It wasn’t until I was preparing for squares that I noticed it. Slide the arrow and take a closer look. Now slide again, notice anything?

Both hands are the same. When I first saw them I decided they were left handed, but Tom highlighted I was having a moment and of course they are both right handed. An example of how generally everything is seen and created from a right handed perspective. So are all hands like this? I had another look in my Portuguese album, and happily I found some left handed ones.

Our world around us though is generally created for those in power or in majority, with little or no consideration to different perspectives [With the exception of a left handed Bishop who defeated a dragon (more here)].

In our lifetime children were being told off for writing with their left hands or even worse had their knuckles rapped or left arms tied behind their backs so they had to write with their right hands. Even today it seems there are teachers who do not know how to advise left-handers to write, or see left-handedness as an issue. The methodology is different if they are to avoid poor posture or smudging their work in a western world which insists we write left to right. Why can’t left-handers write right to left? If that seems a ridiculous thought to you, then;

Imagine a world, right handers, where all of your scissors were made for the comfort of left-handers.

Dr deborah Thorpe, university of york
History extra, August 2017: A History of Left handed writing

115 thoughts

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  6. It’s a little odd, if you’re going to go to the trouble of putting up two hands for door knockers, to use two right hands. I expect the left-hander bias had something to do with the devil’s work and thus the need to beat it out of people. What’s amazing is how long some of these biases linger on, though I suppose some things, such as the economics of offering left and right handed version of thing, will mean it never goes away.
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  12. There should be equality in the hands. Why wouldn’t they put a left hand on the left side? That would have made a lot more sense. My sister is left handed and when she was little, she was berated for her writing & cutting skills (which were horrible!. The teacher was making her cut with right handed scissors and encouraging her to write with her right hand. Once my mother told the teacher that she was left handed, everything changed for my sister. That was 45 years ago and I think teachers realize there is a diversity there and are more aware today. Great thought-provoking post! Lovely door in need of some TLC! 🙂

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  18. Very interesting – you would hope that it was a key topic for those learning to teach.
    And I love your image – with a very clever use of the slider divider. More ideas for me 🙂
    And of course our use of words such as sinister (from Latin for left) and dextrous (from Latin for right) tell us that left handed was never a good thing!

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    1. I wonder what it is about society and left handedness, most strange. The tales my mum has shared from her school days, quite horrific. Fascinating on the language

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  20. That’s interesting. Have you noticed how many simple things are geared to the right handed person? Hold a pen or pencil in your hand as if you were going to write with it – if you are right handed, the writing will be the the right way up, but if you are left handed, upside down. A mug with a slogan on it? Often the handle is on the side where a right handed person will be able to read it. I’m not left handed, but was a teacher, and was very aware of the difficulties, possibly because of my mum, but also my good friend through school. My mum was born (in the early 1920s) naturally left handed. She was forced to use her right hand at school, and had the most beautiful hand writing, but for many other things she would use her left hand. It seems shocking now to imagine being punished for using the ‘wrong’ hand.

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    1. I know the more I look at things, the more horrified I am at how much is aimed at just one type of person. Don’t get me started on nude shades!

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