button up

In our (as we like to believe) equal-opportunity, post-feminist, non-discriminating world, ever notice why the buttons on men's clothing do up differently than women's? It is an antiquated leftover of aristocratic times, when it was decreed that men's buttons should be done up in accordance to a right-handed man on the inside of a shirt but a woman's should be for the convenience of a right-handed maid buttoning from outside of the shirt. So I guess it was assumed that women would forever be dressed by their maids (or we'd all become left-handed sooner or later...and who dressed the maids?) This also meant that a lady could be more easily undressed by a right-handed man. These ghosts of couture past speak to the nature of covering oneself as an evolved process, shaped by society, propogated often without thought of its implications on social roles.