AND guess what? Yoga pants do not have pockets!
Thanks for the apology, OP. In the future, when you have a question that begins “why do women…” (or gay people or those of certain race, etc.), maybe you could step back, recognize your own potential biases, and avoid making assumptions.
As many have posted, it can be wearing to be confronted with the “everyday” sexism - of the world, of the internet, and of the SDMB.
Thanks. I guess initially I thought the thread I started would be whimsical and adrift with snark, but apparently my OP hit a nerve I was unaware of, or that I didn’t think through, like you said.
My existence IRL and online here generally can be described as a person whom likes to engage in conversation about just about anything (many of us here, including myself, are veritable fountains of trivial bullshit knowledge), not be offensive (unless that’s the drive of the conversation or I want to be provocative, which was truly not the case here).
Again, sorry to the women I offended, I am not the leering, ignorant oaf that you may think I am.
Thanks for that, OP!
Hilarity, it’s expensive, but I am very happy with my “find a taylor and pay him to add pockets” strategy.
Foiegras, thanks for the apology.
Taylor ‘who’?
What color is the sky in this universe in which one can just buy what one wants or easily get things made/altered?
Sad that people don’t realize that women really are slaves to fashion unless they are willing to create their own patterns for their clothes.
Tried to edit previous post, but it wouldn’t let me. 
I had heard the phrase “butt dial” long before I had a phone that could ever do that, so I decided not to carry my new phone in back pockets (which, BTW, are rare for me).
Mostly I wear casual skirts that have adequate front or side-seam pockets that I carry the phone in. The two pairs of slacks I will wear to work have skimpy pockets, but the phone will stay in them. I don’t use the phone as a constant connection to the world, but mostly as a timekeeping tool at work.
Before the 20s, all women’s clothes had either pockets or side slits through which you could reach into a very large beltpouch (think kangaroo pouch). Those flapper dresses didn’t, and it’s also when female streetwear in general started being too tight and/or too flimsy for decent pockets. Pencil skirts are a lot tighter than what my great-grandmother used to wear; bell skirts don’t hold their shape if you stick anything bigger than a lipstick into a pocket (unless you’re using enough starch to turn a sail into an ironclad’s side, that is).
Pockets have been a hot topic in the last few years. Here’s an article from Racked about the politics of pockets, and another from The Atlantic. Here’s one from Metro.co.uk that addresses the most recent Twitter flareup over the issue (which was a big thing for a few hours, until a certain someone finished golfing and got his tiny hands back on his phone).
Of this whole discussion I am most intrigued by the lack of pockets in women’s clothes. I do volunteer work at a school. I have 2 pair pants I wear when going to elementary school. For some reason I always want to have pockets over there. Of course we don’t use phones, while there (school policy). But the kids are always handing me things they find on the playground or the floor. So my pockets are always full of junk. But, I don’t think I ever miss pockets. I wear alot of yoga pants in daily life, for comfort and easy movement. I never carry my phone in a store or when I am working on one my art projects. I can’t be bothered and as I am often climbing on scaffolding or on my hands and knees.
Of course, that’s just how I roll!
Drawing attention to their ass? Yea, it’s so sexy to see a woman’s ass with a big square blob sticking on to it… Like a Kim Kardashian broken buttcheek or something! :eek:
I would try to get my girls to not carry their phones there, because it seems too easy for any pickpockets.
That never happened, just drops, cracks, forgetting, and worse.
You dredged up a 2 year old thread for that comment? Read the thread - it might be educational.
I do. Which is why I wear men’s work cargo pants. (In which my waterproof shock-resistant flip phone fits in one of the tool pockets. I think a standard smart phone might fit in the main cargo pocket, but a) it wouldn’t survive an average day in the field and b) often I need to put other stuff in there.) They don’t fit me quite right, of course; but neither do the women’s, which are no longer made in my shape (though some of them were in the 1950’s, when I was shaped rather differently.)
The general clothes-making industry does not seem to have responded to this technique of mine by putting pockets in women’s clothes.
And many women have to wear to work clothes that are considered acceptable wherever they work. Therefore they’re stuck buying the stuff with no or useless pockets; which is probably why the clothes industry can keep making them, because most women can’t buy the ones with pockets instead, because those don’t exist in anything that’s acceptable office wear. (Nor do most women have the money or time required to modify all those clothes with add-on pockets – plus which, those would make the clothes look weird, and therefore would make them no longer be acceptable office wear.) One of the advantages I’ve found to being a farmer is that a) nobody cares what the clothes I’m wearing look like, except maybe at market, where they mostly just need to be and look clean and b) the clothes that are suitable to doing the work are the clothes I feel like wearing anyway.
– how on earth does anybody carry a modern phone in a standard pants front pocket, anyway, even if they’ve got such a thing and it’s big enough to be functional? I can see how it fits while you’re standing up, if they’re large pockets. But how does it work when you sit down? The phone wouldn’t bend where I do. Do the pockets fall differently on taller people?
Believe me, women lament the lack of usable pockets in our clothes more than men wonder why we put up with it. We can’t BUY clothes with decent pockets to vote with our wallets if clothing manufacturers refuse to OFFER those items for sale.
Not to mention - when we do (my daughter has re-fashioned the pockets of a number of her pairs of trousers), how does this provide any pressure for manufacturers to change their manufacturing style? After you’ve given them your money you could rip a hole through the butt and paint it fluoro pink for all they care
I pay a tailor to make my pockets large enough to be useful. The first time I went, I said, “I want men’s pockets in these jeans”. If there are already small, useless pockets, it’s not hard to modify them.
Of course, that doesn’t incent the clothing industry to make real pockets. But I do prefer to buy pants with vaguely useful pockets over ones with totally useless pockets.
I ask for 14” pockets. That’s shallow enough that I can reach the bottom, but deep enough that my cell phone fits below where my leg bends, so it’s still comfortable when I sit.
A lot of women don’t care. Read the reviews of pants with completely useless ornamental pockets. A few women will complain, but many others will say, “these pockets are perfect. I wouldn’t want to put anything in the pockets and ruin the line of the pants.”
Many women want to look as slim as possible, and bulging pockets doesn’t look slim and sexy.
Is it a modern phenomenon? Cell phones in general are, and phones thin enough to back pocket are, but putting bulky things in the back pocket?
I clearly remember from a very young age being completely confused by the great number of people I saw with back pocket wallets. Even ignoring the theft potential, how do you sit?
I’ve seen phones in back pockets of both genders. I know that women’s pockets when they exist are mostly decorative so it’s less surprising there. But still. Besides the theft and sitting issues you now also have breakage potential.
Really, I’m not sure why we even have back pockets. I only find them useful for hands and post it notes.
I really hope they combine it with that old wallet chain trend.