Handedness is quite obviously not as significant as gender, race, or sexuality. But it is at least similar in kind, in the sense that we live in a world that is built to benefit right handers. From things as minor as needing to rearrange cutlery at every restaurant or a lack of understanding about how to teach handwriting to lefties when the script is designed for righties, to more significant things like lefties dying on average 9 years younger than righties.
It was being left-handed that first helped me really internalise (as opposed to merely having an intellectual understanding of) the importance of representation in media. I’ve never played a Zelda game. I’ve never really even owned a Nintendo console, except for a Wii which only got used for Wii Sports. But I heard that Link was originally a lefty, and that they switched him to right-handed in the Wii version. And it hurt, man. A game I’ve never given a shit about, but learning they got rid of one of the only prominent lefties in games hurt, and I realised on a deep level “oh, this is why representation matters”.
And it looks like they kept Link right-handed even in later post-Wii games.
They added handiness in No Man’s Sky which I really loved, especially with VR. More games need to add handiness. Just mirror my avatar, I literally do not care if all of my stuff is backwards. Just let me swing my sword in my left hand.
Yeah, there are potential issues with it in multiplayer games so I can see why they wouldn’t have it in, say, Mount & Blade, but for single player games they definitely should allow it.
As a lefty and a lifelong Zelda fanboy, I will never forgive Nintendo for taking away our best representative.
25% of the US astronauts were lefthanded.
In 1st-3rd grade I would get reprimanded if I wrote with my left hand, but my right handed writing was unreadable so they thought I had a learning disability. They tried to put me in special needs classes which I excelled at because I didn’t have a learning disability. I got pulled out of that and then got tested for AD(H)D which I didn’t have.
Teacher: “oh you’re left handed, definitely need to be in the special needs class then”
My grandmother was beaten in school for using her left hand. Then they tied her hand behind her to force her to write with her right hand. Being left-handed was the sign of the Devil in those days.
As a lefty myself, I’m glad they don’t do that anymore! Now they just leave us alone with our terrible smeared handwriting.
Yikes :S They didn’t do that to me, but they did ‘correct’ my left-handedness in preschool. I’m now only slightly ambidextrous, but I did discover I can write with my left hand… backwards. It’s sloppy, but every stroke is a mirror image of what I write with my right hand…
Fun fact: the creator of Counter Strike, Minh Le, is left handed. The original view models were modelled left handed, and a setting in the game mirrors the view models to be right handed albeit making them technically incorrect. It’s thanks to him being a leftie that CS as a AAA franchise has settings to customize the player character’s handedness.
I have a few left-handed friends, and it always surprised me how hard it can be to find a mouse or scissors suited for them
I’m left-handed but I use my right hand for mousing and cutting. That’s never been a problem for me.
On the other hand, (ha) I actually only use my left hand to write and to eat. For nearly everything else I use my right.
EDIT: apparently I discovered this morning I also use my left hand to shave.
I do things very similar! Write, eat, pull open doors and drawers with my left. However I grab and carry, use scissors, wipe, use a mouse, and brush my teeth with my right. Anything else is literally either hand.
This is actually called mixed-handed and I find it to be so much more useful rather than restricting myself to one handed living - I can scroll using a mouse wheel with my right as I take handwritten notes with my left. Once you start to see your ability as not being restricted by your hand choice I think you may find this fact about yourself to be super cool and unique as well as highly useful!
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
And if you are a lefty, or have a child or partner or friend who is a lefty check out !left_handed@sopuli.xyz
I’m right handed, but eat left handed.
I was born left-handed in the 1970s, and forced to become right handed because for some reason my parents and teachers did not approve.
Most lefties are at least somewhat cross-dominant and/or ambidextrous. Unclear whether that’s biologically or societally caused.
For me, I use a mouse and scissors right-handed. I also bat right handed (whether in cricket or baseball). Same with golf.
It’s adaptation. Most things aren’t made for left handed people so you’re forced to learn how to do things with your right hand. I do everything with my right hand except eat and write
I use my mouse/trackball with my wrong hand, trackpad I use with either, I shoot a bow and a gun wrong handed (bow because there were only righty bows when I learned, and a gun due to an eye injury injury and I had to relearn).
My parents were very supportive of my left handiness, my father even going as far as learning stuff lefty to teach me.
As a right handed person who follows the left handed path, I appreciate my lefty cousins!
