I have never heard of it being called softpaw in the uk? Many people I know call it 'cackhanded', my dads a lefty, I'm ambidextrous (is that how you spell it?), well whatever it is, I am both left and right handed. Don't know if its natual or taught with dad looking after me as a kid alot and so getting taught to do things both ways, right ways by my mum.
Being A Southpaw (a.k.a. Left-handed)
- Thread starter mandy9578
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mandy9578
CSI Level Two
I just read that even firearms are made for a right-handed person in mind. It makes it more difficult for a lefty to shoot a gun properly since the operating handle, magazine release, and/or safety mechanisms are set up for manipulation by the right hand, and fired cartridge cases are ejected to the right...Plus, guns for lefties are more expensive and manufactured in smaller numbers.
mandy9578
CSI Level Two
Although this article from LiveScience is more than a year old, I wanted to share it with you guys...Here it is:
What Makes a Lefty: Myths and Mysteries Persist
By Corey Binns, Special to LiveScience
posted: 21 March 2006 07:52 am ET
Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand.
Why doesn't the number ever waiver? Nobody knows for sure, but new research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all.
In the meantime, the myth remains that lefties are more artistic. And the idea that left-handed fighters have an advantage persists on scant evidence, supported by Scottish lore and Rocky Balboa's heroics in the ring.
Look, Mom: Both hands!
Like many traits, handedness is probably determined by a complex interaction between genes and the environment, experts figure.
Left-handers are more likely to have a left-handed relative. But researchers have yet to find the gene or set of genes that pick one hand over the other.
Most scientists agree that handedness exists on a continuum. The idea helps explain why some people bowl with their left but hold a spoon in their right. Truly ambidextrous people, who have indifferent preference for either hand, are extremely rare.
In a new study, researchers measured the width of elbows in living people and in skeletons from a medieval British farming community.
The researchers assumed the 9-to-1 ratio of handedness would match the ratio of bigger right to left elbows. The prediction held true in the modern-day group, but not for the medieval bones.
Most of the ancient farmers' left and right elbows were the same size.
"It's obvious that they were using both hands equally," said anthropologist Amanda Blackburn from the University of Manitoba. "It's not fair to say they were ambidextrous in the true sense of the word, but they may have had a tendency to use both hands equally. It's a behavior they may have learned rather than just being born like that."
The findings will be published in the April issue of the journal Current Anthropology.
Oppressing the left
Lefties have long suffered. In India and Indonesia, eating with the left hand is considered impolite. Chinese characters prove extremely difficult to write with the left hand. Not so long ago, teachers slapped the wrists of left-handed American elementary students.
Humans have shown the ability to learn to use their non-preferred hand after injuries, when required to perform manual labor, or in the face of cultural pressure.
Yet preference for handedness appears to take root in the womb, or even earlier.
One genetic model, called the right shift theory and developed by psychologist Marian Annett at the University of Leicester, suggests that a single gene increases the likelihood of being right-handed.
"The essence of my right shift theory is that there is a gene that helps to develop speech in the left hemisphere of the brain and increases the probability of right-handedness," Annett told LiveScience.
Whatever evolutionary jog made humans left-brain dominant for speech also made us right-side dominant, Annett argues. Since our closest relatives—chimpanzees—can't talk, the gene must have arisen in recent evolutionary history. One study found most chimps prefer to fish for termites with their left hand. But other recent research shows most chimpanzees favor their right hand when throwing overhand.
"The prevailing genetic model seems to be pretty strong. There are only a few weak points that are yet to be addressed. Not only can they not pinpoint a gene, there's conflicting data out there too," said David Wolman, author of "A Left Hand Turn Around the World" (Da Capo Press, 2005).
In a twist on the genetic model, the gene for hand preference might also be the gene for hair whorl direction, the way a person's hair turns on the top of their head. Half of people with counterclockwise whorls prefer their left hand, according to research by Amar Klar at the National Cancer Institute.
The same system that patterns hair and handedness could also play a role in the asymmetrical organization of the brain. "It is clear that the same genetics control both traits, along with the side of the brain where language is processed," said Klar.
The artistic myth
The answer to left-handedness is likely in the brain, and probably has to do with that organ's asymmetry, scientists generally believe. Somewhere in our lopsided brains is something, probably a gene or two that determines which hand prefers to throw a ball and which hand likes to write.
Unfortunately, scientists can't open up someone's brain and see a sign for hand preference Wolman said.
For anyone to move their left hand, or anything on their left side, instructions come from the right side of the brain. Motor centers of the brain control the hands; lefties have more dominant motor centers on the right side of their brain.
But just because the directions come from the side of the brain associated with artistic function, doesn't mean a lefty's more likely to compose a Shakespearean sonnet.
"The big myth is that the right side of the brain is somehow a creativity bull's-eye. That's not the case, and doesn't have anything to do with handedness. You need resources from both sides of your brain to be creative. All people use both sides of the brain," Wolman told LiveScience.
Fighting advantage
Lefties have had the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat since the Bronze Age, and even today, in the boxing ring. Left-handedness could be beneficial in times of violence, and genetically passed from one generation of fighters to the next, as shown by Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier II in France.
While a righty fought with a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, a left-handed swordsman could make strong surprise attack on the opponent's unprotected right side. Recall Rocky Balboa's last-minute switch to his southpaw.
The Kerr family of Scotland, known for sinister swordsmanship, went so far as to build Ferniehirst Castle with an unusual staircase that spiraled counterclockwise. The architecture provided left-handed fighters more freedom to swing their sword.
Today, the common Scottish terms Kerr-handed, kerry-fisted and corry-fisted mean left-handed.
The concept of lefties advantageously killing off all the righties doesn't hold strong, however. The 9-to-1 ratio of right- to left-handedness existed long before the advent of sword and shield warfare and continues to this day.
Some researchers suggest prenatal levels of testosterone determine hand preference. Brain damage from trauma in the delivery room is another explanation. "Proud lefties cringe at the thought of it," said the left-handed Wolman.
"The genetic model has wider support among the laterality community than brain damage at birth or levels of hormones in the womb," Wolman said. "At the end of the day, everyone seems to go back to the gene."
You can find the article at http://www.livescience.com/health/060321_left_hand.html
What Makes a Lefty: Myths and Mysteries Persist
By Corey Binns, Special to LiveScience
posted: 21 March 2006 07:52 am ET
Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand.
Why doesn't the number ever waiver? Nobody knows for sure, but new research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all.
In the meantime, the myth remains that lefties are more artistic. And the idea that left-handed fighters have an advantage persists on scant evidence, supported by Scottish lore and Rocky Balboa's heroics in the ring.
Look, Mom: Both hands!
Like many traits, handedness is probably determined by a complex interaction between genes and the environment, experts figure.
Left-handers are more likely to have a left-handed relative. But researchers have yet to find the gene or set of genes that pick one hand over the other.
Most scientists agree that handedness exists on a continuum. The idea helps explain why some people bowl with their left but hold a spoon in their right. Truly ambidextrous people, who have indifferent preference for either hand, are extremely rare.
In a new study, researchers measured the width of elbows in living people and in skeletons from a medieval British farming community.
The researchers assumed the 9-to-1 ratio of handedness would match the ratio of bigger right to left elbows. The prediction held true in the modern-day group, but not for the medieval bones.
Most of the ancient farmers' left and right elbows were the same size.
"It's obvious that they were using both hands equally," said anthropologist Amanda Blackburn from the University of Manitoba. "It's not fair to say they were ambidextrous in the true sense of the word, but they may have had a tendency to use both hands equally. It's a behavior they may have learned rather than just being born like that."
The findings will be published in the April issue of the journal Current Anthropology.
Oppressing the left
Lefties have long suffered. In India and Indonesia, eating with the left hand is considered impolite. Chinese characters prove extremely difficult to write with the left hand. Not so long ago, teachers slapped the wrists of left-handed American elementary students.
Humans have shown the ability to learn to use their non-preferred hand after injuries, when required to perform manual labor, or in the face of cultural pressure.
Yet preference for handedness appears to take root in the womb, or even earlier.
One genetic model, called the right shift theory and developed by psychologist Marian Annett at the University of Leicester, suggests that a single gene increases the likelihood of being right-handed.
"The essence of my right shift theory is that there is a gene that helps to develop speech in the left hemisphere of the brain and increases the probability of right-handedness," Annett told LiveScience.
Whatever evolutionary jog made humans left-brain dominant for speech also made us right-side dominant, Annett argues. Since our closest relatives—chimpanzees—can't talk, the gene must have arisen in recent evolutionary history. One study found most chimps prefer to fish for termites with their left hand. But other recent research shows most chimpanzees favor their right hand when throwing overhand.
"The prevailing genetic model seems to be pretty strong. There are only a few weak points that are yet to be addressed. Not only can they not pinpoint a gene, there's conflicting data out there too," said David Wolman, author of "A Left Hand Turn Around the World" (Da Capo Press, 2005).
In a twist on the genetic model, the gene for hand preference might also be the gene for hair whorl direction, the way a person's hair turns on the top of their head. Half of people with counterclockwise whorls prefer their left hand, according to research by Amar Klar at the National Cancer Institute.
The same system that patterns hair and handedness could also play a role in the asymmetrical organization of the brain. "It is clear that the same genetics control both traits, along with the side of the brain where language is processed," said Klar.
The artistic myth
The answer to left-handedness is likely in the brain, and probably has to do with that organ's asymmetry, scientists generally believe. Somewhere in our lopsided brains is something, probably a gene or two that determines which hand prefers to throw a ball and which hand likes to write.
Unfortunately, scientists can't open up someone's brain and see a sign for hand preference Wolman said.
For anyone to move their left hand, or anything on their left side, instructions come from the right side of the brain. Motor centers of the brain control the hands; lefties have more dominant motor centers on the right side of their brain.
But just because the directions come from the side of the brain associated with artistic function, doesn't mean a lefty's more likely to compose a Shakespearean sonnet.
"The big myth is that the right side of the brain is somehow a creativity bull's-eye. That's not the case, and doesn't have anything to do with handedness. You need resources from both sides of your brain to be creative. All people use both sides of the brain," Wolman told LiveScience.
Fighting advantage
Lefties have had the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat since the Bronze Age, and even today, in the boxing ring. Left-handedness could be beneficial in times of violence, and genetically passed from one generation of fighters to the next, as shown by Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier II in France.
While a righty fought with a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, a left-handed swordsman could make strong surprise attack on the opponent's unprotected right side. Recall Rocky Balboa's last-minute switch to his southpaw.
The Kerr family of Scotland, known for sinister swordsmanship, went so far as to build Ferniehirst Castle with an unusual staircase that spiraled counterclockwise. The architecture provided left-handed fighters more freedom to swing their sword.
Today, the common Scottish terms Kerr-handed, kerry-fisted and corry-fisted mean left-handed.
The concept of lefties advantageously killing off all the righties doesn't hold strong, however. The 9-to-1 ratio of right- to left-handedness existed long before the advent of sword and shield warfare and continues to this day.
Some researchers suggest prenatal levels of testosterone determine hand preference. Brain damage from trauma in the delivery room is another explanation. "Proud lefties cringe at the thought of it," said the left-handed Wolman.
"The genetic model has wider support among the laterality community than brain damage at birth or levels of hormones in the womb," Wolman said. "At the end of the day, everyone seems to go back to the gene."
You can find the article at http://www.livescience.com/health/060321_left_hand.html
In response to those who say they struggle to knit or crotchet, I never found it all that hard to learn. I couldn't ever cast on to a needle (my mum or gran did it for me) but used to make scarfs, gloves and hats when I was about 8-9yrs old. Sadly I haven't done it in a long time and probably have forgotten how to. I think the only reason I could do it is that I got taught by right handed people and adapted to doing it that way.
I sleep on the right side of the bed usually but I tend to lay diagonally across it sometimes with my head on the left side and my feet on the right side. It's a good job I don't have a partner at the moment lol.
There seems to be a lot of differences between individual left handers to what they do with each hand. Guess it's to do with how we lived when we're growing up, some things we had to adapt to, some we didn't. When I first started school in 1988 left handed scissors didn't really exist at least not in schools. By the time I left secondary school in 2000 there were several pairs of left handed scissors in each stationery box.
I sleep on the right side of the bed usually but I tend to lay diagonally across it sometimes with my head on the left side and my feet on the right side. It's a good job I don't have a partner at the moment lol.
There seems to be a lot of differences between individual left handers to what they do with each hand. Guess it's to do with how we lived when we're growing up, some things we had to adapt to, some we didn't. When I first started school in 1988 left handed scissors didn't really exist at least not in schools. By the time I left secondary school in 2000 there were several pairs of left handed scissors in each stationery box.
fastfoodjunkie
Rookie
I guess I'm just strange cos I can't use left-handed scissors and I'm left-handed. I always use right-handed ones in my right hand. 
Just out of curiousity, how many people here are left-handed but play any muscial instruments right-handed? For example, guitars, violins, that kind of thing. I play the guitar right-handed but only because it saves me the trouble of having to buy a left-handed one and there's the fact my school doesn't have any as well. So does anyone here buy left-handed instruments? Just wondering.
Just out of curiousity, how many people here are left-handed but play any muscial instruments right-handed? For example, guitars, violins, that kind of thing. I play the guitar right-handed but only because it saves me the trouble of having to buy a left-handed one and there's the fact my school doesn't have any as well. So does anyone here buy left-handed instruments? Just wondering.
Elsie
Shopaholic
I play the guitar and violin (well when I played, which was a while ago) right handed, I also knit right handed, it's probably because the people who taught me were right handed. I guess it's more complicated for right handed people to teach something left handed. Also my parents are right handed and we had right handed instruments in the house so it was natural just to use them. I have used a left handed guitar though and found it very easy to use.
So, I don't personally have any left handed instruments, but, we are moving house next week and just last night I was packing some boxes and came across a left handed fluegel horn (or something, I can't remember if that's what is was), which belongs to my husband (he's also left handed).
So, I don't personally have any left handed instruments, but, we are moving house next week and just last night I was packing some boxes and came across a left handed fluegel horn (or something, I can't remember if that's what is was), which belongs to my husband (he's also left handed).
CalleighD
Lab Technician
I can write with my left and right hands- that occured when I broke my arm when I was 6 and the cast meant I couldn't write. I guess you just learn stuff easier when you're younger (it's great in exams though, can switch hands when I get tired) My left handed writing is a little messier but not that much.
I use a mobile in my left hand and used left handed scissors (strange I know lol) but I play guitar right handed. I also use my knife and fork differently to other people. I remember my mother trying to force me to hold it different when i was younger. I was having none of it
I use a mobile in my left hand and used left handed scissors (strange I know lol) but I play guitar right handed. I also use my knife and fork differently to other people. I remember my mother trying to force me to hold it different when i was younger. I was having none of it
mandy9578
CSI Level Two
I play the guitar right handed as well. Since that was what we had in school when we had guitar for music lessons. Once you teach me things right handed, I can learn, I guess since I have no choice but to adapt to the situation...Well, except for the crochet thing. That one I'll never figure out. But some day, I'd love to learn how to knit.
As for me, when I went to elementary school, which was a long time ago, we never had any left handed scissors. Actually, it didn't matter then since we were required to bring our own pair anyway. Back then, lefty scissors were so hard to come by So as long as my pair was sharp, no problem.
As for me, when I went to elementary school, which was a long time ago, we never had any left handed scissors. Actually, it didn't matter then since we were required to bring our own pair anyway. Back then, lefty scissors were so hard to come by So as long as my pair was sharp, no problem.
Leftyguitar
Police Officer
I'm a lefty and proud of it!
It's funny, because in my house it's the ones that are right handed that stand out.
It made learning to use a chainsaw interesting. :lol:
(My step-dad is big on Do It Yourself Landscaping, which means making my younger brother and I do it.
The first thing that came to mind when he was showing me how to use it was the last case on Toe Tags. :lol:
Made me extra careful, anyway.
I still maintain that's the rest of the world that's backwards.
It's funny, because in my house it's the ones that are right handed that stand out.
It made learning to use a chainsaw interesting. :lol:
(My step-dad is big on Do It Yourself Landscaping, which means making my younger brother and I do it.
The first thing that came to mind when he was showing me how to use it was the last case on Toe Tags. :lol:
Made me extra careful, anyway.
I still maintain that's the rest of the world that's backwards.
Roosey
Captain
I'm a right-handed person! Is that called a Northpaw? lol.
I'm training my left hand though, I'd love to write with my left hand in the far future. I'm able to do it now, but the writing is a mess and it takes like a minute to write one complete sentence. So I'm training my left hand now by using it as much as possible (e.g. while picking a new song on my iPod, or other small things). The writing is getting better, so I'll keep on training!
Is there anyone else here who's trying the same? And is it going well? Yes, I've made this left-handed thing my goal in life, sort of. :lol:
I'm training my left hand though, I'd love to write with my left hand in the far future. I'm able to do it now, but the writing is a mess and it takes like a minute to write one complete sentence. So I'm training my left hand now by using it as much as possible (e.g. while picking a new song on my iPod, or other small things). The writing is getting better, so I'll keep on training!
Is there anyone else here who's trying the same? And is it going well? Yes, I've made this left-handed thing my goal in life, sort of. :lol:
mandy9578
CSI Level Two
Funny, I'm left handed but I prefer using my right hand when choosing a song on my iPod. I use my right hand as well when using a cellphone. I think it's because I want to keep my left hand free.
When I was in high school I used to practice writing with my right hand but my writing looked like I was back in kindergarten. :lol:
When I was in high school I used to practice writing with my right hand but my writing looked like I was back in kindergarten. :lol:
WolfeWhistle
Rookie
mandy9578 said:
I echo ametista...Merry Christmas to my fellow lefties.
I third that! Hope you all are having a great holiday season!
By the way, mandy9578, I adore your avatar. I love the movie Miracle and I love Eddie Cahill, so it's the perfect combo!
HellsBells
Tormenting Camp Counselors
HI. My name is Heather, and I'm a proud Southpaw.
Being a lefty in my grandpa's eyes was viewed as evil. My mom was born left handed but she was forced to learn how to write right handed. She didn't even know she was left handed until I was born and was favoring my left hand. My grandfather wanted to train me to be right handed, but she said no. Thank goodness.
My handwriting isn't the best though. It can be, when I write slow and small, but who has time for that?
I'm a very artistic person, but I do have a very analytical mind as well.
As for purses and watches... I don't wear too many watches, but when I do, it starts off on my left and then when I write it switches to my right hand. I write with my wrist touching the paper, and watches cut into my wrist. And purses can be found on my left shoulder.
I use a laptop, so I use my left hand to move the mouse. I trained myself to use the mouse with my right hand when using a desktop. That was interesting.
Being a lefty in my grandpa's eyes was viewed as evil. My mom was born left handed but she was forced to learn how to write right handed. She didn't even know she was left handed until I was born and was favoring my left hand. My grandfather wanted to train me to be right handed, but she said no. Thank goodness.
My handwriting isn't the best though. It can be, when I write slow and small, but who has time for that?
I'm a very artistic person, but I do have a very analytical mind as well.
As for purses and watches... I don't wear too many watches, but when I do, it starts off on my left and then when I write it switches to my right hand. I write with my wrist touching the paper, and watches cut into my wrist. And purses can be found on my left shoulder.
I use a laptop, so I use my left hand to move the mouse. I trained myself to use the mouse with my right hand when using a desktop. That was interesting.