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Is the button position of men's and women's shirts opposite to gender bias

4hw.org: Men's clothes and women's clothes have different button positions, and trousers have different pull lock positions. Most of them are also used to it. No one has been able to explain this for a thousand years.

The use of buttons to fasten clothes appeared as early as several thousand B.C., but there is a rather strange tying routine. No one can explain its origin in the last one thousand years: why do the buttons of men's clothes and women's clothes have the opposite positions?

As a design convention, the buttons of men's clothes are required to be on the right side of the clothes (such as shirts), while the button holes are on the left side; for women's shirts, on the contrary, the buttons are on the left and the button holes are on the right side. That is to say, men's clothing is to press the button on the left and right lapels, while women's clothing is to press the button on the right and left lapels. Why? Why did you do that in the beginning?

Shirts, coats, and even all kinds of professional clothing, as long as the difference between men and women, the location of buttons will be different. Photo source: American TV show "a good wife"

It's convenient for drawing swords, avoiding wind, and serving girls?

When I decided to solve the mystery, I thought that at least its history was clear. There must be some obvious reasons for this seemingly unnecessary distinction between men and women. However, on the one hand, I have found several reasonable statements, on the other hand, it seems that there is no consensus on any of them. Even the president of the British button society told me that she was not sure.

There are several points of view that often appear in high voting answers like quora or in brainstorming reader reviews on the globe and Mail website One popular assumption is that men's clothing is buttoned left and right in order to facilitate men to pull out their coat or shirt with their right hand. And that's the most authoritative explanation I can find.

In accessories of dress: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, first published in 1940, author Katherine Lester also mentioned the difference between men and women in buttons, and she seems to be as puzzled as we are now.

According to her explanation, the norm we now see as women's clothing was once the norm for men and women a long time ago, but later it changed because of the gender role of men as hunters or warriors. She wrote: 'it's generally believed that clothes start from right to left. However, when men are involved in hunting and hunting, and later want to wield swords, they need to use their right hands to pull out weapons from the left side of their bodies. The clothes with the right placket pressing the left placket greatly hinder the quick action. This kind of inconvenience causes the left and right rules of the clothing buckle to change, so it reverses. '

But some people also say that in fact, left to right is the standard of the past. And some theories have come up with a variety of reasons to explain what would be good for women if the buttons on the right helped men grab weapons. Popular conjectures include that when a woman rides on a side saddle with two legs to the left, it is not easy for the clothes with the right flap pressing the left flap to be inflated; and when a woman holds a baby in her left arm, it is more convenient to unbutton and breastfeed. It has been proposed that men's and women's clothing have become more and more similar in style, and the difference between men and women in buttons is a deliberate distinction; it may even deliberately emphasize the difference between women and men, so as to implicitly express that women's status is inferior to men's.

Side saddle riding was the standard riding posture of European noble women. Photo source: British play Downton Abbey

An article on the Atlantic Monthly website agrees that the buttons of women's clothing should be 'turned around', because in the critical period of forming the clothing standard, women in the upper class do not wear their own clothes, so it is convenient for the right handmaid to fasten the buttons by designing the buttons on the left side. However, some bloggers in the history of clothing pointed out that at that time, the men of the upper class were also dressed by servants, so the above statement was questionable.

I'm afraid this situation will always exist

Whatever the reason for the difference between men and women in the past, none of the above answers can explain why it is still the case. There are more and more neutral clothing styles in the store. However, from our quick survey in the office, the overall difference between buttons is still significant. Just because you don't want to change or because you are used to keeping the old customs, or is there still some reason to make men's shirts different from women's shirts?

In order to make this clear, I asked many people, but it seems that none of the people who replied to me had a definite answer. Kim Johnson, a professor at the University of Minnesota's School of design, said in an email that gender differences still stand out in culture, while buttons are just one example of how men and women differ in fashion.

'as long as there is a difference in power, there will always be a difference in dress. 'she added.

Indeed, clothing is still heavily influenced by gender differences: there are still completely different clothes sold to men and women (such as skirts and dresses), with significant gender differences in cut, style and color. Children's clothing design always uses the stereotype of 'boys wear blue, girls wear pink' to distinguish boys and girls, and there continue to be decorative differences in adult fashion. The 'let clothes be clothes' campaign launched in the UK points out the absurdity. In Leicester's book, she laments that women's clothes retain all kinds of decorations, 'while in plain gentlemen's clothes, buttons belong to a very small number of decorations that are still preserved' -- to this day, this is still largely true.

The button method reflects a long-standing (possibly hidden) gender bias, and evidence can be found in the trendy button down style. I searched the Internet for shirts that both men and women could wear. On the seemingly neutral clothes, the buttons were on the same side: on the right side of men's tradition. Is this going to be the general standard? Since there is no obvious reason for a different practice that has lasted for hundreds of years, as long as we still need to fasten buttons, I'm afraid we won't have gender equality in garment making.

The neutral shirt of the female model is on the right.

The lock position of a pair of women's trousers once worn is opened to the right, so in the future, there will be the unity of the button and lock opening positions of men and women, and the prejudice of men and women's gender will no longer be hidden.