Button Up - by Annie Tomsik

When asking the age old question about which side men and women button their clothing on, the answer is easy. A woman's buttons are on the left and a man's buttons are on the right.

But the reason why is not so easy. Historians cannot agree on which version of history is true. 

For a man, the story is as similar as why you mount a horse on the left side. Again, the dreadful sword is in the way. Supposedly the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had his men place their buttons on their uniforms on the right side to aid them when pulling their sword. This may be a very good reason since buttons were very large during that day and age. But my question would then be "what if you are left handed"?

The history of women is even stranger. We have two historical accounts for them. The first story is that buttons were placed on the left for breastfeeding. So the baby could be held in the left arm. My question here would be " don't women feed equally from each side"? I mean I was that kind of mother. 

The second story is that woman who were rich had their maid dress them and button them as a mirror reflection. But this too make no since. After all most buttons for children and the rich, were known to be in the back. At the time buttons were being used for these leisurely Ladies, they were also tightening corset strings in the back, so both would have been in the same location.

It seems to me that this comes down again to the battle of the sexes. Just like pants, men didn't want women to dress the same as they did. Men often used Bible text for their reasoning. Such scripture as Deuteronomy 22:5 telling woman they must not dress as men and a man must not dress like a woman. This being very confusing since they all dressed in robes with a belt around the waist. 

To this day, men and women's buttons are still divided. The zipper could be said to close the gap. However a zipper is not as stylish as a well placed button.