Even for fairly unisex items like jogging pants, men’s clothing often has a reasonable number of pockets. Women’s clothing often has no pockets. Certainly it often has fewer pockets and often only small pockets,
My question: is women’s clothing in the pocket of Big Small Pocket?. How to explain the continuation of this trend?
And what effect does this have on the size of wockets?
A fairly long thread on the topic from last summer:
I make my own clothes and add pockets and my husband always exclaims: “Ah, the gender politics of pockets!”
So now I often have pockets, but after years of not really having pockets, I don’t use them. It’s too late! There can be no more changes after you turn thirty. What would I put in my pockets? A piece of string and a penny?
I wear my phone on a cord and if I leave the house I have an enormous handbag.
My wife is a nurse but she wears scrubs all the time, even on her days off and on vacation. She says its because of all the big pockets.
I give you: “The Giant Hoodie Company”
You won’t be disappointed. I promise.
Even their shorts have great pockets.
Don’t get me started on cargo panties…
Is that what they keep in those things? I always wondered.
More seriously, it is interesting to me that with the advent of the slab smartphone women have discovered that putting something in the back pocket of their jeans works. At least the right back pocket. The left one is always empty. Always.
Back in the 1980s when fashion jeans were all the rage they did have back pockets. Jordache anyone? Both of which were always absolutely gloriously empty, so as not to ruin the symmetrical lines of the jeans owners’ wondrous (or sometimes simply voluminous) bottom.
Now? All those now-old bottoms and all the new generation bottoms all have a phone glued to their right cheek.
Times they be a changin’
You get hero status Beck, seriously! I’ll be ordering soon.
I promise you’ll love them!
It’s a conspiracy to make us buy more purses. They’re in the pocket of Big Purse.
Also, purses are much easier to steal than the contents of pockets. That’s why the back pocket is phone-sized, so phones are still easily accessible. Collusion with the Society of Shitty People.
What has it gots in its pockets, precious?
Most people are right-handed so it only makes sense to put their phone in their back right pocket.
So often I’ll see women walking down the street with their giant phones halfway sticking out of the tiny back pocket and just think “that is a pickpocket’s dream right there!”
Probably more like the pocket of Big Purse. By not putting decent pockets in women’s clothing, the fashion industry creates a market for handbags.
eta: Ninja’d by ZipperJJ who even used my Big Purse joke.
Changing, stupidly small pockets to reg/usable size, is actually a pretty simple alteration. Take them to a seamstress, you won’t regret it. I do my own, but if I’m feeling lazy, I just do one, haha!
In the interest of providing a somewhat scientific argument, I’ll note that until about 1860, most clothing was home made and probably, usually by women. They could add or not add pockets to their own clothing as they saw fit.
As best I can tell from googling, pockets were only infrequently added and generally only large enough for a handkerchief.
I think the simple answer is that women usually carry more stuff than you can put in a pocket and most of which they prefer to keep private (a tampon/tweezer/lipstick/wet wipe utility belt solution doesn’t seem like it’s going to take off).
I vote for market forces.
I have things in every pocket and cannot imagine being without pockets. A friend claims that women will never be fully liberated until they insist on pockets and stop carrying a handbag.
Ha. My glasses case will never fit into a reasonable pocket. But yes, now that pockets are back, I frequently head to the grocery store with just my small wallet in one pocket and car key in the other. No phone because Google doesn’t need to know where I am every second of the day.
If you don’t mind wearing metal underwear these magnetic pockets are available. You can do your own search for the metal underwear. It seems to be quite popular with female superheroes.
I don’t think we should be taking clothing advice from people who hadn’t invented belt loops yet.