# Forced To Be Right Handed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 1, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084 "2003-02-01T12:19:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/41 "2012-07-12T00:50:40Z")
One pragmatic/practical consequence of being right-handed for any language that reads left-to-right is that writing is more natural and conducive since your left hand isn’t covering what you write as you do so.
I see my left-handed friends crane their hand over the top of their writing, curling the pen under and their handwriting often looks heavily canted to the left.
Nothing more than an observation on my part (I’m right handed), and watching them write looks awkward, even though they’re absolutely fluent in doing so.
Perhaps that’s a reason some try and force their hand, so to speak?
---
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/42 "2012-07-12T00:55:17Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#):
>
> I’m left handed. When I was in school they tried to make me use my right hand, but it just didn’t work.
Me too. Apparently I got my first grade teacher dressed down by the principal when I told my parents about her charming insistance that we “write with our right!” and taking my pencil away in effort to get me to use the other hand. I’m 35 and it wasn’t the dark ages back then (like when nuns tied mom’s hand to her side; like me she’s a redhead, and was accused of being devil’s spawn by them like **Taomist** ’s mom. no wonder I didn’t go to catholic school) so my parents were justifiably pissed.
**congodwarf** , I don’t hook my hand either, nor does my dad. 40% of us don’t, actually. How’s her writing? Mine’s pretty damn neat by anyone’s standards.
**AClockworkMelon** , I’m with you. Right thumb goes on top, and I’m very left-handed.
---
### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/43 "2012-07-12T00:57:04Z")
> [@cmyk](#):
>
> One pragmatic/practical consequence of being right-handed for any language that reads left-to-right is that writing is more natural and conducive since your left hand isn’t covering what you write as you do so.
>
> I see my left-handed friends crane their hand over the top of their writing, curling the pen under and their handwriting often looks heavily canted to the left.
>
> Nothing more than an observation on my part (I’m right handed), and watching them write looks awkward, even though they’re absolutely fluent in doing so.
>
> Perhaps that’s a reason some try and force their hand, so to speak?
Only slightly related: At a family gathering left-handedness came up and my mom, who’s left-handed, said “God only made a few perfect people and the rest are all right-handed.” My Uncle responded “Yeah, says the one who couldn’t write without getting lead on the side of her hand in school” and many yuks were had at her left-handed expense.
---
### Author:  [@Sin\_Serially](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sin_Serially)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/44 "2012-07-12T02:55:22Z")
When I was learning to write (I’m mid-thirties now) I wrote naturally left handed. My father, who is Catholic, insisted that I write right handed. With the pen in the right hand I wrote just fine. Except mirrored.
So I now write left handed (and draw etc.) However I do almost everything else right handed.
I can do most things with either hand, just not as well with my “off” hand. Including writing.
It’s rather handy (no pun intended) playing pool or ping pong with the ability to switch hands on the fly.
---
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/45 "2012-07-12T03:12:25Z")
I’m right handed and always have been, but my father was originally left handed, and was forced (back in the 1950s) to be right handed.
It always seemed kind of awful until he got Parkinson’s, and his right arm and hand were too twitchy for him to really write.
So he just switched to his left like nothing had happened! Blessing in disguise, I suppose.
---
### Author:  [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/46 "2012-07-12T03:29:57Z")
Heck, my mom forcefully extinguished my sister’s developing ambidexterity and that was only about 15, 17 years ago. She forced her to use her right hand only, of course. Why, I have no clue. My mom’s the dumb type who is into traditions, old wives tales, etc.
---
### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/47 "2012-07-12T03:35:34Z")
I was forced to write righty. I got used to it & my handwriting sucks. Back in the day I once broke my right elbow & wrist at the same time & had to force myself to write lefty for a while. Took less than a week & my handwriting improved drastically.
But, ftr, while I’m still ambidextrous, I went back to writing with my right hand.
---
### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/48 "2012-07-12T03:42:28Z")
Left-handedness should be encouraged! Do these people realize the salaries that southpaw pitchers can command in the major leages??
---
### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/49 "2012-07-12T03:52:39Z")
I was apparently born ambidextrous. Seriously, just about even. In early elementary school, I would switch hands back and forth from sentence to sentence, sometimes even word to word. Though my teachers (in L.A., CA) understood lefty was not wrong, they didn’t seem to have much training about ambis. So, they “forced” (more like guided) me to write right.
49
I still switch back and forth between hands for many tasks, but I only write left if I don’t think about it first. Like when signing a credit machine, or quickly jotting down a phone number. If I write a note or make out a receipt, it’s righty. Now that I type almost everything, it doesn’t come up that often.
---
### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/50 "2012-07-12T04:30:12Z")
I was left-handed and was “converted” early in grade school (mid 1950’s). I stuttered badly for several years (but had other emotional problems that began before I “converted)”). I am now quite uncoordinated in my left hand. Oddly, I do certain things the way left-handers do: folding my hands, crossing my arms and playing cards: I hold my cards in right hand and use left hand to select and play cards.
My daughter was born a lefty and, here in Thailand, it would have been common practice to “convert” her, but I said No.
---
### Author:  [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/51 "2012-07-12T04:57:04Z")
> [@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.)
---
### Author:  [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/52 "2012-07-12T11:12:13Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/53 "2012-07-12T17:06:40Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/54 "2012-07-13T00:37:41Z")
> [@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.
---
### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/55 "2012-07-13T02:55:20Z")
My 2nd Grade teacher tried to put me on the short bus for being a lefty.
---
### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084/56 "2012-07-13T02:59:33Z")
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.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forced-to-be-right-handed/152084.md?page=2)