Safehand

Safehand
by Sheep
Related to	Vorinism
World of Origin	Roshar

Safehand is an Alethi term for a female's left hand. According to Vorin cultural tradition, it is obscene for a woman to leave her safehand uncovered. Upper class women adhere to this tradition by wearing a sleeve that covers their left hand loosely. Often the sleeve has a safepouch sewn on the inside for women to store personal objects. It is considered extremely rude to open another woman's safepouch. Lower class women wear a glove so they can use both hands freely, as do for example Thaylen women and prostitutes provocatively wear no covering at all on their safehand. Some prostitutes will wear fingerless gloves on their safehands in order to be provocative and show others who they are before being hired out.

Trivia

In an interview, Brandon Sanderson stated that the tradition derives in part from "a famous book written by an artist who claimed that true feminine pursuits and arts were those that could be performed with one hand, while masculine arts were those performed with two hands, in a way associating delicacy with women and brute force with men."

Notes

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