Adding onto my comment from 2015, I expect the decision to make Bart Simpson left handed was influenced by the blackboard jokes that started every episode. If he was right-handed, the arrangement of the character and text would be a bit clumsy.
Watching the series finale of Young Sheldon the other night, I noted that when the older brother and the grandmother were egging Dale’s sporting-goods shop, the brother was throwing with his left hand.
Both my parents were left-handed, but I turned out right-handed. I know I have known other lefties, but those are the only two I can think of off the top of my head.
I can only think of one person I knew personally for sure was a southpaw, and he has passed away. It’s not that I haven’t met plenty of others, but being left handed isn’t something memorable to me. I could name a few baseball players and boxers that I’ve never met, but in those sports it makes a difference.
It’s interesting to see left-handed actors in period pieces, especially since left-handedness was considered “evil” and “devil-spawned.” We just finished watching The Last Kingdom and the actor who plays King Alfred is left-handed.
My husband was born a lefty and his father forced him to be right-handed. I remember when my younger sister, born in 1970, started school her teacher was trying to make her be right-handed until my mother put a stop to it. My son is left-handed.
https://www.nature.com/news/2007/070716/full/070716-4.html
This is the latest study I can find. Anecdotally, my younger brother was born a lefty and was forced to be a righty. He has had a lifetime of stuttering. We always assumed …
I am also friends with an incredible rock musician, Shawn Phillips, (look him up on YouTube). He did everything lefty EXCEPT playing the guitar.
I’m pretty sure I was actually left handed but pushed into using my right hand. It hasn’t done me any harm except for some mild insanity.
I know someone who sometimes works with junior surgeons schooled in a conservative/authoritarian country, where they all learned to write right-handed, not because they were forced to, but just because that’s what everyone did.
And he gets the opportunity to suggest to them that they try stitching left-handed, because when you use your right hand with your left eye, you get a parallax error that makes locating the target difficult.
Just noticed I’d replied to this thread long ago but had forgotten. D’OH! The only thing I have to add to my original post is that my dad started off as a lefty but they made him change over when he started school. He was totally right handed by the time I came along.
One famous example comes from the time they did try to get Gary Cooper to play as left handed legend Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees.
There is a movie legend regarding how the movie makers flipped the film for scenes of the movie to get the illusion of Cooper being a southpaw:
That article from Baseballresearcher.com, with a lot of details goes to investigate what scenes were flipped and what not. The conclusion is that the movie legend was true, but it was just for fewer shots than it was/is imagined by many, most scenes had a professional left handed double doing the hitting and fielding at a distance.
I’m left-handed with anything done with one hand, but right-handed with anything done with two hands. So I throw with my left hand, but bat right-handed.
I’ve noticed IT has a high incidence of left-handers. It is quite common in our company for at least 50% of attendees to write left handed.
Edited to add: Sorry, i didn’t realise this was a zombie. My bad.
Julia Roberts is right handed. She played a left handed Erin Brockovich.
Hey,
This post started with the question “Do actors have a higher percentage of left handers than the general population?”
Science calls a post about Julia Robert’s handedness “anecdotal”. In other words, irrelevant.
Look, I don’t want to start a flame war here but I am a scientist. My question has never been answered.
So let’s kill this thread as if it was every COVID-19 virus on the plant.
Thank you>
This coming from someone who’s credentials include being a self-defined SUPER movie buff and claiming to have a letter from an actor/producer. How is that relevant?
And we all totally believe you.
If I can read the lettering in screen in the right view, I can see also the actors as I see them out the screen, and I can also assure you that I can distinguish the right hand from the left. That’s not a mirror imagen, is as you see with your own eyes. And yes, I’ve seen a lot of actors writing with their left hands. Rate of left-handed actors, I can’t say, but a lot more than left-handed than I know in real life. So, the misinterpretation is yours, you should think a littl before posting something.
Welcome to the SDMB, Thorondor!
Just so you are aware, you replied to a topic which was started 18 years ago, and to a poster (pizzabrat) who hasn’t been active here in 15 years.
That doesn’t mean he/she/it stopped being an idiot. Maybe still is…
I will also just note for you, as you are new, that calling other posters idiots (or similar insults) here on the SDMB is against board rules, outside of our “BBQ Pit” forum. From our rules (link below):
Ok, I’m sorry. But for information, I’m not new, but my old mail is dead and I can’t sign with it anymore. For me Stright Dope was down and I stopped visiting. Anyway, greetings and regards.
Well, then, welcome back! Do you remember what your old user name was here? The mods may be able to locate your old account / user name, and help you reclaim it.
Thanks, Kenobi, but as my screen name was accepted and always use it if is available, I don’t think there are records of my old account. I don’t mind, really. If now I’m a newbie again, so be it. Again, thanks anyway.