We all know someone who’s left-handed.  I am. My dad is. So is President Obama! In fact, about 10 percent of the population is left-handed. But why? Is there some advantage to being left-handed? Is there one to being right-handed? It’s commonplace knowledge that left-handedness was once considered evil. In the 18th century, many teachers went to great lengths to suppress left-handed writing. Students were prohibited from writing with their left hand, and anyone who was caught would be severely punished. Christianity teaches that Jesus is to the right of God, while punishment is on the left. This led to the widespread association of left with the devil, and served as the reasoning for forcing students to write with the right hand—they were sending children down the moral, right path. 

It’s no wonder that being left-handed was considered evil for so long. For starters, it wasn’t (and still isn’t) the norm. Humans have shown time and time again that they will fight anything that is different. Furthermore, the words “right” and “left” have good and bad connotations, respectively. Today, “right” is often used to mean “correct,” but the original meaning was “straight.” In contrast, the word “left” comes from an Old English word for “weak.” In French, the word for “left” originally meant “awkward.” This leaves us with the correct (right) hand and the weak and awkward (left) hand. The right hand was the “correct” hand because it was common to be right-handed, even before lefties were suppressed. 

The practice of converting lefties lasted far longer than many realize. It wasn’t until the 1970s that being left-handed was accepted. Even then, it wouldn’t be for another ten years that this trend would become the norm. Now, forcing children to be right-handed is seen as inhumane. However, in a school computer lab, the mouse is set up to the right of the computer. Left-handed students adapt and learn a little motor control with their right hand. Most of the desks were designed with righties in mind. In the rare case there is a left-handed desk, they’re crowded to the left side of the room or three lefties have to fight over one desk. We don’t force our lefties to be right-handed. Instead, we force them to adapt to our right-handed world. 

Furthermore, being left-handed is deadly. This is not due to the right being better than the left, it’s due to the sheer volume of right-handed people. Since there are more righties than lefties, the world is designed for right-handed consumers. For example, right-handed scissors push into our hands, hurting them. We must hold our pencil awkwardly to accommodate the spirals on notebooks. Pen smears across our paper as we write left to right. Lefties are more likely to get into fatal car crashes. Living in a world that is not designed for you is dangerous from an evolutionary standpoint. 

While it is more dangerous to be left-handed, that doesn’t mean we should avoid being a leftie. These are simply statistics. They don’t reflect the outcome of every left-handed life. 

People are always claiming that being left-handed somehow affects your personality. They say it makes you more creative, more intelligent, or more likely to lead. This is simply untrue. Studies have showed time and time again that there is no link between handedness and personality. That being said, people with psychotic disorders, like schizophrenia, are more likely to be left-handed than right-handed. Researchers are not sure why. 

At the end of the day, handedness doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t say anything about our personality, or how our life will truly end. Being left-handed is nothing more than a fun fact. Be proud of your left hand, cut it some slack, and remind your hand it’s not awkward after all.