In the Chinese language, the character for "left", 左, depicts a left hand attending to its work. In contrast, the character for "right", 右 (yòu), depicts a right hand in relation to the mouth, suggesting the act of eating.
In tantra Buddhism, the left hand represents wisdom.[29]
In early Roman times, the left side retained a positive connotation, as the Augures proceeded from the eastern side.[30] The negative meaning was subsequently borrowed into Latin from Greek, and ever since in all Roman languages.
In Russian, "levsha" (lefty, lefthander) became a common noun for skilled craftsman, after the title character from "The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" written in 1881 by Nikolai Leskov.
In the context of BDSM and Leather culture, the left side is traditionally associated with dominance. Flagging on the left indicated one was the performer of an action rather than the recipient, and in The Story of O (an early piece of BDSM erotica) masters wore a symbolic ring on the left hand to show who they were.
"Whenever the Bible mentions left-handed people, it does not present left-handedness as a weakness. Ehud, a judge of Israel and a mighty warrior, was left-handed (Judges 3:15-21). Judges 20:16 mentions 700 left-handed warriors who could “sling a stone at a hair and not miss.” First Chronicles 12:2 seems to reference bowmen who were ambidextrous. When the Bible refers to left-handed people, it speaks of left-handedness as an advantage, not a weakness."[31]
Forced use of right hand
Due to cultural and social pressures, many left-handed children are encouraged or forced to write and perform other activities with their right hands. This conversion can cause multiple problems in the developing left-handed child, including learning disorders, dyslexia,[32] stuttering[33][34][35] and other speech disorders.[36] Shifts from left- to right-handed are more likely to be successful than right to left, though neither have a high success rate to begin with. Successful shifters are more likely to become ambihanded than unsuccessful ones.[37] Conversions can be successful with consistent daily practice in a variety of manual activities, but though activity in the non-dominant left-hemisphere of the brain will increase during tasks, so too will activity in the dominant right-hemisphere. Consistent left-handers have no higher activity in these task centers than converted left-handers, so it may be inferred that "attempts to switch handedness by educational training far from weakening the functional expression of lefthandedness in higher-order motor areas of the (dominant) right hemisphere in fact enhance it."[38]
Many Asian countries encourage or force their children to become right-handed due to cultural perceptions of bad luck associated with the left hand. In India and Indonesia, it is considered rude to eat with the left hand.[28] In a 2007 study in Taiwan, 59.3% of children studied had been forced to convert from left-handedness to right-handedness. The study took into account economic status of the children's families and found that children whose parents had less education were more likely to be forced to convert. Even among children whose parents had higher levels of education, the conversion rate was 45.7%.[39] Among naturally left-handed Japanese senior high school students, only 0.7% and 1.7% of individuals used their left hand for writing and eating, respectively,[40] though young Japanese are more likely to convert to using chopsticks right-handed than forks or spoons (29.3% to 4.6%). The proportion of females subjected to forced conversion is significantly higher compared to males (95.1% to 81.0%).[3]
Western countries also attempt to convert left-handed children due to cultural, social and religious biases. Schools tend to urge children to use their right hands, sometimes against the wishes of the child's parents. In America it was not uncommon for students to be physically punished for writing with their left hands:[28] "I was educated in the USA in Catholic school in the 60s. My left hand was beaten until it was swollen, so I would use my right right [sic] hand" ... "I had a teacher who would smack my left hand with a yardstick every time she caught me writing with my left hand" ... "My fourth grade teacher [...] would force me to use my right hand to perform all of my school work. If she caught me using my left hand, I was hit in the head with a dictionary. It turned out that she believed left handers were connected with Satan."[41]
Malawians cite their views that "the left hand is less skilled and less powerful than the right one" as main reasons for forcing left-handers to convert. Among students, teachers and parents, 75% said the left hand should not be used to perform habitual activities, and 87.6% of these believed left-handers should be forced to switch dominant hands. Parents and close relatives are most responsible for impressing these beliefs upon their children.[42]
Accessibility of implements and skills
left-handed (left) and right-handed (right) scissors
Kitchen knives: (1) symmetrical, (2) right-handed, (3) left-handed. Cross sections seen from the handle.
Because the vast majority of the world population is right-handed, most everyday items are mass-produced for ease of use with the right hand. Tools, game equipment, musical instruments and other items must be specially ordered for left-handed use, if they are even produced.
Common tools and devices
Right-handed tools can be difficult, uncomfortable, or positively dangerous for left-handed people to use.
Scissors
For example, (right-handed) scissors are arranged so that, in the right hand, fingers and thumb push the blades together laterally, creating the shearing action essential to scissors' utility. In the left hand, however, fingers and thumb tend to force right-handed blades apart, so that, rather than being sheared, the work-material is merely hacked, as by a knife, or slips between the blades uncut.[43] Left-handers using right-handed scissors will often try to compensate by forcing the handles apart laterally, causing discomfort or injury to the first knuckle of the thumb.[44]
In addition, a right-handed person using right-handed scissors can easily see the cutting line, but for a left-handed user the upper blade obscures the view.[45]
Many scissors are offered as "ambidextrous" or "suitable for right- or left-handed use." Typically, these are merely right-handed scissors with modified handles to permit use in the left hand with less discomfort, but because the blades are still arranged for right-handed use, they will not perform well in the left hand.[45]
Computer input devices
Input devices for computers can present obstacles to left-handed operation if intended for right handed use. Some computer set-ups have the mouse placed on the right side of the keyboard and unable to be repositioned to the left. The mouse itself is also sometimes shaped to fit the right hand better. The functions of mouse buttons, even on mice shaped to fit both hands, default to right-hand use. On two-button mice, the left button —under the index finger of a right-handed person— is the primary button, while the right button performs secondary functions. The on-screen pointers themselves are also configured for right-handed people. Most desktop operating systems allow a user to reverse the functionality of mouse buttons to accommodate left-handed use, but left-handed cursors sometimes need to be specially downloaded.[46] Trackballs and trackpads are often shaped for right-handed use. Even with the ability to change the functionality of buttons, these devices may be difficult for left-handed use.
A right-handed trackball is difficult to use with the left hand.
Knives
While European-style kitchen knives are usually symmetrical, Japanese kitchen knives have the cutting edge ground asymmetrically, having the cutting edge closer to the user's body with ratios ranging from 70–30 for the average chef's knife, to 90–10 for professional sushi chef knives; left-handed models are rare, and usually must be specially ordered or custom made.[47] On the other hand, the majority of "flat ground" general-purpose knives typically have the cutting edge on the right, as with a left-handed knife, for aesthetic reasons rather than practical.
Cameras
One of the few cameras ever produced for left-handers was the half-frame Yashica Samurai. Cameras predominantly have the hand grip, shutter release, film wind lever and commonly used selection buttons, switches and dials controlled by the right hand. Lens controls (where present) tend to be accessible by either hand. When an unskilled left-handed person uses a right-handed camera the hand control can be less steady and hence produce camera shake leading to poorer pictures at low shutter speeds.
Musical instruments and sporting equipment
Left-handed adaptations have even bridged the world of music. Left-handed string instruments, including guitars and members of the violin family, are manufactured as an alternative to using a flipped around right-handed string instrument, although significant resistance to left-handed string playing remains in classical music culture - one is more likely to see a left-handed violin played by a fiddler, whereas left-handed classical violinists will learn to play as right-handers. There have even been inverted pianos where the lowest notes correspond to the rightmost keys instead of the leftmost.[48] Inverted trumpets are made, too. Although the trumpet's valves are normally designed to be operated with the right hand, the prevailing belief is that left-handed trumpeters are not at a significant disadvantage. The French horn, for example, is played with the left hand, yet most horn players are right-handed. Left handed drummers also set up drum kits the exact opposite to conventional right-handed setup (i.e. hi-hat on the right, bass pedal under left foot, ride cymbal to the drummer's left, etc.).
A left-handed individual may be known as a southpaw, particularly in a sports context. It is widely accepted that the term originated in the United States, in the game of [53] A left-handed advantage in sports can be significant and even decisive, but this advantage usually results from a left-handed competitor's unshared familiarity with opposite-handed opponents. Baseball is an exception since batters, pitchers, and fielders in certain scenarios are physically advantaged or disadvantaged by their handedness.
In baseball, due to the direction in which curveballs and sliders break, it is generally accepted that the pitcher has an advantage when his handedness is the same as the batter's, and the batter has an advantage when they are opposite. For this reason, many baseball teams include a left-handed specialist pitcher, who is brought into the game specifically to pitch to dangerous left-handed batters in crucial situations. A left-handed first baseman uses a more fluid motion to tag out a baserunner returning to first base during a pickoff attempt by the pitcher and has less difficulty avoiding baserunners while presenting their mitt as a target for other fielders to throw to. A fielder's handedness is either a physical advantage or hindrance for similar reasons throughout the infield positions, and left-handedness is not always the more desirable dexterousness.
Left-handed bowlers are usually at an advantage during ten-pin bowling competition when hooking the ball into the pins from the left side of the lane. As there are fewer left-handed players, the lane's left side is not used as much, and thus the applied oil pattern does not change as quickly as it does for right-handed bowlers.
In boxing, someone who boxes left-handed is frequently referred to as southpaw. The term is also used to refer to a stance in which the boxer places the right foot in front of the left, so it is possible for a right-handed boxer to box with a southpaw stance. Most boxers, southpaw or otherwise, tend to train with sparring partners who adopt an orthodox stance which gives southpaws an advantage. Manny Pacquiao is an example of a southpaw (although he writes with his right hand). In the popular boxing film series Rocky, the main character Rocky Balboa is a southpaw. Southpaw is also a term in professional wrestling, often giving them the advantage.
Fencing weapons feature left- and right-handed grips, and a left-handed fencer's stance is opposite that of a right-handed opponent. Though commonly asserted that left-handed fencers have an advantage over right-handed opponents because the line of defence favors their sword arm, this assertion describes both fencers in a mixed-handed duel, so neither competitor has a unique physical advantage. Thus the left-hander's advantage in fencing stems mostly from a right-hander's unfamiliarity with a left-handed stance.
The game of golf is most commonly played right-handed, and left-handed players typically must provide their own special golf clubs.[26] The game can be played with both hands, provided the player has both left- and right-handed clubs, giving an advantage over one-handed players. Professional golfer Phil Mickelson plays left-handed though he is naturally right-handed.[54]
In tennis, southpaws hold the racket in their left hand. Because of this, their grip of the handle is supposedly adjusted in a slightly different style from right-handed players. Some world champion left-handed tennis players include Jimmy Connors, Guillermo Vilas, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Marcelo Ríos, Goran Ivanišević and Rafael Nadal.
Weapons and machinery
The vast majority of firearms are designed for right-handed shooters, with the operating handle, magazine release, or safety mechanisms set up for manipulation by the right hand, and fired cartridge cases ejected to the right. Also, scopes and sights may be mounted in such a way as to require the shooter to place the rifle against the right shoulder. A left-handed shooter must either purchase a left-handed or ambidextrous firearm (which are manufactured in smaller numbers and are generally more expensive and/or harder to obtain), shoot a right-handed gun left-handed (which presents certain difficulties, such as the controls being improperly located for the left hand or hot shell cases being ejected towards the shooter's body, especially the eyes or down the collar or right sleeve), or learn to shoot right-handed (which may be less comfortable or "natural"). A related issue is ocular dominance, due to which left-handed people may wish to shoot right-handed, and vice versa.
Some modern firearms are ambidextrous (e.g. the FN P90 and Heckler & Koch P7), or can be converted between right- and left-handed operation (e.g. the Heckler & Koch G36 and Steyr AUG). Bullpup rifles are particularly problematic for left-handers unless they can be reconfigured, since empty shells would be ejected straight into the shooter's face and cheek potentially causing injury, or otherwise designed from the ground up for ambidextrous use, often by way of complex ejection systems as seen on the FN F2000 and the Kel-Tec RFB. The British L85 Assault Rifle must be fired right-handed, placing left-handed soldiers at a disadvantage. In contrast, the Steyr AUG is of a modular design and the ejection port and extractor can be switched/replaced to suit the handedness of the soldier operating it. The M-16 and its variants have a fixed ejection port, but being a conventional (i.e. not bullpup) design the ejection port is forward of the operator and hence able to be fired either-handed. Circa 1980, with the introduction of the M16A2 version, a case deflector was incorporated adjacent to the ejector port to direct discarded shells in a more forward direction, making the rifle even more left hand operator friendly. The deflector is not always effective, however, as the ejected shell still stands a chance of hitting the left-handed shooter's cheek, especially in windy conditions.
Lever action and pump action firearms present fewer difficulties for left-handers than bolt action weapons do. Many weapons with adjustable sights allow for left-handed use, but for a right eye dominant shooter it is necessary to adjust. In fact, most weapons adjust well enough that a weapon will not eject shells into a left-hander's eye.
Power tools, machinery and other potentially dangerous equipment is typically manufactured with the right-handed user in mind. Common problems faced by left-handed operators include the inability to keep materials steady, and difficulty reaching the on/off switch, especially in emergency situations.[2] Table saws, whose blades protrude from the top of a table and pose the risk of losing fingers or hands, have their cutting area on the right side. This makes it difficult for a left-handed operator to guide the material being cut, as it must be pushed to the right side to align with the fence to avoid kickback. On bandsaws, the blade teeth are on the left side of the blade, necessitating the material being cut to be pushed from the left side of the machine. However, at this angle, the casing of the machine containing the rest of the blade is on the operator's left side, making it extremely difficult to guide the wood with their left hand. This can be countered by using a blade with teeth on both sides.
Handheld circular saws are made almost exclusively for right-handers, with the motor and grip on the right side. If held in the left hand, it is impossible for the operator to see what they are cutting. Tool manufacturer Porter-Cable produces a left-handed circular saw that can be purchased relatively inexpensively.[2]