Left-handedness and the Alethi, how it would work

[Silva]

The other day I found this article which said left-handedness is actually more common in men than in women (23% more common). I did some more research and discovered that while it may not be by much, the difference is still there. Naturally, that made me think of the Alethi women and how the Alethi's belief of not showing the left hand seemed illogical. Here's what I've come up with:If there are more men in the 10 or so percent of lefties in our world, one would expect to be the same in Roshar. We already know that the number of lefty Alethi would be low since it's a minority thing and unless a person's parents are both left-handed, the likelihood they're left-handed is pretty low (<20%). This does depend on Roshar resembling Earth in how handedness is passed on and works.

So the main point: the concept in Alethkar that women using the left hand is immodest could work because there wouldn't be many women disadvantaged. And if they were disadvantaged, it would be a small enough percentage so much so that it could simply be dismissed as basic clumsiness and lack of coordination or fine motor skills.

[Quantus he/him]

11 hours ago, Silva said:

The other day I found this article which said left-handedness is actually more common in men than in women (23% more common). I did some more research and discovered that while it may not be by much, the difference is still there. Naturally, that made me think of the Alethi women and how the Alethi's belief of not showing the left hand seemed illogical. Here's what I've come up with:If there are more men in the 10 or so percent of lefties in our world, one would expect to be the same in Roshar. We already know that the number of lefty Alethi would be low since it's a minority thing and unless a person's parents are both left-handed, the likelihood they're left-handed is pretty low (<20%). This does depend on Roshar resembling Earth in how handedness is passed on and works.

So the main point: the concept in Alethkar that women using the left hand is immodest could work because there wouldn't be many women disadvantaged. And if they were disadvantaged, it would be a small enough percentage so much so that it could simply be dismissed as basic clumsiness and lack of coordination or fine motor skills.

It's really only the upper classes that wear an actual encumbering sleeve, most of the population settles for a modesty glove instead, so it isnt as severe a practical limitation for most.  Beyond that it wasnt that long ago that forcing left-handed children to write Right-handed was fairly common, so lefties can learn around it to some extend, especially if reinforced by something as extreme (by earth standards) as a 24-7 encumbrance sleeve on the offending hand, which sounds like something out of a bad catholic school/evil nun story.  

 

It was an extension of the cultural idea that two-handed pursuit like swinging giant shard-blades needed to be a full "No Girls Allowed" masculine pursuit, which was then flipped to take literacy (and by extension basically all communications, scholarship, and most of commerce) as a feminie art. All that to say there's some disadvantage but it's part of a larger power balance that frankly I think the women are winning soundly.  

 

 

Quote

 

Questioner (paraphrased)

Why can only women read in [The] Stormlight Archive?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Immediately after the Recreance an old book was used to argue for the idea that only men should be picking up the blades and plate, fighting was a masculine art. Over a period of 20 or so years this became established and some women used the same argument to take back some power by taking literacy for themselves as a feminine art.

source

 

 

[+robardin he/him]

4 hours ago, Quantus said:

It's really only the upper classes that wear an actual encumbering sleeve, most of the population settles for a modesty glove instead, so it isnt as severe a practical limitation for most.  Beyond that it wasnt that long ago that forcing left-handed children to write Right-handed was fairly common, so lefties can learn around it to some extend, especially if reinforced by something as extreme (by earth standards) as a 24-7 encumbrance sleeve on the offending hand, which sounds like something out of a bad catholic school/evil nun story.  

It's pretty common in my lifetime and definitely still is today.

Especially in the East Asian cultures that Rosharan Alethi society is partly based upon, kids are pretty much always trained (I wouldn't say "forced") to write and eat with their right hands (i.e., holding chopsticks). I cannot recall ever seeing someone using their left hand to hold chopsticks who wasn't born and raised in the US, and most likely not by Asian immigrant parents.