THE HISTORY OF SOUTHPAWS
THE need to conform can be a strong driver in people. Those that do not conform are often perceived as different – a threat – and have faced prejudice and pressure to change their ways to ‘fit in’. If they don’t fit in then, often, they face discrimination that can manifest itself in many ways from mental bullying to physical abuse. There is one nonconformist group which throughout history and even in language has been labelled as wicked and evil: the left-hander.
Despite the stigma attached to them, many refused to change and from within their group emerged some of the most eminent people who have overcome this unfair label to achieve fame. Disparate people such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Cesar, Alexander The Great, Mozart and Beethoven, Joan of Arc and Marie Curie, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, Albert Einstein, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, Winston Churchill, Sylvester Stallone, Marilyn Monroe and even Chewbacca from Star Wars were/are left-handed.
It’s believed that the word ‘left’ derives from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘lyft’ which means weak. Furthermore, the English word ‘sinister’ evolved from the Latin adjective sinister/sinistra/sinistrum which originally
