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So last night, my mom and I were talking about when she was a kid, and it occurred to me we had something in common. See, she's left-handed, and in those days, they tried to "fix" left-handed people by belittling them and physically punishing them. My mom was assumed to stubborn, stupid, mentally ill, or even just evil just because she was different from the norm. Gee, that sounds a LOT like what trans people go through ...
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And when you are a Leftie and Trans?
The deck is really stacked against us.
I was forced to write with my right hand even though I'm a leftie. Thankfully it only lasted a while but it was the norm at the time in the Church Primary School. All the desks has recepticles for ink wells on the RH side of the top. No provision was made for Lefties.
Ironically, us lefties are more ambidextrous than righties after all, the world is designed for Righties.
I still remember how I baffled one of my teachers when I was able to use both slides on a lathe at the same time.
Lefties Can Kick
I first noticed how much better lefties are (generally) than righties at soccer, about 25 years ago. I was coaching my son's U-19 team. Over the years I've read several articles that suggest that while about 10% of all soccer players are lefties they make up about 35% of the most highly decorated players.
I assume this is because they're forced by a rightie-oriented world to become ambi-dexterous. Almost every left-hander I ever coached was ambi-dextrous.
In case you've never played soccer (football) people have a prevalent foot (leg) just like they have a preferred hand. Most of the youth teams I played were heavily right-handed and attacked mainly on that side of the field. I played my better defenders to that side and often shaded our mids to the right as well.
When you realize that the Latin word for left is a derivative of "sinister" you can at least partially understand the social bias against lefties. Ther are many correlations with being trans and being left-handed. I wonder how Ned Flanders thinks about Transpeople given his Okaley Dokely! attitude toward life?
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Dominant parts of your body
I'm left handed, left eyed but can't kick a ball hard with my left foot but used to take conversions (Rugby) with my right, I also bat (Cricket etc) righthanded.
Having a domiant left eye made shooting a 303 awkward. The RSM almost burst a blood vessel when he saw me trying to shoot left handed. Those were the days.
Samantha
Among...
one of the minor horrors my mother had to endure as a child was a regimen of hard smacks on her left hand with a metal ruler. She learned to write with BOTH hands She decided to keep her lovely left-hand cursive hidden until she left school at the mature age of fifteen. She told me in our last conversation that she 'knew' about me.
Love, Andrea Lena
Ambidextrous
I'm Ambie but right-hand preferred, probably because it is easier to write right-handed in English. I use to freak out art teachers by drawing or painting with either hand. :)
I never suffered the way a genuine leftie does, but I actually have problems telling my hands apart and most typing errors I make come from using the right finger but the wrong hand. :)
My mom had this quirk also but my dad was strongly north-pawed. It used to make him crazy that I could use tools with either hand, except shears and scissors of course. He couldn't even pick up and drink from a glass with his left hand unless he reached across and at least touched it with his right.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I'm one of those confounded ambies too
I can write with both hands but I mirror write left handed. Don't ask me why, I've tried to break myself from it but it just feels natural to write left handed that way.
Back when I played English darts, I could play fine with either hand. I would practice in the pub every night playing against challengers, usually sticking to the use of one hand for that night and the opposite the next night. Was the big joke of the pub for the regulars to get some noob to challenge me but I had to throw with my "off hand" to make it fair....LOL
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Cross dominant
I'm right-handed, but my dominant eye is the left one.
That made the archery class back at school a bit more interesting... ;)
Martina