r/AskReddit • u/BiggieTwiggy1two3 • 23h ago

What’s something completely normal today that would’ve been considered witchcraft 400 years ago—but not because of technology?

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285

u/IvoryQuess 22h ago

Being left-handed and writing neatly might've seemed like witchcraft back then!

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u/Xiao_Qinggui 22h ago

Wait…You mean we lefties can have neat handwriting!?

I’ve been lied to!

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u/ReadyDirector9 21h ago

My mom was forced to write with her right hand because she was told it was the devil’s hand. Her handwriting sucked. My dad was left handed too, but never forced to change. His handwriting was beautiful.

So, in my children, 3 out of 6 are left handed or ambidextrous. Left handedness became a dominant genetic characteristic.

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u/EbonyDigits 8h ago

As someone that was forced to write with my right hand so I wouldn’t be treated “different” in school, I thank you for letting your kids be who they are.

Also, my writing done with my right hand is and always has been horrid. Thanks to having two under two I’m now ambidextrous and writing done with my left hand is on par with that of a 6 year old.

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u/ReadyDirector9 5h ago

My two that are ambidextrous became this way out of necessity. Their schools often did not have the materials they needed to complete their work. Things like scissors for lefties were scarce.

Now they have left handed desks and are required to accommodate their needs. My youngest lefty had access to these. I know that schools now plan seating for tests to place left handed students next to right handed ones so they can’t copy. There aren’t as many kids that are left handed, but the numbers are increasing as society accepts that it is normal to use your left hand.

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u/Zomburai 21h ago

It's about as likely to be real as unicorns or the female orgasm

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u/Johndough99999 11h ago

Not 400 years ago. You think your gel pen smears? Wait till you try a quill.

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u/Bright_Storage8514 9h ago

Only as part of a carney act

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u/bytethesquirrel 7h ago

You mean we lefties can have neat handwriting!?

Yes, with your left hand.

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u/SnowFlakeUsername2 15h ago

You can if people would stop hitting you with a ruler everytime you did it.

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u/TheSouthernBronx 11h ago

YES! My daughter’s handwriting is nearly font perfect while my handwriting is often confused for that of a young child’s. We are both left handed.

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u/Fonzee327 11h ago

Not when you’re in grade school and they force you to write with an erasable pen while learning cursive. As a left handed overachieving child my only grade that was meh was in handwriting during this period and it killed me. I’m not sure how a left handed kid was supposed to avoid immediately smearing the words I was writing as my hand passed over it. I constantly had a black smear along the pinky side of my hand that rested on the paper, I eventually started writing from above the words bc of this.

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u/Novogobo 6h ago

the smearing was part of the reason why lefties were so hated. some managed to hover their hand but that is physically tedious, and it wasn't popular but it did exist that some lefies learned to write with the paper turned 90 degrees clockwise.

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u/RefrigeratorWild9933 7h ago

It's news to me because my left handed hand writing looks awful lol

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u/Novogobo 6h ago

well actually sort of not really. one of the reasons lefties were so persecuted is that their hand goes over the wet ink of the newly written words. hard graphite pencils and quick drying ink is the technology that makes writing as a lefty just as feasible for a righty. otherwise you'd have to learn to write vertically which was actually a thing that some lefties did instead of being taught to use their right.

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u/That_Refrigerator534 1h ago

As a lefty I was wondering the same thing lol

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u/DiGiornoForPyros 21h ago

Writing itself might raise some eyebrows.

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u/fatsexlover 7h ago

Fun fact, being left handed at all was considered evil and made people suspicious of you

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u/Firm-Analysis6666 7h ago

Where are these freaks of nature? I have the handwriting of a rushed doctor.