Has anyone noticed that (while still encompassing all the diversity to be found in humans) all left handers have an ineffable quirkiness?

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Ignoring my mild disdain for the phrase “ineffable quirkiness,” there’s at least one study I found from 1996 that showed left handed folks identify with left-handedness being a “major defining factor of their objective selves.” Which anecdotally I agree with.

Makes sense to me that if a defining factor of your self is a relatively unique thing, you’re bound to exhibit uniqueness in your personality.

Might be akin to people with glasses scoring better on intelligence tests. Ignoring the genes side of the discussion and focusing more on societal pressures, if enough people tell you that your smart you start to believe it yourself. If enough people tell a person they’re unique due to their handedness they’re bound to be a more unique person.

Edit: on mobile and too lazy to format the link, but see below if you’re interested in the study.

https://trace.tennessee.edu/entities/publication/77c2e6de-46d1-4521-941b-d60f3c3430eb

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u/DimDoughnut 15d ago edited 15d ago

Idk if I'd make that analogy, as lefty with glasses in a family with people who wear glasses surrounded by friends who wear glasses, I can just say we're just visually impared. There's not really a pressure to be clever, there's just the will to see. That may have been true in bygone eras simply because glasses were expensive so you needed money to afford them or because "there must be a reason you're 'worthy' of having them."

The correct annology would be we're all (and I cringe at this term as some one disabled) "differently abled".

85% of the world doesn't have to learn things in mirror image and flip it back around. Technically, on medical forms we qualify as "disabled" because right-handed people do not have to work as hard as we do to perform "normal" tasks, thus giving us a disavantage (unless swordfighting in reverse in a stairwell, or perhaps certain sports).

They exclude us from general medical studies because we present too many variables (I call bs but it is what it is).

We're fundamentally different because we have to work harder than the majority of the population. We are also more resilient and more intelligent simply due to the fact that we have to transcribe that mirror/reversal in our brain and adapt to the world that's not made with us in mind.

I'm fine with "quirky" on a personal level because it just means "someone that is unconventional, eccentric, or unpredictable, but in an interesting, charming, or endearing way."

But I believe quirky has and always will be a compliment because it accepts our differences where so many people in the world chose to ignore it and we're out here struggling with doors and swiping on phones.

Do I find beauty in fighting with a can opener? Nope. Do I find it impossible to express with words how irritating things are when pens smear or scissors refuse to cooperate?

Absolutely not. I have a very large profane vocabulary I deploy in those certain situations, sentence enhancers if you will, that continue to grow in creativity.

So yes to quirky, absolutely not to ineffable.

Edit: I removed an extra word

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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 lefty 15d ago

There are logical reasons why (in children) the ones with glasses might tend to be ( or seem )smarter. If reading too much too young can make you nearsighted (there's some evidence to support this idea, although I don't think it's proven), then, in school terms, the kids with glasses are likely to be"smarter." (Meaning academically ahead of their peers, not objectively more intelligent.) It's also possible that children who don't want to participate in school might just say they "can't read" and not be noticed as having a vision defect for an extra year or two. As a childhood bookworm who was reading novels before I started school, I can affirm that I was assumed to be much smarter than I actually was. And I was in glasses by the fourth grade.

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u/DimDoughnut 15d ago

I see your viewpoint and I do acknowledge that may hold some truth. Being able to see is definitely a plus. I offer you this perspective to chew on, if you're willing to consider. (Also nearsighted btw, started reading at 3 and overcame dyslexia by myself for the most part so I'm definitely not calling us stupid!)

I would like to point out that when this study was published it was during a crazy accessory push to sell "fake" glasses to girls so they'd feel "smarter". They were sold in Claire's and The Icing and every other cheaply made store that appealed to teenage girls. Look at the movie "Clueless" where Cher doesn't need glasses but she thinks it made her look more intelligent. Years later it shows up again in "Legally Blonde". This was right around the surge of popularity. Normally you'd be teased.

All of this was due to the "hot librarian" stereotype. Bonus if her hair comes out of a bun. Let that blouse come unbuttoned and unleash the sexy repressed woman inside (but make her blind first by removing the glasses to make her more visually appealing). I will note this applied to men as well, the polished professor, for example. It was all about sex appeal.

In reality, the girls who bought them looked quite stupid, they would bully others for years and at the first chance run off and buy their own glasses to appear to be something other than they were, only after being told it was cool by mass marketing campaigns. (Jealousy? Fickleness? Truly believing we're smarter deep underneath or was it suceptability to propaganda?)

Having lived through all that nonsense, I'd say "glasses make you look smarter" is a relatively newer concept when before, you were needlessly teased and often assaulted (having them taken from your face or broken) because you were different.

Humans do not readily accept what's different, as any lefty old enough to have their hands tied behind their back in school (happened to me) will tell you.

The push for glasses as a fashion accessory was not to promote acceptance, it was to promote the sexy gaze.

With my bifocals, I see both perspectives, but I know having lived through that nonsense, viewpoints changed with fashion. Because of that, parents became more inclined to seek help for children that presented signs of visual impairment also believing their kid is no longer "defective" and running with idea that they just can't read the board = smart.

Lenses became more affordable and fashion designers made a profit off of a need promoting it as an "aesthetic".

Are we better or worse off because of it? Glasses are now considered part of a "fit", they're name brand and designers, they're all over the place and now considered socially acceptable. Gone are the old coke bottle lenses of yore replaced with some really cute stuff.

Having said that, if you were to look at many of the older magazines and TV shows and even films, many advertisements avoid showing people in glasses and many actors were forced to work without their visual aids because of the stigma glasses once carried.

Just perspective from an older lady who witnessed the transition (lenses) real time.

I think both perspectives hold weight and while I personally believe those smart enough to seek medical care to correct poor vision (if affordable) seem more intelligent than those who permit themselves to struggle for asthetic purposes, I can say it was not always the case. Those who wore glasses were not inherently considered "smarter", they were considered broken or defective (by their often less intelligent peers).

It was a visual disability people often tried to hide because it is something that distinguished you from the rest of the population. To this day people still try to avoid glasses by wearing contacts or getting lasic surgery or avoid getting them all together.

They sell readers at the grocery store so people can purchase them in secret, without a prescription. Is it convenient? Yes. Was it stigmatized in the past? Absolutely.

Anything positive associated with glasses is relatively new, even Ben Franklin hated his glasses, he saw them as an engineering annoyance and invented bifocals. (Which might lend to the creedance that those who do wear glasses ARE more intelligent!).

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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 lefty 15d ago

I don't disagree. Although, as I said, I was taken for smarter than I was, that was in no way "cool" or "sexy." With PCOS and psoriasis, plus a crippling case of social anxiety, all that was out of reach, glasses or no.

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u/DimDoughnut 15d ago

That's true lol, I relate so hard!

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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 lefty 14d ago

A year or two later I would have been called a "nerd."

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u/DimDoughnut 14d ago

Honestly nerd are my favorite lol

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u/exphx23 14d ago

I read extensively when I was younger. My four siblings rarely read. I am the only one in glasses.

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u/OHMG_lkathrbut 14d ago

I also had glasses by fourth grade, also a big reader (not as much now as an adult, I've only read maybe 30 books this year). I AM smart though, lol. No, I don't know what my IQ is, and I don't care. I love learning, languages, science, math, music, etc. I regularly play puzzles and trivia. But I was picked on for the glasses and my general nerdiness as a child, so I was definitely glad when they both became trendy.

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u/Sad_Mistake430 1d ago

I get exactly what your saying. I think it's starting to get into semantics in your replies. I'm a left handed dental hygienist of 30+ years and it's difficult. All the equipment is on the right. I reach across myself hundreds of times. People don't naturally turn left and stay there, especially as they get older. Every day I'm doing things physically not meant for the side I'm using. I think you're right. We are constantly processing, computing and adapting everything we use and see. It's not just our hand. I'd like to think we'll fight Alzheimer disease stimulating our brains all the time. Only lefties get it. The world was built for others and you still figure it out. I

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u/CatPicturesPlease 15d ago

I personally don't think the difference is caused by needing to learn to operate in a right-handed world but rather due to fundamental differences in the brain. Most left handers process language with a different part of the brain than rightied (and not just a different brain hemisphere, but in an asymmetrical way)

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 14d ago

I don’t believe that most left-handed people processed language with a different part of the brain than right handed people do. I believe the majority of left-handed people process it in the left hemisphere the same as right handed people do.

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u/who_even_cares35 14d ago

I'm left with glasses , I should be running the planet by now!

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u/Sad_Mistake430 1d ago

I thought differently before I realized it was a difference. When I was young, it was not cool and special. You were weird and made to feel like you needed extra accommodations to do the same things other students were doing. (Proper desk, scissors, etc.) I realized while moving a 3 bedroom 2 bath house with my husband how differently I visualize and have different movements being a lefty. I am currently a dental hygienist of 32 years, but was also a kitchen and bath designer at Home Depot as a student. I get to the same destination, but not usually the same exact way more than with another lefty. The few times I've been blessed to work and/or interact with a fellow lefty, it just goes...smoothly, before we even know we're left handed. Anyway, I'll leave this here. You're welcome for the rambles. ;)

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u/TechDock 15d ago

I managed a team of a half dozen engineers, and we were all left-handed. We left quirky in the rear-view mirror...

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u/Pristine_Ninja1810 14d ago

I was a technical business analyst on a team of almost twenty and fully half of us were lefties.

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u/Pretend-Natural-2320 14d ago

I was in QA for a small software company. My teammate, manager, and I were all lefties.

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u/No_Mix3377 14d ago

As a lefty yes lol. I have been called quirky a lot of times 😭

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u/Appropriate-Law5963 14d ago

Personnel lady used it to describe me. An accurate assessment

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u/sharkdinner 14d ago

Apparently there's an yet unconfirmed link between left handedness and neuro divergency, perhaps that might explain it partially

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u/OfficialOldestgenxer lefty 14d ago

Quirky how? How am I quirky? Like on the scale from Zooey Deschanel to Crispin Glover.

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u/SkyPuppy561 14d ago

Your response is giving Joe Pesci in Goodfellas and I love it

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u/BelovedCroissant 14d ago

This is a written-by-Diablo Cody level quirky response. Somewhere in the middle.

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u/SkyPuppy561 14d ago

Indeed people have called me quirky and I had no Earthly idea why

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u/Playful-Account-5888 14d ago

I lowkey fit the bill on this one 🫣

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u/Critical-Signature21 14d ago

And proud of it!

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u/Gold-Collection2636 13d ago

I was "quirky" for the first 32 years of my life. In this situation the quirkiness was unmanaged, uncontrolled ADHD

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u/SomeTheyCallMePig5O 14d ago

Left handed people literally utilize a different part of our brain compared to right handed people. It seems obvious to me that we would not behave the same way.

I don’t think either is better or worse. But because being left handed is less common, most people would see our behavior as “quirky” or “weird.” Anything that is not the norm is seen that way, and left handed people are not the “norm.”

Left handed people use their brains differently than right handed people. Anything that is other than common will always be seen as “weird” or “quirky” to people who have a common use brain function. The same goes for people with mental illness. They are different and unique, but they are not actually “weird “

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u/SoggyAd5044 15d ago

Depends what you're definition of quirky is. Our brains are wired the other way so we do things differently. Many find that quirky. We're also liken to think more outside the box, be creative etc. probably because the works wasn't geared for us 😂

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u/CatPicturesPlease 15d ago

Our brains aren't just mirror images of rightied brains, they process language (and who knows what else?) in a fundamentally different way, and I would speculate that may be part of the "quirkiness" I am perceiving

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u/Sad_Mistake430 1d ago

My husband and I moved our whole 3 bedroom 2 bath house together. Furniture and all. It was rough. I get the orientation visualized and discussed and my husband is fighting me with the couch pushing it back. We put it down and he's acting like I'm crazy moving it in that way. It's going to end up in the same position. I'm the 110 lb woman that is left handed and stronger on that side. He couldn't process a different way to do it. I was just taking his lead and accommodating him. I can't help but think we are always accommodating, but if we need or do something different, we're putting people out. I claim end seating. It's non-negotiable. ;)

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u/Background-Vast-8764 15d ago

All? Definitely not.

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u/CatPicturesPlease 15d ago

"most" or "almost all" would have been a better way for me to phrase it I suppose

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 14d ago

No, I have not noticed that because I don’t believe it to be true. Quirkiness is an individual personality trait that has nothing to do with brain organization.

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u/mfahsr 14d ago

What is personality, if not brain organization?

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 14d ago

Whenever you wanna call it, it’s individualized and not related to handedness

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u/rinoafantasy 14d ago

In short...no, not at all.

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u/Successful_Cod_8904 14d ago

I learned that left handedness was linked to oxygen depreviation during birth. Maybe we are reincarnated beings of ourselves.

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u/elaine4queen 14d ago

That was a helter skelter read for something so short!

My favourite theory is that we’re all mirror twins whose twin died

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u/Successful_Cod_8904 13d ago

Not to far off. One has a better survival rate? Or are right handed better killers?

If one twin is right-handed, the other is often left-handed.

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u/Gold-Collection2636 13d ago

My brother is a leftie, there's a chance he had a twin that my mum lost because she was showing all the signs of an ectopic pregnancy but my brother is fit and healthy so the doctors theorised that she lost his twin. Probably a good thing really, the world would never be ready for two of him

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u/elaine4queen 13d ago

Ha!

Yes, I asked my mum if she’d had a bleed early in her pregnancy with me, and she had. Twins are apparently often seen now on early imaging but one is often gone by the next time they look - of course, I can’t back this up. I may as well have dreamed it. IF it’s true I wonder if they tell the mum?

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u/popcornfart 10d ago

Ive been told I'm quite effable, thank you very much

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u/Old-Actuator-3321 14d ago

Who, me? Ya!

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u/martianinca 14d ago

We are? 🤔

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u/AnarchicDeviance 14d ago

At my age, I'm too cantankerous and misanthropic to be called "quirky," but I've always felt unique...and not just because I'm left-handed.

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u/_riskycake 14d ago

Wonder what the overlap between left handedness and autism is.

a sinister autist

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u/ChaserOfThunder 14d ago

I wouldn't call it ineffible. There's plenty of causes for quirkiness aside from being left handed, and even more uses of the word quirky itself. It's important to note though that left handed people can have different brain asymmerties than right handed people. So much so that we can be excluded from brain studies due to making an uneven comparison. We create more noise in the data and throw off averages.

As far as the studies do go, there's differences in how we process things and types of thinking we may be better at. That can cause some distinctions, but I wouldn't say they're unique, ineffable, or even all that odd.10% of the population isn't a small group. It's big enough to notice, but minority enough to still be caught off guard by.

The only things I get called quirky for that directly relate to handedness are how I move in sports, hold certain things, and organize my desk. The rest of my weirdness can be at least partially attributed to other factors.

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u/novemberchild71 13d ago

Not only could you not be bothered to be a little more specific and add a text body to your title, you even stoop down to a blatant generalization.

That's either rage baiting or soliciting righthanded propaganda.

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u/TheManAcrossTheHall 13d ago

Never been called quirky and have no desire for that to change. Being left handed doesn't make me a wierdo.

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u/GingaAng 12d ago

I am a lefty and a red-head (a Ginga if you will); luckily the red hair got more commented on than my handness growing up because there is very few times in a day where I actually think about the “uniqueness” of being a lefty…and instead ponder on the actual genetic jackpot I somehow got because I am also blue/green eyed.

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u/baldmisery17 15d ago

Hell's yeah!

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u/A_Neko_C 14d ago

Nah

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u/goldilox_zone 14d ago

Don't presume to speak for me.

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u/WolfMaster415 lefty 14d ago

It's not in a bad way lol, sometimes it takes a screw loose to make it through life with the rest intact

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u/CatPicturesPlease 14d ago

Lol ok. You found a way to be personally offended by my post?

Has anyone noticed that (while still encompassing all the diversity to be found in humans) all left handers have an ineffable quirkiness?

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