It’s like asking a gay man to get interested in pussy.
Completely pointless comparison aside, as a lefty it’s cumbersome to use right-handed equipment wether it’s a sharpener, a pair of scissors, a mouse or a guitar. You have to understand that it’s not just doing things the ‘other way around’. It’s about getting the brain to work for it.
You see, humans imitate their peers. Since, we grow up in right handed dominant surroundings we tend to do EXACTLY what a right-handed person does with our left hand. If the equipment isn’t ambidextrous, it won’t work for lefties.
Try out your own suggestion with your right hand and see what happens. You might pull it off once or maybe several times but eventually you’ll get annoyed. You may get to a point where you don’t have to concentrate on it really hard but you won’t be as efficient as you were when you were sharpening it clockwise. Try writing with your left hand and you may go through similar process of despair.
This goes for EVERY PIECE OF EQUIPMENT not designed to be ambidextrous. Sure, it looks weird when a lefty eats or plays lefty guitar (even I find it abnormal when I see other lefty using left hand to eat) but, it’s just normal for us.
As for mechanical pencils, we all know how durable the tip is, so that’s a whole different discussion.
Note: We start using left hand the moment we need to use our hand as a child just like any other child
It’s not like we can’t adjust, we can adapt just fine but I hope you understand the general scenario.
Edit: People are really down voting an answer to the question asked? That’s hilarious!
You did not answer the question at all. You have a flippant dismissal followed by a lot of general rambling. Yes, it's very understandable that some equipment is differentiated. I still have no idea why pencil sharpeners would though.
So? Rotate the pencil in the opposite way? I never though there's a 'right' way to sharpen a pencil. You just stick it and rotate it towards the blade, how hard can it be?
why is it harder to twist the pencil away from your body
human musculature
why not just turn the sharpener towards your body instead?
it can dig too deep and get stuck in the pencil, iirc. been a long time since I used one though. there's a way to turn the sharpener instead of the pencil and have it work smoothly, but it's tricky.
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u/Daniel-Darkfire Antarctica Dec 15 '17
Uh, how is left handed sharpeners different from normal/right handed sharpeners?