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Battle of the buttons

PHILIP JACKMAN

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 6:40 PM EST 17/12/07

Why are they different for men and women? ...Read the full article

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  1. rad fem from Canada writes: Actually the maids dressing women explanation makes perfect sense, when you consider that when buttons were first developed only the upper classes could afford clothing made with them.
  2. Emko Witteveen from Leduc, Canada writes: Wrong. Women buttons on the opposite side is to facilitate mans disrobing woman.
  3. Ed Anger from Canada writes: Emko has this 100% correct.
  4. Ed Anger from Canada writes: That and there is a natural repulsion for guys to wear womens clothing so men could figure out this was not their shirt by the buttons.
  5. Accounting Student from New West, Canada writes: The side saddle explanation for left handed buttons is incorrect. While women did (and still do) ride side-saddle, in order to prevent asymmetry women would change from a left-hand to a right-hand saddle.

    So far the consensus on the web is maids dressed women, so the buttoning is easier form them. Men needed the clear and easy access to their swords, and since the majority of people are right-handed (and if they weren't - were forced into it), right flap enables that. Breast-feeding was also brought into play in that a lot of women would breast feed from the left breast and cover herself and the baby for modesty - thus left flap. (This theory holds as much water as the side-saddle theory, as milk is produced through both breasts and therefore the baby will suckle from both breasts).
  6. Dan Tweyman from St Catharines, Canada writes: What I'd always heard is similar to the first answer, but not entirely the same. It began with coats and warfare.

    When not actively fighting, it was important to keep the fighting hand warm - this helps with grip on the sword and other such nuances. With the buttons on the right side, a soldier could easily slip his right hand (Napoleon style) into his coat to keep it warm.

    For women, it was about babies. By having the buttons on the left side, a baby could be swaddled in its mother's coat, while its head was still next to her heart, thus benefiting from the relaxing heartbeat.
  7. Charles Hastings from Canada writes: "Another theory is that it originates from the same place as "the whole nine yards."

    Ships used to have three masts with three primary yards, so there were nine yards on a ship."

    You've got a problem here, in that you're asserting this as the origin of the phrase "the whole nine yards" when nobody knows for certain what said origin is. The ship's masts origin is merely one popular theory (along with machine gun belts and bolts of cloth), but they all have one similar problem: the phrase never appears in text until the mid-1960s -- long after it should have had any of the popular origins been true.
  8. Western Liberal from Langley, Canada writes: OK all you knowledgeable people. The Amish don't use buttons, so, how do they overlap their clothing closures? (And don't say zippers, because they don't use those either!). I wonder if they use velcro now?
  9. M K from Canada writes: Western Liberal, they use little hooks and loops.
  10. Al MacKinnon from Windsor, Canada writes: I was told that the "whole nine yards" came from the amount of cloth used in a kilt, so that if you used less material, it was an inferior product.

    As to the handedness of buttons, a study done of pictures showed that in 1900 about half of people waved with their left hand, showing that handedness, other than in writing corrected with corporal punishment, was split 50-50. If that is so half of the population would want each side for buttoning up.

    Is "Uncle John" a reader? He usually has an opinion on these necessary facts during the reading period.
  11. Charles Hastings from Canada writes: Al MacKinnon: As with other origins, there's no evidence of it -- just people who heard that was the origin from somebody else. Again it's a case where it should have shown up before the 1960s were that the origin.

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