A question regarding being left handed.

[Angelowl]

Hm, I'm quite certain that number was around 15 percent over here. But that could be due to different ways of counting. If I remember correctly those 10% were "purely left-handed", and depending of how you definate it you can get up to another 10% with different types of ambidextrous variants.

Statistics are weird. Kind of like the sexuality poll over here, with a fifth being bisexual. Which changes the numbers for the LGBTQ-community enormously.

Not surprised, there are similar numbers for painters, musicians, scientists etc.

 

[Broderick]

Never really understood why Lefies in history were being forced to do things right handed. I have heard of a couple different tales, people wiping their butt with their left hand, the latin root of left, and other such tales. As for myself, I am left handed, but I tend to use my right hand quite a lot as well. My left hand is dominant in eating, writing, and swordplay, but I use my right hand for throwing and using a mouse. It is a bit odd growing up gaming, playing southpaw controls felt odd; then again, so did the regular configuration for most games for me heh.

I have heard of the whole "left side of the brain vs right" when talking about left vs right handers, but I have heard there is no conclusive evidence to show a difference in brain activity when regarding people of different hand dominance. If someone could link me to a reputable article showing studies of this, I would be grateful.

 

[Zipa]

Jimmi Hendrix was a lefty , someone widely regarded as the greatest guitar player the world has ever known. That should tell you all how ''mental'' lefties are.

That said what does that make us ambidextrous people?

 

[thiosk]

When my kid turned out leftie, I leftied my wife because she was obviously cheating on me with a leftie.

It was the right thing to do.

 

[Lieju]

How old was that person?

I have a friend (60-years old lady) who is a leftie, and when she was a child being left-handed was considered to be a flaw, and she was forced to 'become' right-handed. Which of course led her to be worse at writing and other such stuff, and was labeled stupid because of that.

I'm naturally ambidextrous, which is obviously the best possibility.
I usually use my right hand, but few years ago when I hurt it it was handy to be able to become left-handed for a while.

Nowadays I change my mouse-hand every now and then.
I can't write left-handed, though. Or I can, but it comes out a mirror image.

 

[LetalisK]

TL DR: Yes, medically and neurologically speaking it's unusual enough to qualify as a disorder. But it isn't due the heavy stigma with the term, as the most common use of the term is as an insult.

Just my two cents, take with a few grains of salt.

Much like the X-Men, we are persecuted by the public because we are genetically superior. Thus is the burden of near-godhood.

 

[LetalisK]

Generally, 10% of the human population is left-handed at any given time. 7% are male and 3% are female. No one knows the reason how more males are left-handed than women, but the point I'm about to make makes the gender info moot.

Considering the discrepancy, I'd guess it's because it's a recessive trait carried by X chromosomes. Women have to hit the lefty jackpot twice in order to get it, while men only have to hit it once.

How old was that person?

Wait, you don't remember talking with this person? XD

I know you probably don't look at the profile of every person you talk to, but I get the feeling you don't remember that you're the person they were telling this to.

Link, because I can't figure out how to link directly to posts: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.826072-is-it-just-me-or-do-you-think-people-are-getting-more-stupid?page=2

 

[Lieju]

Wait, you don't remember talking with this person? XD

I know you probably don't look at the profile of every person you talk to, but I get the feeling you don't remember that you're the person they were telling this to.

Link, because I can't figure out how to link directly to posts: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.826072-is-it-just-me-or-do-you-think-people-are-getting-more-stupid?page=2

I actually do remember now. That discussion had so many interesting claims and arguments I didn't pay it much attention.
And it is an attitude I have come across before, but from old people.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I wouldn't sweat it, some random person could say anything is a mental disorder. I've heard that being left-handed is more of a mutation than anything which could be classified as a disorder. Compared to most disorders, I guess it's nice to be left-handed then. I like being left-handed if only because Link is in most incarnations, plus it's nice to have a fairly unique trait that is subtle.

That reminds me of something very annoying. Twilight Princess. On the gamecube version he is left-handed, and on the wii version he is right-handed. There is no option for changing it (as far as I know). They probably changed it because it would be weird if the opposite hand was used. Then I play as a left-handed person, works perfectly, yet still annoying. They changed the one famous left-handed game character in version I own just to conform to right-handedness...

On skyward sword on the other hand... The game actually glitches around when I play. The sword jumps all over the place, which is frustrating as in twilight princess I at least could perform all the actions.

I remember being kinda angry when the Wii version was mirrored to make Link right-handed, but at least there is the Gamecube version. Which I happen to think is the better one because of the traditional controls alone, kept everything the way it was meant to be in terms of controls, Hyrule's layout and Link's hand preference.

I wish for Skyward Sword that they made a left-handed model to provide "one to one" sword control to southpaws too. I didn't encounter the glitches you did, but there were times where I couldn't counter an enemy because I was playing with the Wii mote in my left hand too.

Either way, for Link Between Worlds and Smash Bros., Link is left-handed again. Hopefully Zelda U will keep this trend up.

 

[DarkSeraphim02]

It was on the Internet, it's probably true.
Ambidextrous people must only be mental for half the week.

If you're going to take notice of everything you see online, you're gonna have a bad time.

The latter half of the week I think.

I take notice of a lot of things, mostly because I was a moderator on my old board and that was part of the job. While the persons remark was initially mildly offensive to me, it changed into genuine curiosity after about 10 seconds so I figured I'd ask about it.

I'm actually a lot thicker skinned in some respects than you might think I am from that post.
Nice to meet you by the way, I've seen you around the escapist but can't recall if we've ever spoke to each other before.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Good. Can I get this treated with medical marijuana?

Recently I was lurking on here using my PS3's web browser and I noticed someone, sadly I can't recall the name, mention that being left handed was a mental disorder.

Was the person who made the comment like 90 years old? Back in the day it was kind of considered a disorder. Any really old person who was born a lefty will probably have stories about how they were converted to a righty.
Don't know why, probably thought it was a sign of the devil or something.

 

[DarkSeraphim02]

Good. Can I get this treated with medical marijuana?

Recently I was lurking on here using my PS3's web browser and I noticed someone, sadly I can't recall the name, mention that being left handed was a mental disorder.

Was the person who made the comment like 90 years old? Back in the day it was kind of considered a disorder. Any really old person who was born a lefty will probably have stories about how they were converted to a righty.
Don't know why, probably thought it was a sign of the devil or something.

I don't know how old they were, though I doubt it was 90 or anything like that.

My brother was often "corrected" for being left handed and that was in the early 80's. I was never "corrected" myself, but that's because I never went to school. (mostly for medical reasons)

 

[Quaxar]

The Latin word for "left-handed" is sinister.

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39092/how-did-sinister-the-latin-word-for-left-handed-get-its-current-meaning

But since there's no ICD9 code for "being evil", you can't really classify it as a medical condition.

ICD-9? What is this, the 90s?

But I guess I'll add another random leftie fact to not be completely offtopic and useless as a post.
Apart from the whole "devil" association in Europe the left hand, being the non-dominant one in the majority population, was in many cultures also used as a substitute for toilet paper.
In Arab countries offering the left hand to someone still is pretty much the worst thing to do, as is touching food with it.
Actually, Islam is pretty special about the whole thing and there's a definitive "right side good, left side evil" mentality. Using your right is a sign of honour apparently so for example it is recommended to handle the Qur'an primarily with the right hand.

 

[EeveeElectro]

It was on the Internet, it's probably true.
Ambidextrous people must only be mental for half the week.

If you're going to take notice of everything you see online, you're gonna have a bad time.

The latter half of the week I think.

I take notice of a lot of things, mostly because I was a moderator on my old board and that was part of the job. While the persons remark was initially mildly offensive to me, it changed into genuine curiosity after about 10 seconds so I figured I'd ask about it.

I'm actually a lot thicker skinned in some respects than you might think I am from that post.
Nice to meet you by the way, I've seen you around the escapist but can't recall if we've ever spoke to each other before.

I thought they must think "Well, it's Thursday. I better put my crazy hat on!"

I must admit I'm surprised by the response. A few people have said their teachers used to 'correct' them and I assume this was in the 80s/90s. I didn't realise people were so backwards not too long ago :/

Nice to meet you too~ Welcome to the Escapist, enjoy your stay and keep your arms inside the carriage. In an event of an emergency, hide under the table and cry like me.