Inconveniences of being a lefty

It is a widespread disease. It affects 10 percent of the general population and every college campus is crawling with people who carry the problem no one ever really acknowledges. Discrimination is rampant, even at USC. Basic products of discrimination include notebooks, playing cards, water fountains, door handles, computer keyboards, scissors and other tools, athletic equipment, etc. The list of, at best, mild inconveniences, annoyances and frustrating bad habits can go on forever.

The fact of the matter is that right now you or someone you know is left-handed living in our right-biased society. Good news for the majority of you, this disease is not contagious. If you currently claim to be right-handed you are not in any real danger of contracting this exclusive disease from someone else. Mild cases of left-handedness have show up positive in individuals who claim to be ambidextrous. Never fear, those characterized to be ambidextrous have the best chances of overcoming this and adapting to a normal way life.

The battle between right and left, regardless of the way it may seem, is not just a war within the political arena. Currently in classrooms all across campus and the nation are practices that perpetually discriminate against a significant and growing portion of the population. As teachers no longer reprimand elementary age students against left-handed writing, the percentage of people who subconsciously resent the fact this is a right-handed world keeps increasing.

The majority of students here at USC who are affected by this affliction struggle to take necessary lecture notes on desks designed for right-handers as their arms cramp and their frustration ensues daily if not hourly. Society is perpetually shouting that if you're not right-handed then you just deal with it.

Unfortunately for the majority of the card-carrying left-handed population, life is to be constantly faced with a world of inconvenience. USC is a right-handed person's dream. The first left-handed university you hear of, let me know, as it might just be worth checking out.

After all, having ink smeared all over my palm because my left hand glides across newly written words is more than annoying. My new favorite classroom this semester where I visit for two hours each week, soak in the atmosphere and love every note-taking minute is significantly constructed around the fact that it is one of the few class times that my left elbow doesn't bump into a neighboring right-handed student's elbow who is also furiously writing away.

Because of this added detriment, I have come to favor specific seats, desks and chairs at USC. The desks in the business school are fabulous. The lecture halls where the desk portion can be pulled in and out come in a close second. After all, at least I have the luxury of taking notes on my lap with out the inconvenience of the right-handed tabletop in my way. Lastly, I must say the tabletops in Taper are absolutely horrific! They don't move. Sit in a right-handed desk for a midterm and after two hours of writing, it can cause you extreme agitation and hand cramping when you are left-handed. Moreover, because the right-handed desks force left-handed students to turn their bodies to accommodate for the odd surface angle, left-handed students are more prone to being accused of cheating by virtue of the inability write in the same direction as everyone else.

Left-handedness has traditionally been stigmatized as odd, unusual and evil. Paul Simon, a Simple Desultory Philippic said that he was "nearly branded communist Ścause I'm left-handed."

Even the symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty is holding the torch in her raised right hand. Is America deliberately disregarding 10 percent of the population haphazardly? It makes sense that the statue, given by the French, depicts a woman raising her right arm. After all, the French word for left is gauche, and also just happens to mean clumsy and socially inept.

Official sources of information, like the US Census Bureau, do not even keep track of statistics on left-handed people, overlooking the issue entirely as if it is not even a major problem. To make matters worse, a study in the United Kingdom suggests left-handed people might be more vulnerable to certain diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, colitis, ulcerative colitis and Crone's disease, perhaps partly attributed to having to accommodate to the mechanics of a society constructed solely for right-handed people.

There are exceptions to those who support the superiority of the left over the right. Indeed, there is something to be said about those British people who consider driving on the left side of the road to be pure brilliance. Go England! They even celebrated Aug. 13, 2001 as Left Handers Day. Across Western culture other tokens of left side pride include the position that brides and grooms get married in bride on the left and the fact that wedding bands are worn on the left hand.

There are advantages to being bitten early on by the left-handed bug. Lefties have an intrinsic advantage in having the ability to things in a manner of more abstract manner than righties. In fact, more artists and architects are natural lefties, like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and MC Esher.

In addition, unlike their right-handed counterparts, lefties are more perceptive to changes in musical tones. This advantage lended itself to creating some great songwriters like Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Lefties have also infiltrated the science realm with attributing successes in Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. The political sphere boasts seven left-handed presidents, including former Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

In 1987, the Geschwin-Behan-Galaburda Theory of Left-Handedness was presented. Findings included that genetics are a minor factor in being left-handed, that it is more common in men with a ratio of two to one, it can be linked to developmental disorders of childhood, and most significantly that it attributes to cerebral dominance. Essentially, "the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. So left-handed people are in their right mind." Kind of ironic, don't you think?

There are students in America who are fed up with the learning conditions they are forced to put up with. Two students, Mike Rose and Marc Thomas formed the Lefty Rights Association at UC Davis to counter discrimination caused by academic facilities. During her freshman year, Anne Countiss, president of the Student Assembly at Rice College, successfully petitioned the administration to put more left-handed desks on campus and it worked!

At USC it could be worse, there could be no accommodations for left-handed students at all. Fortunately, we are given a token of support for our cerebral intelligence. However, the few left-handed accommodations in existence, do nothing to remedy the disease of being left-handed that affects ten percent of us. My plea to those around, if you happened to take a left-handed spot in class, do not waste the spot by being right-handed because the existing desks are not even enough as it is. The inconveniences lefties face already remind us of our differences, and shoving the fact in our faces is so unnecessary. After all, our left-handed cerebral dominance can conquer your right-handed cerebral inferiority any day.

Editorial Columnist Kimberly Britton is a junior majoring in American literature. She can be reached at dtrojan@usc.edu or (213) 740-5665.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 144, No. 41 (Wednesday, October 24, 2001), beginning on page 4 and ending on page 14.