Dextro-Centrism

Dextro-centrism:

Yes, I know this is a “made-up” word–because I made it up. Like ethnocentrism, this word conveys the idea that one group is dominant, in this case right-handers, for whom the entire world is organized.

And, I also know that this is a seemingly light-weight subject, after some of the heavy stuff I have been putting in this digest lately. So, maybe it’s time to lighten up a little. I promise you that next week I’ll load up again.

You may take my word for it: this is a “right-handed” world. We left-handers are the world’s oldest continually oppressed minority, and the left-brain majority have no idea, and usually get righteously (that’s a joke friends:-)) upset when anyone suggests that they have a built-in advantage in life. I guess it’s like the proverbial fish in water, always taken for granted, no reason to think about it unless reminded by one of us wrong-handers.

Consider the word “right” itself: in every language I have studied, “right” is the default synonym for “correct.” Even Mandarin Chinese says (romanization alert) “ni shwo dweila,” meaning “you are right.” Dexter, dextrous, dexterity, from the Latin root for “right.” Sinister, in several versions, is the word for “left” in most latinate languages. “Gauche”is the French word for left, and we know that in our language (per Webster), it means “lacking social grace, awkward, tactless.”

Even screwdrivers, and the devices they are used on, are nearly useless for left-handers because we only can tighten clockwise, which the right hand does easily. The same for screw-on jar tops and similar items. Try it if you don’t believe me. The right hand tightens with the full strength of the body, the left has only a relatively weak muscle in the forearm.

Many premodern cultures, lacking toilet paper, used the left hand for “dirty” tasks. My left-handed wife and I once ate in a local restaurant where we had to sit on the floor and eat with our hands (no utensils provided). Halfway through our meal we noticed that many of our fellow diners were sending disgusted looks our way, simply because we were eating with our “dirty” hands.

All of which introduces the names given to us by various cultures: Australians call us “Molly dukers, presumably because we use the “women’s” hand; in England, the slang term for us is “kakhander,” presumably based on the Greek root for dirty, or inferior. (Side note—the Greek word “kakistocracy” denotes a society dominated by its worst citizens, the opposite of aristocracy by which they meant a society dominated by its best citizens, so I guess we can call our present society in this country a classic kakistocracy). Isn’t this fun?

Lest this be entirely one-sided (another little joke), I do know of at least two situations that actually favor lefties: bowling and the typewriter. In bowling, the enamel surface would be too dry and quickly worn-down by friction, so the lanes are regularly oiled, which allows the better bowlers to spin the ball in the direction of the “pocket” (ten pins arrayed in a pyramidal form, and the bowler wants the ball to hit one side or the other of the number one, or head-pin, thus the two pockets, left and right). When the oil inevitably wears off, a spinning ball breaks too much, and is harder to control. Inevitably, it wears off the lane sooner on the right side (many more right-handed bowlers), so left-handers do have a potential advantage.

Some time back that became obvious on the Professional Bowlers Tour when for several years left-handers dominated the sport. Once the right-handers found out, they managed to sabotage the oiling of the left side of the lane, thus regaining their advantage.

A final note on this subject: In my recent biographical sketch I left out a year and a half during which I worked as a “house professional” in a bowling alley in Millbrae California, running the Pro Shop, measuring hands, drilling balls and giving lessons, including coaching a team of Junior Bowlers who had the highest averages in the country that year. I quickly learned that it was much easier to teach left-handed beginners because the primary skill is the ability to twist the ball in a direction that encourages it to turn toward the pocket (see above). For left-handers, who start on the the left side, a clock-wise twist does the trick. As noted above, left-handers have had to strengthen those forearm muscles to tighten things, so the motion is natural to them. Right-handers, on the other hand, have always turned things clockwise, and when they start from the right side on the approach, they have to twist the ball counter-clockwise, which is not at all natural to them, and hard to learn. I did enjoy working with right-handers to develop this skill, of course.

The story of typewriters is intriguing, and little known. The earliest models had long, spindly wires that had letters on the end. When inked, they would strike the paper to leave an image. The increasing speed of typists began creating many jams as the long wires would tangle, so the keyboard was re-designed to place most of the more commonly used letters on the left side, hoping to slow down the predominantly right-handed typists. The “querty” keyboard is still with us, of course, and my left-handed wife has always been a very speedy typist. Not me, though; my ADHD dyslexia minimizes any advantage I might otherwise have had.

We haven’t even talked about the bifurcation of the brain, and its role in determining the dominant hand. It will have a major role in next week’s digest.

A final note: you should not be surprised that my personal motto has always been: left is right and right is wrong.