# Southpaws/Citeogs/Lefthanders, ever subject to discrimination?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 21, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572 "2013-03-21T21:03:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/41 "2013-03-25T03:08:27Z")
> [@dubs](#):
>
> My mother (born 1933) and son (1986) are both left handed. My mom has beautiful handwriting. She pushes the pen across the paper instead of hooking her hand around.
I (b. 1968) write that way too, thanks to 4th grade cursive. Though my handwriting is dreadful.
Never felt discriminated against for it. My mom says she thinks she started out left-handed and was switched to the right.
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/42 "2013-03-25T17:28:49Z")
I should add that I was absolutely shamed by teachers over the years by my handwriting. Two are very memorable.
I was six years old, in grade one, and we were doing some seat work. It was a Wednesday in March and my teacher held my workbook up and said “Mona Lisa, did you have Spaghetti for lunch. Your M’s and W’s are crawling all over the page.” I was six, I had big handwriting, the soft lead smeared, and Yes I did take an entire line to write the date. so what, it was legible.
In grade 9 I was taking grade 10 English, and grade 9 History, (which was an elective, most people took typing or home-ec or a shops class instead) My history teacher, who is actually a very smart man, a published historian and the kind of curmudgeon about whom movies are made, saw me in the library with my grade 10 class. Not just any English class, but an advanced level. (There were level 3, remedial, 4 going to community college or finishing school in grade 12, level 5 for those who expected to go to Grade 13 then university, and level 6, a sort of advanced one that usually did some kind of out-there projects etc.)
The next time I had History, Mr Curmudgeon asked “Are you in Grade 10?”
No, I am in Grade 9.
Why are you in Grade 10 Level 6 English?
I did Grade 9 English last year, from Elementary school.
How can you be advanced English when your handwriting is so sloppy?
On the other hand, a few years later he did write me a wonderful reference letter for my scholarship application for university.
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### Author:  [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/43 "2013-03-25T18:12:43Z")
Every time I pick up a bowling ball…
But seriously, there is no shortage of every day tools that are geared toward right handed usage. The annoyance slowly builds over the years.
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/44 "2013-03-25T18:23:29Z")
only with equipment, those desk/chair combinations in many classrooms are designed for righthanders as are some power tools. Fortunatly except for writing(left handed only) I can do many things with either hand.
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### Author:  [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/45 "2013-03-25T19:47:47Z")
No discrimination but annoyance. I was going to make coffee with my mother’s Tassimo machine and she said not to put the disk in wrong again. I asked her how it went in and she put it in with her right hand (as she is right-handed) with the tab on the right.
I said that’s probably why I kept doing it since that was awkward with your left hand. She then proceeded to claim it was not. That is, until she tried it with her left hand.
Can’t believe she didn’t believe me that it was awkward! She raised me for crying out loud. Same person who taught me to knit lefty by mirroring me.
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### Author:  [@Fossil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fossil)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/46 "2013-03-26T12:16:45Z")
I’m a lefty born in '79. Never had any discrimination, but I only write and eat with a spoon with my left hand, in all other things, I am right-dominant. I’m not sure if that’s because I was taught sports by right handers, but throwing a ball, holding a bat or using a mouse with my left feels completely awkward. Perhaps that makes me ambidextrous.
I do find that when people see me writing they will often ask "Oh, are you left handed?’ to which I reply “no” and keep writing, it’s amusing to see the looks on their faces when in dawns on that they have asked a really stupid question.
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/47 "2013-04-05T01:03:30Z")
Bumping this to note that at my writer’s group yesterday there were 4 people plus the facilitator. We were all left handed.
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### Author:  [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/48 "2013-04-05T03:20:30Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#):
>
> And when the spiral notebooks came into vogue, she said, so many of the kids had problems using them left-handedly as they hurt their arms.
The secret with spiral notebooks is to turn them upside down. 🆒
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### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/49 "2013-04-05T03:30:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> My daughter has problems processing the words “right” and “left”. If she’s driving me somewhere, I have to tell her “Turn Lisa” or “Turn Mama”, rather than turn right or left. Her handwriting is barely legible. However, mine is no better, and I’m right handed.
Fascinating. I do have issues sometimes with that. I still wear a watch on my left wrist to help me remember left from right when I have to do something quickly or I’m under stress.
Don’t ask me for directions–I can tell you to go North or South, East or West, but forget left and right.
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/50 "2013-04-05T13:11:42Z")
> [@Apollyon](#):
>
> The secret with spiral notebooks is to turn them upside down. 🆒
I had a teacher that saw me do that and he said “weird but it works”. I also sometimes just use the “backs” of the paper, every other sheet.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/51 "2013-04-05T15:19:29Z")
Why did the lefty scissors in school always have rounded ends, like we’d weren’t capable of walking without tripping & impaling ourselves. You couldn’t use them to poke a hole in something like the point-tipped righty ones
Industrial descrimination in attire - I’v never seen a (military) jumpsuit or chef’s jacket with the pen pocket on the right sleeve. EMS jumpsuits are also set up backwards, unless you go to the additional cost of customization
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### Author:  [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southpaws-citeogs-lefthanders-ever-subject-to-discrimination/653572/52 "2013-04-06T01:44:13Z")
Lefty here, several in my family. Born 1971. The first time it bothered me was when, in elementary school, all the left handed scissors were either broken or nonexistent. I would spend half the class wandering around to other classes asking for left handed scissors, to no avail. So, rather than sit out, I learned to use right handed scissors. I doubt I could use the left handed ones now.
I cannot use a left handed mouse. I learned it right handed before there was an option and when I tried it, I was a failure. In fact I think it’s better for left handers to use a right handed mouse. You can mouse around and type with your left hand.
My cousin played softball at school; she’s about a decade older than I am. She would use the standard glove to catch the ball, drop the glove immediately, and throw with the same hand. She got very good at it.
I never experienced discrimination. The only flack I got was that, when you’re right handed, you tilt the paper to the left. So my teacher (7th grade) tried to get me to tilt the paper to the right. But I don’t write that way. I write upside-down. She finally gave up. I do not crook my hand around like a hook to write properly on the paper and I don’t understand why others do this. I turn the paper. I have a video.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anezNXP9-Yo)
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