April 19, 2021

The Rise of the Left-handed Cult

The 20th century saw a dramatic rise in the number of left-handed people. Was it all part of a leftist conspiracy? Read on to find out!

Right now ant-transgender activists, left and right, are trying to tell the world that the current rise in the number of transgender people is caused by a transgender conspiracy.

RightLeftRightWrong tells a similar story about left-handed people:

The history of the sinister left-handed

In pre-modern times left-handed people were thought to consort with the Devil. Left-handedness in women might be considered proof of them being witches.

In the 19th century science and medicine were used to fight the threat of those left handed:
The infamous (but influential) 19th Century physician Cesare Lambroso, who identified various facial and racial characteristics with criminal traits, turned his attention to handedness at the end of the century and the start of the next and, perhaps not surprisingly, he identified left-handedness as a mark of pathological behaviour, savagery and criminality.
At the middle of the 20th century American psychoanalyst Abram Blau suggested that left-handedness was caused by perversity and the result of emotional negativism.

It wasn’t until after the Second World War that left-handedness began to be recognized as something natural. And yes: the number of left-handed people seemed to sky-rocket. The real numbers, of course, were stable. It was just that at that point left-handed people dared to admit that they were “lefties”.

Note, however, that all the way up till the 1970s parents, teachers and doctors world wide tried to force left-handed kids to use their right hand. Right was right, you know.

It made sense, in a mad kind of way. If everyone though being left-handed was bad, you had to make left-handed kids right-handed to avoid harassment and social exclusion.


The transgender surge

The current “surge” in the number of trans people is not caused by “gender ideology” or “transgender propaganda”. It is mainly caused by three things:

1. An increasing cultural tolerance for diversity, especially among the younger generations.

2. Being trans or non-binary is no longer considered a mental illness.

2. The Internet makes it easier for trans people to find others like themselves and develop a language that makes sense to them.

That’s all there is to it.

Ari Drennen says this about the similarities between transphobia and sinistrophobia (Sinister means left in Latin. Says it all doesn’t it?):
One constant that’s present literally everywhere in human history is that people in dominant groups will invent reasons to persecute people different than them, no matter how silly the reasons and no matter how cruel the effect. This is all familiar.




And now: Some left-handed celebrities!

Here are some members of the left-handed cult for you: Charlie Chaplin, Leonardo da Vinci, Julia Roberts, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong, Prince William, Matt Dillon, Julius Caesar, David Bowie, Joan of Arc, Chewbacca and Bart Simpson.

6 comments:

  1. the worst thing you could possibly be is a left-handed trans person! :)

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  2. Maybe the two equals each other out? (Naaaah....)

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  3. "The history of left-handedness" graph says so much so well. I wonder where the 2010's and later will label the x-axis in another 20 years. Somewhere between 1920 and 1940, I suppose.

    I wonder if a similar graph is available for gay/lesbian people. I'd guess the shape of their graph's x-axis for 2000 - 2020 would be between 1940 and 1960.

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  4. @Emma

    You are right, and there are such studies. Here are some numbers from a recent US study that show there is a big increase in the number of Americans that see themselves as LGBT+. LGBT identification is now 5.6% among US adults in general. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup’s previous update based on 2017 data. The number for 2012 was 3.5%. You can also see huge differences between generations. The biggest cross-generational increase is found in the percentage who experience themselves as bisexual: Baby Boomers: 0.3% vs. Gen Z: 11.5%.

    The percentage of Norwegians identifying as some shade of queer has increased from 1.5% to 7% in 12 years.

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  5. So I'm a lefty, and I'm starting to explore my feminine side. I wonder what this means? The history of the two is very interesting.

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  6. So I'm a lefty, and I'm starting to explore my feminine side. I wonder what this means? The history of the two is very interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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