lefties unite!

The Anything Left-Handed shop/website has received a critical email from a left-hander, saying that they are ripping off the gullible and making out that left-handers are disabled, according to their recent newsletter.

My friend who is left-handed frequently gets called "disabled" by her right-handed husband and was able to use the Anything Left-Handed website as evidence that she is NOT disabled.

I have found their products useful - it is only a shame that because the manufacturers do not make them in the same quantities as right-handed products, they are more expensive due to economies of scale, but this is NOT the retailers' fault.

I have a degree in psychology and I feel that everything on the Anything Left-Handed website is positive about left-handedness.

I also feel that in reality about 80% of the population is ambidextrous but because they are taught to be right-handed, that is the hand they use. 10% of the population is left-handed and probably only 10% is genuinely right-handed.

There are a number of "mainstream" products that are biased towards right-handers, e.g. computer keyboards, printers, cameras, potato peelers, bread knives (I always got accused of cutting wonky slices until I bought a left-handed bread knife from Anything Left-Handed), and so on and so on. Right-handed scissors are painful to use because of the way the handles are moulded.

People often comment on watching left-handers do something "Oh, that looks really cack-handed / gawky / awkward" (etc etc)

Many many thanks to Anything Left-Handed for the great work they do and the positive impact that Left-Handers' Day and the Left-Handers' Club has. Let's hope they keep up the good work and don't let this sort of thing discourage them.

I agree with Anything Left-Handed's response to the diatribe they received and would also have given her some links to the following websites, especially the one about chairs in the USA.

Left-hander - lots of excellent info for lefties:
http://www.emf.net/~estephen/facts/lefthand.html

Famous left-handers:
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

Handedness and Brain Lateralisation Research: http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/index.html

Left Handers in Society:
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak.html
(Lots of info in this section about biased product design, including military weapons!)

The School Desk Plague:
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#desks
(also the university desk plague...)

In short, I think I'd have said, "Wake up and smell the coffee"!