The Horrors of Living as a Left-Handed Person

[J_B_]

I don't want to dump too much on you at once - cause someone a bad day or something. So, maybe just one left-handed struggle at a time.

I hate it when stores make the cord too short that ties the pen to the credit card machine. Then I can't stretch the pen across the machine to sign my name. Or sometimes they put the credit card machine right next to a post or the cash register, and I can't get my hand into position to sign. I have to resort to just drawing an X - like I'm illiterate.

 

[Lost4words]

You should try being me!

I am very short, big ears and my paws are useless with normal keyboards!

 

[FenderTL5]

There's far fewer guitar choices when you're a lefty.

 

[J_B_]

There's far fewer guitar choices when you're a lefty.

I play (or rather played) guitar and violin "right-handed" ... whatever that's supposed to mean. Is the fingering supposedly the easier task such that it's relegated to the left hand while the right hand does the complicated task of strumming (picking, bowing - whatever)? What makes that the "right-handed" way to play?

Similarly, baseball is my favorite sport. When I was little I played ambidextrously, because schools rarely had gloves for left-handers; if they did they were these cheap, childish, plastic things, and there was no way I was having that. So, at school I batted and threw right-handed. Outside of school I batted and threw left-handed.

But again, what really makes one way "right-handed" vs. the other? Because you catch with your left hand and throw with your right, that makes it "right-handed?"

Personally, I think handedness is just a state of mind. I consider myself trans-handed, so I've always advocated for hand-neutral terms. Like, why does the word "sinister" stem from the Latin word for "left", and "dexterity" stems from the Latin word for "right"?

It never ends!!!

 

[MehGuy]

Yeah I hate how if everything that requires the use of a hand is not going to be designed for you. As a kid I would constantly get magic marker marks on my hand, and many of the scissors were painful to use. Don't get me started on those arm rest desks. Or the school computers where you have to untangle the wires just to free up space to use the mouse. I'd always leave it the way it was when I was done.. and sometimes I'd see a righty use the computer after me.. and try to move the mouse and be like "hey! why is this wire so short?!"

 

[StromRider]

I play (or rather played) guitar and violin "right-handed" ... whatever that's supposed to mean. Is the fingering supposedly the easier task such that it's relegated to the left hand while the right hand does the complicated task of strumming (picking, bowing - whatever)? What makes that the "right-handed" way to play?

I'm left-handed. I play sports right handed, except for goalie in hockey which I played left-handed. My dad was right handed but played sports left-handed. Both my parents were right-handed, my sister and I are left-handed. There is no rhyme or reason it seems.

But again, what really makes one way "right-handed" vs. the other? Because you catch with your left hand and throw with your right, that makes it "right-handed?"

No idea if it's correct, but I always considered the hand you write with to be the determination of your handedness.

Like, why does the word "sinister" stem from the Latin word for "left", and "dexterity" stems from the Latin word for "right"?

Don't forget gauche is French for left

 

[Renata8]

I write with my left hand too, but adapted using both hands to complete right handed tasks. Like correcting school work, I would press clothes with both hands, shifting the heater iron from hand to hand until done, cooking, use both hands too.

 

[J_B_]

I'm left-handed. I play sports right handed, except for goalie in hockey which I played left-handed.

Yeah, in addition to baseball, I played basketball, and there left-handedness was an advantage when I was younger. I learned to dribble right-handed so I could start the game right-handed, then make a sudden switch to the left where most people aren't prepared to defend. But, eventually my opponents got good enough that such tricks didn't work.

 

[J_B_]

I write with my left hand too, but adapted using both hands to complete right handed tasks. Like correcting school work, I would press clothes with both hands, shifting the heater iron from hand to hand until done, cooking, use both hands too.

You should do a taste test to see if your cooking tastes better when you cook left-handed ... though I'm sure it's good either way.

 

[durangodawood]

There's far fewer guitar choices when you're a lefty.

Oh yeah? Try finding a left handed snare drum!

 

[FenderTL5]

It's odd though, it seems all I kind find are left-handed brooms and shovels.
I'm right-handed, and they never fit my hand.

 

[Lost4words]

Left or right paws? I use both.

 

[Tolworth John]

I don't want to dump too much on you at once - cause someone a bad day or something. So, maybe just one left-handed struggle at a time.

I hate it when stores make the cord too short that ties the pen to the credit card machine. Then I can't stretch the pen across the machine to sign my name. Or sometimes they put the credit card machine right next to a post or the cash register, and I can't get my hand into position to sign. I have to resort to just drawing an X - like I'm illiterate.

Ask them for a pen that you can use. Carry a pencil and if they don't have a spare pen sign with that or use violence or a pair of tin snips to free the pen so you can use it.

Be creative in causing disruption.

Try saying the contactless system here isn't working, make a fuss about obsolete technology and don't buy the item.

 

[Halbhh]

There's far fewer guitar choices when you're a lefty.

hey is that thing with rearranging the strings and playing it up side down pretty effective? Or does it have any problems? (like sometimes you'd have to reverse the bridge also, and that means you have to get it loose to do that?)

 

[FenderTL5]

hey is that thing with rearranging the strings and playing it up side down pretty effective? Or does it have any problems?

I'm not a lefty, so I can't speak first hand.
I do know that it's a technique that has been used effectively for several years and by some great players. (Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney more)
It really depends on the shape of the instrument. A Fender Stratocaster is more conducive than a Gibson Les Paul for example.

 

[jayem]

The neurophysiology of laterality is kinda interesting. I recall reading that over 90% of right handed people are also right foot dominant, and about 2/3 are right eyed. But among left handed people, only about half are left footed and left eyed. And in virtually all right handed people, and most lefties, the speech centers of the brain (Broca's and Wernicke's areas and the angular gyrus) are in the left cerebral cortex. When I have some time, I'll try to find a reference.