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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: August 7th, 2025

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  • The article gives two explanations: women had servants to help them get dressed and men didn’t, and men had to be able to draw a sword from their right hip without it getting stuck in clothes.

    I find neither explanation very convincing.

    It wasn’t universally true that women had servants and men didn’t. That may have been true for a specific time and social class, but poor women definitely didn’t have servants; they were the servants. And kings and high nobles did have servants to help them get dressed. Sometimes it was an entire formal ritual.

    Does being right handed matter? I’m left-handed, and I have no problem buttoning my shirt. It’s really more a matter of what you’re used to than which hand is dominant.

    I find sword drawing slightly more convincing, at least if you look at the military uniforms of 200 years ago. Sables were still common, at least among officers and cavalry. And those uniforms definitely had buttons.

    But then why would women have the opposite?