Are left-handers discriminated against?

To be left-handed has not really impacted much on my work as a journalist. Yet there are a few things: When I take notes by hand during interviews, I hold the pen in a slightly awkward way to stop my hand from wiping out what I have just jotted down. 25 years of using that position might explain some of the stiffness I experience in my left shoulder. I never thought about this until my editor asked me to write a few words about the experience of being left-handed. A kind of workplace injury…

My only real left-handed tool is a pair of Fiskars universal scissors with handles and blades made for left-handed users. My parents gave it to me because I liked papercutting. I still have those scissors.

I have never been discriminated against or felt being left-handed to be an obstacle. I was never forced to write with my right hand when I started school in the 1970s, but my classmates often pointed out how I was different and often asked whether I was kejthåndet (gawky-handed) – a term that was quite common. 

At home, they taught me to answer that “we left-handers are not gawky, and we're actually more creative than the rest of you”. Today it is very rare for anyone to comment on my left-handedness.

We left-handers also enjoy advantages, in my experience. I have started playing tennis, and do not worry about getting my backhand right like many of the other beginners on my team. 

Marie Preisler