karen@randvax.UUCP (Karen Isaacson) (04/19/85)
> > Does anyone know why (historically and currently) women's shirts button > > right over left and men's button left over right (or is it vice versa)? > > > > Elizabeth Clayton > > ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-satan!clayton > > *************************************************************** > A possible explanation comes from the biology of the brain. > > Statistically, most WOMEN are RIGHT-BRAINED (ie. the right part of > their brain is more developed than the left part), while most > MEN are LEFT-BRAINED... > > Because the SYMMETRY of the human nervous system, the left part > of the brain controls the right parts of the human body (arms, > hands, legs..) while the right part of the brain controls the > left body parts. > > Therefore, most women are cleverer with their left hands than > they are with their right hands, which makes it easier > for them to button right-over-left buttons than the other way > around. This is why male shirts are left over right buttoned, > while female shirts are right over left buttoned. > > Also, statistically, more women are left-handed than men. Two remarks - if most women are cleverer with their left hands, then you'd expect most women to be left-handed. In particular, most women would have to be left-handed in order for this to have impacted the design of shirt-buttons. More women than men being left-handed isn't enough of an explanation. Also, and this is anecdotal, I know far more left-handed men than women. And the left-handed men tended to be brilliant mathematicians, etc., as opposed to poets. The correlation between left/right brain - science/ poetry - right-handed/left-handed doesn't seem to be very strong. Does anyone have some good statistics? -- decvax!randvax!karen