Being Left-handed
This talks about what it means to be left-handed in a Marjory right-handed world. This is written in a first person account and seeks to change prejudiced attitudes of people who still think that left-handedness is creepy.
Every left-handed person has tales to tell. Some tales are miserable; others are funny but in most cases hair-raising. In fact, left-handedness is, in some societies a subject of contention and a cause for social stigma. I have seen parents ranting at their children for eating with their left hand. I am left-handed and people still look at me strangely when they see me using my left hand to eat. The big question is, “why should people regard left-handedness as an abnormality?”
In Africa, it is common to find people who subscribe to the notion that left-handedness is abnormal. Centuries into human civilization, people in our communities still attach left-handedness to Satanism. People who come from communities where being left-handed is as normal as being right-handed find it strange that left-handedness is even a subject to discuss not until they get to the realities of what it means to be left-handed.
People still have issues with the fact that I eat, shake hands and write with my left hand. My workmates find it funny that I place my computer mouse on the left side when working. It is a disturbing experience for most left-handed people. During my early schooling days my mathematics teacher summoned my mother to ‘lecture’ her about how bad it is for children to grow up left-handed. He even tried to stop me from writing with my left hand, often accounting it to my poor handwriting. If my mother was the superstitious type, I bet she would have forced me into becoming left-handed.
What the Experts Say
Scientists say that exposure to higher rates of testosterone before birth can lead to a left-handed child. Other researchers say that the genes that develop left-handedness also govern development of the language centers of the brain thus relating left-handedness to intelligence.
The social stigma related to left-handedness does not only come from people seeing you as clumsy when they see you eat or write with your left hand. It also comes from the fact that few companies manufacture tools and gadgets for left-handed people. Most left-handed will tell you it is an inconvenience for them to use the computer mouse and right-handed pair of scissors. And yet these things, most people take for granted
But there is the good side to being left-handed. It feels good to feel different. Sometimes I think God uniquely made with his own hands because he did not make right-handed like my right-handed family. It feels nice to stand out from the crowd. Very often I meet people who tell me lefties are bright and creative people. While I usually take pleasure in the compliment, I know that being left-handed does not make people any more unique than it does to make them a minority. I know of many intelligent and creative right-handed people just as left-handed ones. In trying to find the causes of left-handedness, some scientists have ended up tagging it to awkwardness, homosexuality, being artisitc and excellence in sport among others. Those qualities are individual and are not tagged to any particular group of people. It feels good to be as left-handed as Barack Obama but there should not be any fuss about it. Right-handed or left-handed, we all have have super qualities and that should be it.
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