jonnyskov:

Okay, I’m not actually linking to this post because of the odd statistic that there seem to be fewer left-handed people in China than elsewhere.

What I find interesting is the subtle prejudice against left-handedness that persists across the globe. Many people may not even be aware of it, but it’s so embedded in society, both culturally (don’t shake with your left hand) and linguistically (in Latin the word for left is sinistra, i.e. sinister). Most of manufacturing is also slanted to the right (doors, tools, etc).

I’ve become more aware of this as I guide my left-handed son through the various lefty adjustments, the correct scissors to pick, avoiding spiral-bound notebooks (because they dig into your hand), finding writing materials that smudge less as your hand moves across the words while writing in our right-handed language.

I also like in this article how it points out that because of these challenges, lefties are forced to be more flexible than their right-handed fellows, and that this may lead to us having a better balance between the left and right hemispheres of our brains.