Forced To Be Right Handed

[Hokkaido Brit]

Originally Posted by Washte

Another way to tell which hand is dominant is to do this:
Clasp both hands together interlacing the fingers. Whichever thumb is on top is your dominant hand. It may also feel weird trying to do it the other way.

Nope. I'm left handed - extremely so, but my right thumb is on top when I try that.

And to add to the thread, I have been protected by my father who is a lefty, who was protected by his mother, who was a lefty, who was beaten so badly that the knuckles on her left hand were broken and deformed by her teacher in an effort to stop her using her left hand. It didn't work. We are now 45, 74 and 95 (or she would be if she was still alive.)

[azraiel]

I’m so right-handed that it’s not even funny. Other than hand-eye coordination/dexterity, I may as well not even have a left hand.

Which makes me the odd man out in my family. My brother, my dad, my uncle, two of my three male cousins, and my grandfather are/were all leftys. In three generations we've had six leftys and two rightys among the males.

I don’t know if Gramps was forced to learn with his right or not. He wrote damn near upside down with his left, and his penmanship was incredibly beautiful. Thing is, he lost every finger on his right hand beyond the first knuckle in his twenties (working on a feedlot turbine that started up unexpectedly).

So, the only lefty I knew from that era effectively had no right hand. YMMV.

[MikeF]

The New Jersey State Police used to force southpaw recruits to learn to shoot right handed and wear their holster on their right side. It just didn't look right when they were lined up in formation and some guns were on the wrong side. When they said uniform they meant uniform, damnit.

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by MLS

Left-handedness should be encouraged! Do these people realize the salaries that southpaw pitchers can command in the major leages??

Yeah, but what about left-handed girls? I realized grown ups were lying to me about being anything you want when you grow up when it became clear that no matter how good a ball player a girl was, she could never be on the Red Sox. Or even the Cubs.

[ExTank]

My 2nd Grade teacher tried to put me on the short bus for being a lefty.

[Hippy Hollow]

The hand-clasping thing was left on top. Doing it the other way felt skeevy, and frankly, wrong.

When I started school (1977) I distinctly remember favoring my left hand and my teacher (gently) moving the pencil to my right. I think I was fairly ambidextrous (still am), so I just went with it. It didn't cause me any trauma (to my knowledge) and I did appreciate it when I was older and my best (lefty) friend had those jacked up desks and had to write all twisted-hand-like.

Sports I do right handed, but every so often I grab a baseball with my left hand, and realize I can't throw quite as well with it. I think I could field with my right hand very easily, though. I was (and probably still retain) some clumsiness/awkwardness in sports; maybe that's why?

My son is a lefty. It never occurred to me that I should try to shift his handedness.