse with my right hand and I played violin with my right hand as well. wasn't making any problems. but i'd be happy if more things were made for us. ;)

Why it's really alright to be left-handed!

 

By MICHAEL HANLON - More by this author » Last updated at 22:26pm on 16th September 2007 Comments

On the face of it, this is one of life's oddest and least logical prejudices. It is also, bizarrely and sadly, one of the most universal.

 

People who have this so-called "disadvantage" do not look different and are found in every society, race and ethnic group on the planet.

They worship the same gods, eat the same food, speak the same languages and there is little real evidence that they think any differently to the other 90 per cent of the world's population.

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Marilyn Monroe: Left-handed

 

 

There is only one way in which these people are 'different' and that is that they happen to favour their left hand over their right.

A new study casts fascinating light on the age-old stigma associated with being left-handed.

Chris McManus, a scientist at University College London, claims that left-handedness has reached record levels.

He has analysed the handwriting of people throughout the past several hundred years and found that the proportion of southpaws seems to have increased from around three per cent in 1900 to nearer 11 per cent today.

These findings confirm other studies, which suggest a "natural" frequency of left-handedness in most populations of between eight and 15 per cent. There is no suggestion that more left-handers are being born.

But historic prejudices which have led to left-handedness being suppressed - often violently - seem to have disappeared. Left-handers are now free to be themselves.

But this is still a right-handed world. Being the majority, righthandedness dominates. But why the divide in the first place?

There is some fascinating evidence that the hand we choose to write with, or with which we perform the most delicate tasks, is rooted deep in our brains and genes even before we are born.

A study of people down the ages shows that left-handed and right-handed people are different - subtly.

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Paul McCartney: Left-handed

 

And, being human nature, these differences (and the fact that left-handers are a small minority) have clearly made them targets of prejudice.

The concept of "leftness" is seen as being literally "sinister", "gauche" and "awkward". There is the phrase "two left hands" - meaning clumsy - and nicknames such as "gibble-fisted", "golly-handed" and "dolly-pawed".

In most European languages, including English, "right" is used not only to signify direction but also a sense of what is "correct", "authority" and "justice".

Right-handedness (dexterity) is a synonym for skilful and, in Irish Gaelic, the word "deas" means both "right side" and "nice". In German, "links" means "left" as well as "sly" and "devious".

The Old English slang term "cack-handed" derives from the propensity to use one's left hand to clean oneself after defecation.

Chamber pots used to be called "left-handed sugar bowls" and coffins, unlike just about every other man-made tool or furniture, are traditionally designed to be lifted using the left hand.

Perhaps the most palpable recent example of prejudice came with the famous 1960s BBC TV test card which showed a girl playing noughts and crosses with her toy clown.

When it was realised that she was holding the piece of chalk with her left hand, the story goes that BBC executives had the picture reversed to make her right-handed.

Sinistral prejudice seems to be universal. In China, the left side is the "bad" side. Until relatively recently, such was the prejudice against left-handers that children who displayed this trait were often forced to use their right hand and punished by having their left hand tied to their chair to stop them from using it.

In his recent book on left-handedness - called Right Hand, Left Hand - Dr McManus points out that we still live in a world designed for right-handers.

Everything from scissors to power tools and from keyboards to computer mice are built with right-handers in mind. This right-handed bias can be deadly.

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Jimmi Hendrix: Left-handed

 

Several mill-workers have lost their arms attempting to use wood-cutting band-saws with the "wrong" hand.

And the British Army's SA80 assault rifle, widely derided as probably the worst piece of ordnance ever to be put into service, cannot be fired from the left shoulder because red-hot cartridge cases will then be discharged into the soldier's face.

Dr McManus also shows that throughout human history there have been no left-handed cultures - even in those where left-handers have either been in the majority or have dominated.

Although most writing systems that we are familiar with are leftto-right, many, including Arabic and Hebrew, are the other way, allowing left-handers to hold the pen and run their hand more freely across the page without having to hook fingers awkwardly around the writing implement to stop ink being smudged.

Driving on the left seems to come more naturally to righthanders. That Napoleon was lefthanded has often been blamed for the great switch to the right, which occurred in Europe.

And there have certainly been no shortage of great left-handers. Not only Napoleon, but his queen Josephine, Marilyn Monroe, the guitarist Jimi Hendrix, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Paul McCartney and David Bowie are, or were, all left hookers.

Psychologists have claimed lefthandedness is associated with higher levels of creativity and skill than right-handedness.

One study found that students and artists are about four or five times more likely to be lefthanded or ambidextrous ( someone who appears not to favour either side).

The science of left-handedness is not fully understood. But it is known that "handedness" is not a "learned" trait.

Statistically, the identical twin of a left-handed person has a 76per cent chance of being lefthanded themselves, which means that the cause must be mostly genetic.

One gene, called LRRTM1 seems to be linked to left-handedness, and this gene has also been associated with a slightly higher incidence of schizophrenia, although caution must always be observed when one reads any report that a given gene "causes" a given behaviour.

There is clearly a degree of genetic "hard-wiring" as, even in the womb, babies can be seen in scans to favour one hand over the other, holding it closer to their mouth or licking it.

It is possible that the "default" condition is to be right-handed, with the left side of the brain (which controls the right of the body) dominant in the foetus.

Another theory is that increased exposure to testosterone in the womb suppresses the development of the left brain, creating a more "male" brain, with a higher likelihood of left-handedness (sinistrality being more common in males) as well as a greater likelihood of other "male brain" tendencies such as dyslexia and stuttering.

Some research suggests that as mothers' ages at childbirth increase (as is happening in Western society today), there will be more left-handed babies because older women are more likely to bear left-handers.

Perhaps if left-handedness was common, we would not need to remark upon it. But being in a minority, left-handers need to be "explained" and studied.

The very existence of the prejudice, as strong as it has been, is interesting in itself.

It suggests that, unlike skin colour, your hand preference is something far more than skin deep. And now, it seems, this is a difference which can finally be celebrated.

^nice read. but i haven't really experienced being looked down because of being left-handed.

 

if at all, i felt only discomfort during my younger school days when all armchairs are made for right-handed kids. arms (and hands) of the left-handed kids are the most stressed out during those times.

I'm both right and left handed, I would type the word but I carn't spell it!!

^ ambidextrous?

^ ambidextrous?

 

Complicated??:rolleyes:

no?

no?

 

Yes?:rolleyes:

i saw that article in the daily mail yesterday and knew it would only be a matter of time before mc_squared posted it

 

SIGH

i saw that article in the daily mail yesterday and knew it would only be a matter of time before mc_squared posted it

 

SIGH

 

Well it's extremely relevant to the thread so...........................

I'm left-handed no problem with it.

I'm left-handed no problem with it.

 

Welcome to the club.;)

Welcome to Fight Club.;)

 

Mark, you know the rules: You don't talk about fight club.

is Chris Martin and Guy Berryman also left handed? like me :smug:

chris is left-handed... i don't know about guy.. i think will is also left-handed... not sure...

 

(there were posted some pics of coldplaying signing a paper...)