40 Pics That Reveal The Horrors Of Being Left-Handed
For those of you who don't now, Sunday August 13th is International Left-Handers Day, so in homage to lefties everywhere, Bored Panda has compiled this list of annoying problems that all left-handers face on a daily basis.
If you're left-handed then you're probably aware that, whether you like it or not, this is a right-handed world. From scissors and desks to ring binders and ice-cream scoopers, everything seems to be designed with the righties in mind, which isn't really surprising when you realize that around 90% of the world's population is right-handed.
Still, there's a pretty impressive list of lefties crammed into that remaining 10%. Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Aristotle and Julius Caesar were all left-handed for instance? And let's not forget Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong, Winston Churchill, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama. And Jimi Hendrix. And Kurt Cobain. And Paul McCartney. And David Bowie, Charlie Chaplin, Robert de Niro, Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, and Jon Stewart, plus a whole bunch of other people we don't have the space to write about. If we haven't made our point yet then what we're trying to say is that, although left-handed people might be in the minority, that doesn't make them any less awesome, and some of the world's most important contributions have in fact come from left-handers.
Despite this however, non-righties have had a pretty hard time throughout history. The word "left" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "lyft", meaning "weak", and the word "sinister" actually derives from the Latin word meaning "left". Left-handers were also thought to consort with the devil, and being left-handed was sometimes considered proof that a woman was a witch and should therefore be persecuted or even executed! Fortunately those days are long gone though, and the only things left-handers have to worry about these days are using a can opener without making a mess, and trying to write without getting ink all over the side of their hand. Scroll down to see some other problems that the modern leftie has to face. Can you relate? Then let us know in the comments below and don't forget to vote. Happy International Left-Handers Day everybody!
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"Are you left handed?" and "How can you write like that?" Are sometimes a bit in the same percentages.
I had done this too in my school days. Got better after few days. Most of my notes were mirror image and only I could read(i'm a left hander too, btw)
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the fact that this person can write MIRROR IMAGE!!! is more impressive than most of the things i can read about on any day
My mom can do it. She can actually write two separate things, with both hands, at the same time.
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I'm right-handed. When I write with my left hand that's the only way I can write. Don't ask why I do this...
I used to write like this when I first learned to write, but my mom took me to special classes so they would make me fix my writing haha... they also wanted to make me right handed but I refused
My partner is left handed when he was in school the teacher used to punch him until he put the pencil in his right.
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I took Arabic in school to avoid the mess. Pens and pencils were designed to be "pulled" not forcibly "pushed".
My left handed friend and I just to write mirror image notes back in high school.
I actulydid this as well and my teacher told me i had to stop bc he couldnt read my notes when i turned them in to be checked
i actually can write cursive backwards without thinking about it. matter of fact LOL my handwriting is much better backwards than forwards LOL.. but i dont have to think about how to write LOL my left hand just takes over .
I have always been a mirror writer, ever since I picked up a pencil!
I had to use fountain pens in Catholic School. Can you imagine the mess that made and how upset the nuns were when you handed in a smeared paper!
I did this too! But not school notes, just letters and notes to my friends. They had to hold them up to a mirror to read. Is this a leftie thing?!
Wow! I’d really like to study your brain... that is incredible! Hats off to you!
I am ambidextrous. In college I took my psychology notes in mirror writing with my right hand and when I got really bored or tired I would switch and take the notes left handed. Usually deliberately sat on front row. Got lots of strange looks from Professors, one used to stand right in front of me for whole class constantly looking down at my desk.
I never realized why I got ink/pencil all over my hand until now.
I love that they the spirals on the right side too, I always did that
you couldn't just turn the pad of paper upside-down so the spiral is on the other side?
My father was born left handed but they forced him to become right handed. However he wrote brilliant mirror handwriting all his life and used to send me letters when I was little all in mirror handwriting! I loved them ( and I could read them!) I am completely left handed
Just goes to show you that left handed people are highly intelligent. (I'm not left handed)
My Dad sat me down and twisted the paper so it was at at a 45* angle the long side to my body. Since then don't get pencil or pen marks on the side of my hand. I did grow up using an iron rt handed and scissors. When somebody gave me a pair of lefty scissors. For Christmas I could not use them. You adapt to the environment you grow up in.
writing in mirror image? sounds as hard as being lefty but capable of writing with right hand (too). I would be more sharing and improve my righty.
(I am a righty) I can do that too. Just found out I could do it after watching the movie Amelie. My penmanship backwards is better in cursive than print. Crazy how the brain works.
As a leftie, I know the frustration and this was something I attempted but never perfected. So hard to do if you've been trained the "other" way all your life. This takes commitment!
OMG I still write a lot of stuff in mirror writing but not at 77 it just to confuse everyone....or to piss them off. LOL 😂
Huh... It's not as hard as I though to write wrong-reading text... with practice I bet it's almost as fast as right-reading. What a brilliant idea!
Arabic is written and read right to left so a matter of practice really... I tried learning Persian back in the day but motivation wore out quickly
Back in the early 1980s in Cincinnati, Ohio there was a local TV weatherman who could not only write but draw mirror image. He used to stand behind a clear pane of glass and do all the weather reports like that. I've always been amazed by and envied that talent!
wow I can write that way I though I was a weirdo!!! wowww thank God we are many look
Would've probably been really smart to write like that on really thin paper and then, like, shine some light undereath it to read your notes with no problem. Though after getting used to write like that, you would most likely get used to reading it too.
I do that...but I'm right handed...though I can write with my left. ..or both at the same time in either direction.
Yes, that's the normal way of writing for left handed, from ther cener to the sides - right or left. But it is still the world of righthanders, so eather you are forced to change your hand, or to change your brain. Or write like that. That's how my daughter used to write when she was little.
And then when you say you're lefthanded, they just don't know what to say anymore
Can we just take a moment to admire that solid straight line she erased?
Ooh you've never seen a left handed person in all your life? Do you get this surprised like this every time you see a left handed person use their left hand to write? Cause I still get grown people who are like this...
For everyone who uses a drawing tablet I advice to try to make it as easy as possible. I have 4 buttons and a ring. The buttons I linked to the functions: Undo (CTRL+Z), redo (Shift+CTRL+Z), brush (B), eraser (E). And for the rocker ring I did this: Brush size increase ( [ key), brush size decrease ( ] key), zoom in (CTRL + =), zoom out (CTRL + - And now everything goes a lot more easily for me personally. Maybe this will work for you too. rm-ip-tab-...1ea14a.jpg 
I have this problem too, but I'm right handed. So, needless to say, I don't know how to properly use a can opener. I've even broken a few. :/
Helps being a lefty on the tennis court... can be quite off putting to opponents who are more used to playing against right handers (even for other lefties!)
Do you poor lefties know that Jewish write and read from right to left? Think about all those poor right-handed Jews!
As a mother of a left handed kid, I've felt the same way, trying to use her lefty scissors :)
Me as a right-hander always thought, the designs are for the others, not for me (Because I already know whats on my mug so the design would cheerish the others). Having it on "my side" keeps confusing me a little bit...
Is it a thing where people only lift cups with their dominant hand, I subconsciously alternate between the two
I think the reason for this is because it would be really cool to meet someone who is ambidextrous? That's my guess anyway.
Note: this post originally had 96 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
The strange thing with me is: I am left-handed with writing and drawing, but everything else (using scissors, playing guitar, using the mouse) I'm doing with my right hand. I have only met one other person in my life who has exactly this same thing.
I used to think of myself as being left handed, because I write left handed and use it for all of my dexterity. However, I also do things right handed, and do a lot of power movement right handed. Its called "Cross-Dominance(or mixed laterality) , and is considered rare. I'm surprised so many here are addressing this. But take heart, people with cross-dominance are usually smarter, and more imaginative. But we have more depression on the negative side. I just thought I would chime in here on something that has been on my mind for decades. :D
Yeah you kinda described me tbh... there are things that I do with my left hand that I can't do with my right hand, and I could even write decently with my left hand when I was younger.
That's actually quite fascinating, John! I'll keep the word "Cross-Dominance" in mind, since that's probably a perfect word for this type of behaviour of writing and using the "dominant" hand in general. I agree with you on that I also had no idea that this many had a similar situation, either for themselves of people they know in real life. But it's pretty nice to know that there are still more out there :)
Add me to this list as well. It depends on what I am doing whether I am Left or Right handed or Ambidextrous.
I just thought of it as adapting to a right handed world. I write, eat, dress, cook, and do a few other things lefty. But scissors, bowling, batting, catching, throwing, etc. I do with my right. Good to know there is a word for it.
I too am left handed for writing and painting. I crochet left handed but knit right handed. I use a knife and scissors right handed . I suffered discrimination at school but have made it through 58 years as a leftie.
Can confirm. I'm as creative and imaginative as...um like the most imaginative thing possible. Yeah.
Me, too! I actually do more things with my right hand than I do with my left, but I write and eat with my left.
Make it two, Michel. I do throw left and bowl left, but shoot pool right, use scissors and mouse right and used to play guitar right. I am a bit of a sketch artist and I tend to draw right, but when I am shading I unconsciously shift the pencil back and forth depending on the angle and placement of the page.
There's a left and right way to shoot pool???? No wonder I always sucked at pool...only righties tried to teach me. I feel cheated
I write and use scissors and the computer mouse with my right hand, but I eat, serve food and (would) play guitar left-handed.
My husband does this too! He considers himself to be partly ambidextrous.
I am ambidextrous. Except writing and drawing. :D
here's another
Now you have met two. I work the exact same way. Write, draw, throw lefty. Everything else right.
I'm the same as well
I am also like that I use to call it "Not fully ambidextrous" (my own word). I write/ paint/ ... with my left hand but do everything else with my right. I play tennis on the right,due to that I have more muscle on this side and do all my sports with it. I play guitar with my right because I didn't wanted to buy a special guitar. I use mouse on the right (but trackpad with the left ... weird). I used to think that when I was little I started to write with my left hand but I wasn't supposed to do that and maybe my handwriting would'nt be so bad if I wrote with the right.
I'm like this! And my uncle is the opposite, right handed but uses his left to play sports and music :o
I eat and write with my left, throw with my right, bat with my left, scissors and all else is done with my right.
Same here! I'm lefty for fine motor (writing, drawing, eating, and other precise detail) but righty for everything else (scissors, mouse, sports, etc).
Same here!
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Same here
some reason could be that some of the left- handed people were trained (in schools, by parents...) to do stuff with right hand and not with left hand, so it caused that they are trained to be right handed, but they prefer write with right hand
That's exactly the case with me, too.. I hold a pen or pencil w/ my. Left hand but literally Any thing else I use my right hand...
Meet another Michel, I put it down to, "things I have done naturally, i.e. picked up a pencil, thrown (or kicked) a ball, I do left handed. BUT things I have been shown how to do, i.e. sew, knit, use scissors etc, I do with my right hand. I have done them in the same way that I've been shown...right handed!
There are many like that! It is called being ambidextrous! Not that unusual to be able to use both hands!
I understood we are not 100% left or right-handed. Anyone could be 90-10%, 80-40% etc. Anyway, what about those who write Arabic or Hebrew? : they ARE a big amount of people out there
I actually do the same. I can relate to alot of these things - but ultimately I only write with my left hand. Everything else is done right handed.
I'm a lefty who plays the guitar as a right hander, and do a lot of things with my right hand. I am sure many, many lefties are like this.
Well, you've met me in cyberspace now! We ar both probably almost ambidextrous.
Naw I'm the exact same 🤣🤣🤣🤣
That's crazy, I'm the same way!
I do the same . I even played golf right handed but tennis left handed. I think we have adapted to a right hand world out of necessity. I even bought left hand scissors. Problem is , the blade is on the other side . So instead of cutting to the left of the line , you have to retrain yourself to cut to the right of the line .
Michael M. Prins---you are ambidextrous, as am I. It's a wonderful gift.
Now you know of two. Like you I draw and write with my left hand, but use scissors and move mouse with right hand. I also iron with right hand.
If you are truly left-handed and do things only with your left like guitar then I think you're a special unicorn. Seriously, I've tried.
I'm the same way. I cant use scissors or a mouse with my left, even though I'm a lefty. I guess we've been conditioned.
played golf R/H , GUITAR R/H , MOUSE - R/H
I write and draw left handed but everything else I adapted to right. I always thought most left handed people were like this
This is exactly me!!!
I use scissors in my right hand too and the same with the mouse
I'm exactly the same as you...it's because we had to adapt to a right handed world. When I was learning to use scissors as a child there were no left handed ones at home so I had no choice but to learn to use the right handed ones.