A left-handed person is someone who is predisposed to using their left extremities.
Left-handed is an adjective that refers to what is linked to the left hand . Generally, the concept is used to describe the person who has a natural predisposition to use the limbs on the left side of the body.
For example: “Diego Armando Maradona and Lionel Messi, two of the best soccer players in history, are left-handed,” “In ancient times, teachers forced left-handed children to write with their right hand,” “I find it difficult to use this clamp because I am left-handed.”
The condition of a left-handed person is called left-handedness . Left-handedness is considered a phenotype : a specific manifestation of a genotype according to a certain environment. The genotype , for its part, is made up of the genetic material that an organism houses in its DNA .
Left-handers, a minority
Left-handers, at a social level, are a minority : the majority of the population is right-handed (they tend to use the right side of the body). Those who can perform fine motor tasks with both sides are known as ambidextrous .
This situation places the left-handed individual at a disadvantage in many ways, since most tools , utensils and structures are designed for right-handed people. In some cases, special editions are produced for left-handed people (as is the case with musical instruments, for example).
For video game lovers, for example, the normal thing is that there is no control option appropriate to the predisposition of each user, but rather everyone must adapt to a single scheme. When the Japanese company Nintendo launched its console called Wii in 2006 , it opened the doors to a new era in which it would be possible to divide the controls into two parts, each of which can be used with either hand, something very appreciated by left-handed people.
Lionel Messi is a left-handed footballer.
The social view
Although in the past being left-handed had negative consequences in society, since the student stage, one of the myths that are currently maintained regarding this laterality is that it goes hand in hand with superior intelligence . In other words, these individuals went from being considered retarded to gifted, but how much truth is there in this new conception of left-handedness?
It is worth mentioning that many simply cling to the list of notable left-handers throughout history, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Darwin, Newton, Marie Curie, Einstein, Bill Gates, Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe ; Of course, this list also includes Adolf Hitler, Bin Laden and Vladimir Putin , which is not enough reason to go from despising to admiring left-handed people, but rather it is necessary to investigate their true relationships with intellectual development .
One of the most common statements is that left-handed people use the right hemisphere of the brain more than right-handed people, and that this results in better performance of spatial functions . However, scientific evidence has not been satisfactory to support it.
With respect to the performance of left-handed people in the plastic arts, music or exact sciences, among other areas, the tests carried out to date have not collected enough results to ensure that right-handed people are below. In sports, on the other hand, many of the world's leading figures are left-handed ; Whether or not there is a connection between physical ability and laterality , this data cannot be denied at a statistical level.
Left-handed by ideology
In the context of politics , subjects with left-wing ideology (which focuses on social equality ) are called left-handed - usually in a derogatory way.
“I'm not going to vote for that lefty” and “The mayor speaks like a lefty but governs like a conservative” are expressions that show this use.