Is it okay to be left handed?
Mailed in by David
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about 8 months ago
Some time ago one of the IOMfAtS authors wrote a guest piece at http://www.themailcrew.com/grasshopper.html which I commend to you
about 8 months ago
Another variation on a welknown theme.
about 8 months ago
Yeah, same theme, same hypocrisy.
I’m gonna tell them I like younger boys, and ask them for them to stop. think. and respect me.
They would call the police.
And I’m talking about the ones who made this ad.
about 8 months ago
I completely agree. Here here.
about 8 months ago
I am left handed and nobody gave me any grief about it at all at school. Only problem is that it did make my writing a little poor. They say lefties are smarter. First time I have heard about prejudice in modern times over what hand you use. Never come across it in UK.
about 8 months ago
You do realise this is a metaphor for prejudice against LGBTI right?
Never had any issues with being a lefty here either.
about 8 months ago
My mother was at school in England in the 1920s. She was forced to write with her right hand. She was punished if she wrote with her left.
about 8 months ago
Same with my father going to school here in Canada in the 1920′s. The teacher would smack a ruler across his left hand and force him to put his pencil / pen in his right hand. The result was he was very ambedexterous and I recall watching him writing in his office at work with both hands at the same time.
about 8 months ago
My brother was left handed and went through the same experience. But my affliction was invisible, I was gay.
about 8 months ago
“Hey. You shouldn’t worry about what people think.”
What they *think*? People do more than think, sadly. They say things and they do things.
Phrases like that irk me.
(btw, I’m from Germany, not Sweden. that’s just my VPN provider.)
about 8 months ago
Yay, it got posted! :)
Reventon: this isn’t a real scenario, but it is to show that its just as weird to harass a person for being left handed, as it is weird to harass a person for being gay etc.
about 8 months ago
This is in the same vein as the video about being a red head, same metaphor.
about 8 months ago
I love red heads
about 8 months ago
Good video and message there. Not only am I gay, I’m also left handed. My handwriting stinks, and writing in coiled notebooks or ringed binders is almost impossible. ATM’s are designed backwards for me, not to mention scissors, which by the time I actually got a left handed pair of, could not use those either after years of trying to apply unnatural pressures in order to make them work. Yes folks, it’s a right handed straight world out there and I say it’s a conspiracy for crying out loud!
about 8 months ago
It is weird to discriminate against people for being left handed or gay. It’s not like something you can help. You just are. I am both, a left handed gay fantastically creative industrious kid who happens to draw half naked boy better than anyone in my class.
I get the message about this video.
But let’s talk about some of the subtle ways society discriminates against lefties:
1. From 1st to 3rd grades my teacher repositioned my pencil to my right hand constantly, until mom got involved. Whoa!!
2. Try to open a standard door with your left hand. Ouch!
3. Scissors! What the fuck!
4. Televisions, Microwaves etc. Most appliances are for righties.
5. School desks. I hate to have to reach around to write. Not cool! To find a left handed desk an another room is not easy.
6. People always hand you a pen to the wrong hand.
7. Pen ink that doesn’t dry fast enough and smudges.
8. The Pledge of Allegiance (US only?)
9. Manual Can openers. Don’t get me started on that one.
10. Having to change gears in a auto with your right hand. That’s like masturbating with you unaccustomed hand. Weird.
11. School spiral and loose leaf notebooks.
12. Kitchen knives.
13. The satchel (glove compartment) on the right side.
14. Guns. The eject spent shells shoot across your body to the right. That stings.
15. Computer mice. Thanks God for touch pads and lefty friendly options now.
16. Guitars and Drum Sets. It’s murder.
17. Eating at the cafeteria at school. Don’t sit next to a righty on the wrong side. They get irate.
Just to name a few. I could go on.
And then there’s the association to Evil and being Left-handed. Example:
In the Latin language the word left is: nefarious (or sinister).
In the Christian world lefties are: evil, sinister, homosexual.
But there are positive connotations too. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_people
Again I get the metaphor for the movie. I got the point. I just want us all to remember that lefties don’t have it all that easy. And of those people are:
Politics
George H.W. Bush , Bill Clinton , Gerald Ford , Benjamin Franklin , James A. Garfield , Herbert Hoover , Thomas ,Jefferson , John Kerry , H. Ross Perot , Ronald Reagan, Nelson D. Rockefeller , Harry ,S. Truman , Julius Caesar , F.W. de Klerk , Benjamin Netanyahu , Tiberius , Napoleon ,Bonaparte , Artists, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo , Raphael , Pablo Picasso , Rembrandt
Authors
Douglas Adams , Hans Christian Andersen , Dave Barry , Leo ,Tolstoy , Mark Twain , H.G. Wells
Musicians and Composers
Eminem , AJ ,McLean, Kevin Richardson, Ludwig van Beethoven, David Bowie , Kurt Cobain , Natalie Cole , Phil Collins, Billy Ray Cyrus, 50 Cent , Art Garfunkel, Judy Garland , Bob Geldof , Jimi Hendrix, Faith Hill , Paul McCartney, George Michael, Wolfgang ,Amadeus Mozart , Robert Plant , Lou Rawls , Seal , Paul Simon, Ringo Starr
Actors
Jason Alexander , Tim Allen , Amitabh Bachchan, Albert Brooks , Pierce ,Brosnan , George Burns, Drew Carey , Charlie Chaplin , Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Richard Dreyfuss , Greta Garbo , Whoopi Goldberg , Rex Harrison , Goldie ,Hawn , Benny Hill , Angelina Jolie , Nicole Kidman , Lisa Kudrow , Shirley ,MacLaine , Steve McQueen , Anthony Perkins , Richard Pryor, Keanu Reeves , Julia ,Roberts , Jerry Seinfeld, Christian Slater , Jon Stewart , Ben Stiller , Emma Thompson , Dick Van Dyke, Bruce Willis , Oprah Winfrey
Baseball
Barry Bonds , Wade ,Boggs , Lou Brock , Lou Gehrig , Ken Griffey, Jr. , Reggie Jackson , Dave Martinez , Don Mattingly , Paul O’Neill , Dan Pasqua , Babe Ruth , Deion Sanders , Pitchers, Whitey Ford , Paul Gibson , Tom Glavine , Steve Howe , Randy Johnson , Eric Milton , Andy Pettitte , Billy Pierce , Fernando Valenzuela , Frank Viola , Basketball, Kenny Anderson , Larry Bird , Billy Cunningham , Gail ,Goodrich , Adrian Griffin , Toni Kukoc , Raef LaFrentz , Bob Lanier , David Bacchus
Boxing
Marvin Hagler , Oscar de la Hoya , Reggie Johnson , Mike Tyson, Motor sport, Dale Earnhardt Jr. , Jenson Button , Johnny Herbert , Terry Labonte , Tennis, Jimmy Connors , Guy Forget , Goran Ivanisevic , Rod Laver , Henri Leconte , John McEnroe , Thomas Muster , Martina Navratilova , Jarkko Nieminen , Monica ,Seles , Guillermo Vila
So the next time you get a rightie reach around in the boys bathroom don’t be surprised.
about 8 months ago
Seems the US is a bit more right-handed oriented than here. In Sweden (Europe?) there is no real standard (though the version more suitable to right-handed persons might be more common) when it comes to doors, microwaves, desks (how can a school desk even be unsymmetrical?), refrigerators/freezers (and we don’t do guns or forced oaths and people usually use both hands when they eat). But for the other things, it is the same here.
about 8 months ago
William,
In America, (USA), the Desks are a part of the chair and sits on the right hand side of the chair, making it difficult for left handed people to right. When I was at Primary School, (4 to 11), all desk were square and individual. At Secondary School most pupils sat together at larger desks. Even though I was forced to write with my right hand, I still can’t hold a knife in my right hand. I eat the opposite to most people in my country, (Scotland). I hold knife in left hand and fork in right hand.
Stephen.
about 8 months ago
Liam,
I’m a leftie as well who now writes right handed. Although I’m 24, when I was in Primary School, (aged 4 to 11), my first teacher made all the lefties in our class, (All boys), write with our right hands by tying our left hands to out left thighs with men’s hankies. This was in 1992. She was, guess what? a Christian FundeMENTAList, who really believed that left handed children grew up to be sinister and abnormal. As a result all 4 of us boys had difficulty with our lessons by the time we left her class and entered the next grade. A lot of guy boys I knew were left handed. I don’t know how many of you are? I just think that maybe left handed people use a different part of the brain as right handed folks. Although I am studying to be a Nurse, I had to work hard at my School Studies like Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. However my Biology, Geography, History, Art, Music and English seemed to go very smoothly. I think most left handed people are more Artistic, (Art, Music, Words), than Scientific, (Numbers, Spacial Co-ordination, Calcullations, ect). Saying that, a lot of Famous lefties were both. So do you think there is a link between left handedness, Artistic Temperament and Homosexuality? Just thinking out load.
Stephen.
about 8 months ago
I’m left-handed, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a phase, I’m going through.
about 8 months ago
It might be a sign that you’re gay, Vjed.
Is There a Link Between
Left-Handedness and Homosexuality?
N. E. Whitehead, Ph.D.
[email protected]
This year, three Canadian scientists published a study which found some connection between left-handedness and homosexuality (1).
Analyzing a number of studies, their paper concludes that male homosexuals are about one third (31%) more likely than heterosexuals to be left-handed (2), while lesbians are almost twice as likely (91%) to be left-handed as heterosexual women.
The authors say that their findings support the notion that sexual orientation in some men and women has an early neurodevelopmental basis. They trace this to “disruptive events causing developmental instability.” These events may modify sexual differentiation of the brain, they say, “perhaps through hormonal or immunological mechanisms.”
The authors point out that left-handedness has been associated with a wide range of indicators of reduced fitness, from the standpoint of natural (Darwinian) selection. Left-handed people, the authors say, have a smaller number of offspring, higher number of spontaneous abortions, lower birth weight, higher number of serious accidents, higher rates of serious disorders, and a shorter life span. Left-handedness has similarly been linked to neural tube defects, autism, stuttering, and schizophrenia. The authors conclude by discussing possible biological reasons for the link between left-handedness and homosexuality. Their preferred explanation is that both left-handedness and homosexuality result from “biological developmental errors.”
In a related development, two recent studies reported in Archives of General Psychiatry found significantly higher levels of pathology in the gay population than among heterosexuals. One of several possible explanations, said researcher J.M. Bailey in a published commentary that accompanied the article, is that since evolution naturally selects for heterosexuality, “homosexuality may represent developmental error” (3).
How Significant is the Latest Study?
I would conclude that there is possibly some link between left-handedness and homosexuality, but not a highly significant one. The fact remains that most left-handed persons are not homosexual, and most homosexual people are not left-handed.
The Canadian scientists’ paper is a meta-analysis, which has become an increasingly popular way of combining data from multiple studies to overcome the problems of slightly different approaches, and to pinpoint small effects which individual studies have not enough power to detect.
There are many potential traps in meta-analyses. The paper in question has avoided most of them–as one would expect, given the prominence and expertise of its best-known authors, Ray Blanchard and Kenneth Zucker.
One concern, however, is that the paper was published in a social-science rather than a medical journal. Psychological Bulletin was certainly a correct choice for reaching the authors’ target audience (psychotherapists working with gay and lesbian clients), but it is quite doubtful the paper got a rigorous refereeing, since the number of specialists required to properly analyze the paper would likely exceed the number of informed referees usually assigned to a paper by the editorial staff of a journal. The study is severely technical; it uses odds ratios (statistics from the field of epidemiology), and refers to fetal masculinization (endocrinology), the Major Histocompatibility Complex (immunology), and fluctuating asymmetry (developmental biology).
The main caution, however, must be about the significance of the findings. Neither the authors nor I can quantify its error, because it was done using a meta-analysis. A known epidemiological rule of thumb for individual surveys states that, in a test-population, a prevalence of twice that in the control group is intriguing but inconclusive, and a prevalence of three is probably significant. This means that if this were an individual survey, the result of 31% above normal would be insignificant, and that of 91% above normal (about twice the control group) would be considered intriguing, but not decisive. This rule-of-thumb applies to individual surveys, but it is unknown if the rule should apply in the same manner to a meta-analysis.
Using their results, it is possible to derive a number, which shows the extent of any link there may be between homosexuality and left-handedness. Here’s how it’s done. Given that 2.7% of adult Western males are homosexuals and 1.7% of adult Western women female homosexuals (both figures including bisexuals, and defined as activity in the last 12 months [4]) we can calculate by standard methods that only 3.9% of left-handed males are homosexual, and only 3.3% of left-handed females are lesbian (5).
In other words, the overwhelming majority of those who are left-handed, do not become homosexual. The strength of any underlying factor producing both is weak. Something unusual appears to happen to a small number of left-handed people, and their sexual-orientation development is atypical. Conversely, however, and very importantly, most homosexual people are not left-handed.
The latest study is intriguing. Nevertheless, the main routes to homosexuality would not likely be through the route that has caused some people to be left-handed.
References
Lalumire, M.L.; Blanchard, R.; Zucker, K.L. (2000): “Sexual orientation and handedness in Men and Women: a meta-analysis.” Psychological Bulletin 126, 575-592.
Although for conciseness the term “left-handed” is used in this article, the original definition in the paper is “all those who are not exclusively right-handed.”
Bailey, J.M., “Commentary: Homosexuality and Mental Illness,” Archives of General Psychiatry, October 1999, vol. 56, no. 10, 876-880.
Whitehead, N.E.; Whitehead, B.K. (1999): My Genes Made Me Do It! Huntington House, Layfayette, Louisiana. 233 pages.
The calculation is quite easy and useful to put in perspective other alleged links. F1 = 0.0277 * R1 (for men) and F2 = 0.0173 * R2, where F1 and F2, the results, give the fraction of left-handers who are homosexual (men and women respectively), and R1 is the ratio of the percentage of left-handed homosexual men to the percentage of left-handed heterosexual men. R2 is similar but for women. The numerical factors are the ratio of homosexuals to non-homosexuals in a population, thus it is 2.7/97.3 for males and 1.7/98.3 for females. Other figures could be substituted if you think them more accurate. The formulae apply similarly to other biological factors that are alleged to link with homosexuality; only R1 and R2 change.
about 8 months ago
I’m lefthanded and gay too. An exclusive club ;-)
about 8 months ago
Not *too* exclusive, seeing as I’m part of it too.
about 8 months ago
When did you “become” left handed?
about 8 months ago
I born lefthanded and gay… I born this ways… ;-)
about 8 months ago
You sure you were not influenced by the left handed agenda?
about 8 months ago
Lol, Bruce!! I’m lovin it :p
about 8 months ago
Was there a “coming out from the left door” party for you by your family and friends?
about 8 months ago
We had a problem in grammer school about being left handed,but that was in the 50′s and a Catholic school. There was no problem in High School about being left handed. There was a problem in the Army because they had to show you how to shot left handed. This was because of the ejection of the spent shell casing. My boy had no problem in school about being left handed,nor did my nephew. It seems to run in the family on my mothers side. I have do Idea where this video came from ,but I fine this very hard to believe.
about 8 months ago
I can still remember how tough it was to shoot left-handed when i was in the Army. I am sure that is why I hit “maggie’s drawers” so often, and only qualified as ‘sharpshooter’ instead of expert.
I am still looking for my left-handed monkey wrench.
But, i do own a pair of left-handed scissors!
–carlitos
about 8 months ago
I am both handed. Be jealous.
about 8 months ago
Is that as in “ambidexterous”?
–carlitos
about 8 months ago
I’ll just bet that most of us wank with our left hand.
about 8 months ago
Is it because most people are using their mouse with their right hand at the time? ^,.,^
about 8 months ago
Yeah, and Milkboys promotes the left handed agenda.
about 8 months ago
Even though the vid clip is not a real situation, it does highlight the problem in society that most people expect you to be like them in all ways, dress, habits, likes and dislikes, sexual orientation, and left-handedness. I am gay and also left-handed. When I was younger, the teachers at school wanted me to be right-handed and took the issue to my mother. she told them to just leave me alone. I was left-handed and that was that. (Thanks for that, Mom!!) Just as many famous and creative and successful people in history have been homosexual, the same is true for those who prefer the left hand. Four of our last five presidents are left-handed. And I don’t think it has made them either worse presidents or that they have poor handwriting.
Just like anything else about one’s make-up, you have to accept who and what you are, if you are different or not. Be thankful for your differences.,
–carlitos
about 8 months ago
I would agree with you. As for our last four presidents they were creative. And most left-handed people are creative. However our presidents were creative in the way that they just made lies as they came up in their head.
But that is what a president is, a professional liar.
about 8 months ago
I am right handed but use my left hand for the dirty deed, you know , the thing that makes you go blind.
about 8 months ago
That left handed, dirty deed will cause acne and you might grow hair in the palm of that hand. The wrath of Gawd.
about 8 months ago
I just watched that video. I’m guessing it’s to make a point comparing LGBT to left handedness. If people are really being ostracised for being left handed then stop the planet because I want to get off. I’m left handed and gay. I’ve never had any problems being left handed other than the typical made for right hander tools.
btw…. I use my right hand to…..ummm…..you know.
about 8 months ago
People is some 3rd world desert cultures without tolit paper are tought to wipe with their left hand. So there is no end of what is socially acceptable with the left hand. You might be suspected of doing dirty things with your right hand in such a culture. Eating with your left hand would not be acceptable.
about 8 months ago
Bruce, let me know what 3rd world countries your talking about, i wanna make sure I never visit there.
about 8 months ago
This was something I heard from exchange students from India while I was in college. I heard this more than once but I never bothered to look it up and I forget the country/culture identified so It may or may not be true. In my post I should have written “…are said to be taught.”
about 8 months ago
You are quite right Bruce. I spent time in Southeast Asia and there was a real taboo about using your left hand because you cleaned up with it as you described. I avoided public toilets like the plague.
about 8 months ago
I just looked it up. I typed in “They use their hand to wipe” and I even saw a video demonstration on the proper way to use a tolit in India.
about 8 months ago
Cool. I was gonna post this but I couldn’t actually find the vid online. Yeah it’s the same message but that’s because not enough people have listened to the message yet. I’m bi and amBIdextrous…
about 8 months ago
Damn those Lefties! DOWN WITH THE LEFTIES!
lol
about 8 months ago
I’m a leftie. I have difficulty using a knife and fork sometimes. I feel the need to cut with my left-hand then fork with my left hand. It makes no sense to me either!! lol
I am also bi. I have difficulty with this sometimes too. I am attracted to a lot of pretty guys and very pretty girls at the same time. I am monogamous
I get the point about the video, people used to be scorned, bullied a ridiculed about being left-handed as people are scorned, bullied and ridiculed about being GLBT. The idea of bullying somebody today about being left-handed seems ridiculous. It is just a matter of time before these prejudices disappear the same way.
about 8 months ago
There was a wonderfully witty article in Belfast’s Gay Star magazine (which I happened to edit) called ‘The Path of Righteousness’, by James Shaw) it was a poker-faced article apparently about Biblical, modern ‘scientific’ and other prejudices against homosexuality… It was all about anti-’cloutie’ prejudice. ‘Cloutie’ is the (benign) east Ulster name for lefties.
about 8 months ago
As you mention this I think about the research sited by Liam above. In the unconscious, the left hand is often associated with unacceptable, dirty or disgusting acts.
about 8 months ago
Hi Sean,
In Scotland left handedness is called “Corriehaunded”.
Stephen.
about 8 months ago
@ Liam: I find it very funny that you seem unable to use your right hand. To operate the T.V. and the Microwave are no problem with the left or right hand. Pledge of allegiance is a problem with you,because you don’t know your right from your left hand. Unless you heart is on your right side why would you use your left hand. I run my mouse with my left hand all the time. Thanks for all the names of those famous names of left handers.
about 7 months ago
to add a little wickedness, the answer to your question
“is it okay to be left handed” it depends what purpose
you intend to use your left hand for.
Lol
ronaldo
about 7 months ago
Some boys need both hands
Lucky sods.
about 7 months ago
are you boys not jealous of these christians, jews, muslims, sikhs. all of whom have their own invisible god, invisible prophet, and very conveniently printed bible, written in a gobbldegook, that is accepted worldwide as a book of powerful currency, used in churches, courts of law, used to ligitimise the mafia, ligitimise terrorism, to ligitimise war. and any other obnoxious act of cold blooded barbarity.
Hey, just had an idea boys. why dont we queers set up our own church, our own bible, queer god, queer
prophet. wow, just think of the potentials.
love to you all
ronaldo