Re: First report on Conm

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Typical right-handed propaganda. It's completely untrue. First, there's no
> right-handed majority. There's only a right-handed *plurality*.
Fair enough.

> Second, you
> can't treat fully right-handed people differently from the rest. There are
> no "degrees of left-handedness", only "degrees of lateralisation", from the
> left to the right.
Well, the distinction is partly semantical.  I myself have never met a fully
obligate sinistral.  My daughter is as sinistral as they get, and would
automatically eat left-handed if we didn't require her to do otherwise,
but the fact is, we can alter her behavior in this way.  I no more could
learn to eat left-handed than I could learn to walk on my hands.
The distinction is not about preference, but about capability.

> And I'm pretty sure if left-handed people hadn't been persecuted for centuries
> the amount would be much more balanced.
I doubt it.  Apes don't seem to be lateralized, but Neanderthals were -- the
pattern of teeth wear shows that they held hides in their right hands to
strip the flesh off them with their jaws.  Of 20 individuals measured,
18 showed right-handed wear.

> There's no right-handed "norm" from which left-handedness
> would be a "deviation", more or less acute depending on the person.
By no means.  If it makes you feel better, think of it as a distinction between
"flexible, more or less" and "utterly inflexible".  I think non-dextral
people have trouble grasping just how lateralized dextrals actually are.

> I find your way extremely clumsy (or gauche ;)) ).
We think it's awkward (historically: in the "awke" or back-handed direction)
too, but it's locked in to the culture.

> That's what happens when you put ten people on a table for six ;))) . Have
> correctly sized tables and you won't have that problem ;)) .
Don't move to New York City, my friend.

> > Umm, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work for females too.
>
> Because it involves holding a body part that women usually lack ;))))) .
That too is a continuum.  :-)  But to come to the point, there is
nothing about manual-genital contact that is a strictly male behavior:
on the contrary.

--
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

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