Editing Handedness (section)

== Bias against left-handers ==

{{Main|Bias against left-handed people}}
McManus noted that, as the [[Industrial Revolution]] spread across Western Europe and the United States in the 19th century, workers needed to operate complex machines that were designed with right-handers in mind. This would have made left-handers more visible and at the same time appear less capable and more clumsy. Writing left-handed with a dip pen, in particular, was prone to blots and smearing.

===Negative connotations and discrimination===

Moreover, apart from inconvenience, left-handed people have historically been considered unlucky or even malicious for their difference by the right-handed majority. In many languages, including English, the word for the direction "right" also means "correct" or "proper". Throughout history, being left-handed was considered negative, or evil.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ade |first=Yewande |date=2021-09-20 |title=Left-Handers Once Experienced Severe Stigmatization And Discrimination |url=https://medium.com/history-street/left-handers-once-experienced-severe-stigmatization-and-discrimination-f172c2fde6ef |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231214024308/https://medium.com/history-street/left-handers-once-experienced-severe-stigmatization-and-discrimination-f172c2fde6ef |archive-date=2023-12-14 |access-date=2025-01-02 |work=Medium |language=en}}</ref>

[[Black magic]] is sometimes referred to as the "[[left-hand path]]".<ref>{{cite book | last=Donaghue | first=Timothy | title=Black Magick: The Left Hand Path: 1| date=2018-11-12 | publisher=Independently Published | isbn=978-1-7312-4270-9}}</ref>

====Discrimination in education====
Before the development of fountain pens and other writing instruments,  children were taught to write with a [[dip pen]]. While a right-hander could smoothly drag the pen across paper from left to right, a dip pen could not easily be pushed across by the left hand without digging into the paper and making blots and stains.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511576744.004 |chapter=The history and geography of human handedness |title=Language Lateralization and Psychosis |year=2009 |last1=McManus |first1=I. C. |pages=37–58 |isbn=978-0-511-57674-4 |editor2-first=Rene S |editor2-last=Kahn |editor1-first=Iris E. C |editor1-last=Sommer }}</ref> Even with more modern pens, writing from left to right, as in many languages, with the left hand covers and can smear what was just written when moving across the line.

Into the 20th and even the 21st century, left-handed children in [[Uganda]] were beaten by schoolteachers or parents for writing with their left hand,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/life/myths-about-left-handed-persons-4327468 |title=Myths about left-handed persons |date=8 August 2023 |first=Lydia Felly |last=Akullu |work=[[Daily Monitor]] |location=Uganda}}</ref> or had their left hands tied behind their backs to force them to write with their right hand.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kidsonthecoast.com.au/living/pros-and-cons-raising-a-left-handed-child-in-a-right-handed-world/ |title=Pros and cons: Raising a left-handed child in a right-handed world |website=Kids on the Coast|date=22 July 2022 }}{{self-published inline|date=May 2024}}</ref> As a child, the future British king [[George VI]] (1895–1952) was naturally left-handed. He was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time. He was not expected to become king, so that was not a factor.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kushner |first1=Howard I |title=Retraining the King's left hand |journal=The Lancet |date=June 2011 |volume=377 |issue=9782 |pages=1998–1999 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60854-4 |pmid=21671515 |s2cid=35750495 }}</ref> 

Depending on the position and inclination of the writing paper, and the writing method, the left-handed writer can write as neatly and efficiently or as messily and slowly as right-handed writers. Usually the left-handed child needs to be taught how to write correctly with the left hand, since discovering a comfortable left-handed writing method on one's own may not be straightforward.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.lefthander-consulting.org/deutsch/InfoSchreiben.htm | title = Erste deutsche Beratungs- und Informationsstelle für Linkshänder und umge-schulte Linkshänder | language = de | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130922143207/http://www.lefthander-consulting.org/deutsch/InfoSchreiben.htm | archive-date = 2013-09-22 | work = lefthander-consulting.org  | access-date = 21 September 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html | work = Handedness Research Institute | title = Teaching Left-Handers to Write | archive-url =  https://web.archive.org/web/20130923084340/http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html | archive-date=2013-09-23 | access-date = 21 September 2013 }}</ref>

In the [[Education in the Soviet Union|Soviet school system]], all left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand.<ref>А. П. Чуприков, В. Д. Мишиев. // Латеральность населения СССР в конце 70-х и начале 80-х годов. К истории латеральной нейропсихологии и нейропсихиатрии. Хрестоматия. Донецк, 2010, 192 с.</ref><ref name=autogenerated2>А. П. Чуприков, Е. А. Волков. // Мир леворуких. Киев. 2008.</ref>

=== International Left-Handers Day ===
{{main|International Left-Handers Day}}
International Left-Handers Day is held annually every August 13.<ref name="about">{{cite web | url = http://www.lefthandersday.com/about.html | title = Left-Handers' Day August 13th: Celebrate your right to be left-handed | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140715131212/http://www.lefthandersday.com/about.html | archive-date=2014-07-15 | work = lefthandersday.com | access-date = 12 August 2013 }}</ref> It was founded by the Left-Handers Club in 1992, with the club itself having been founded in 1990.<ref name="about" /> International Left-Handers Day is, according to the club, "an annual event when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality (left-handedness) and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed".<ref name="about" /> It celebrates their uniqueness and differences, who are from seven to ten percent of the world's population. Thousands of left-handed people in today's society have to adapt to use right-handed tools and objects. Again according to the club, "in the U.K. alone there were over 20 regional events to mark the day in 2001—including left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs using left-handed corkscrews where patrons drank and played pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide 'Lefty Zones' where left-handers' creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess were celebrated, whilst right-handers were encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment."<ref name="about" />