Monday, June 16, 2008
Buttons - Right and Left
From time to time I wonder, “Why are buttons on men’s shirts on the left-hand side, while they are on the right-hand side on women’s clothes?”
One theory is that men used to dress themselves, while women had the help of a maid. Since most people are right-handed, the buttoning was inverted for the sake of the maid.
Another theory says that women were forced to button themselves using the inferior hand, in order to show them that they themselves were inferior (to men, of course). This theory is based on the assumption that women buttoned their own dress, thus inherently contradicting the first theory.
Both of these theories assume that the preference for one hand plays a role. Being left-handed, I occassionally complain about anything that makes life unnecessarily difficult for lefties, but I have never felt that buttoning, whichever way around, was a problem. You normally use both hands.
Have a nice day! 
