Handbags, high heels and g-strings are considered female items today. What if we told you those things were originally made for men? That is true. These items and several others were created for men but somehow ended up switching between genders.

There is no single reason why the switch happened. It was sometimes for practical reasons—like after someone discovered that an item was more useful for women than men. At other times, it was all about the money. Manufacturers have switched their target market from men to women just to make more sales.

See Also: Top 10 Animals That Were Originally Called Other Names

8 Bra Clasp

Famous writer, Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens) was never a fan of suspenders. For the unaware, suspenders (aka suit braces) are those long straps that go over our shoulders to help hold our trousers up. Twain considered suspenders uncomfortable and went on to invent a new product to replace them. That product is the hook and eye.

The hook and eye is a small metal fastener that held trousers securely to the waist—the sort of thing we use belts for today. Men are not familiar with it since we never really got to use it. Women know it quite well because it is the same material that holds their bra together. Yes, those tiny metal hooks at the back (and sometimes, front) of bras was invented for men.

Mark Twain received a patent for the hook and eyes on December 19, 1871. As he wrote in his patent application, the material was an “improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments”. It was used in shirts, underwear and corsets before finding permanent use in brassieres.

7 High Heels

High heels are considered one of the most feminine items out there. They are so closely associated with women that one would think they were invented for women. That is wrong. High heels were created for men. Women only joined the high heel bandwagon in the 17th century.

The first high heels were made for male Persian soldiers back in the 10th century. The heel allowed them lock their feet in their stirrups (those devices horse riders put their legs) while riding their horses. This improved their balance and accuracy when they wanted to shoot arrows or attack their opponent with some other weapon while on the move.

High heels only reached Europe in the 17th century where it was promptly adopted by the male aristocrats since it made them appear taller and more intimidating. In one notable incident, King Louis XIV of France distributed high heeled shoes to the male members of his cabinet in 1673.

Women started wearing high heels because it made their feet appear smaller. At the time, most women wore long skirts that reached their ankles. The high heeled shoes raised the mid and rear parts of their legs so that it was hidden under their skirts. Only the front part of their feet was visible, giving people the impression that they had small feet.

Nevertheless, male and female high heels slowly began to diverge as women made their heels thinner. Women also streamlined the front of their shoes so that it appeared smaller and pointy. Meanwhile, men maintained the original high heels with wide heels and flat fronts. Men dumped high heels in the 18th century because it was already considered a feminine item.

6 Handbags

The handbag originated from the loose, small bags or pouches people carried around centuries ago. Clothes did not have pockets at the time and people created the pouches to keep their money and whatever else they had with them safe. The pouches were often attached to a belt worn around the waist.

In the 16th century, women dumped the pouches for small pieces of metal called chatelaines. They hung their keys and sewing materials on the chatelaines, which they hung under their skirts. However, women dumped the chatelaines for reticules in the 18th century. The reticules (also called indispensibles) were small pouches that were held by a drawstring.

The modern handbag appeared in the early 1900s. The name was coined from the hand held bags men carried around. Fashion designers of the day used the male handbags to create handbags for women. These feminine handbags had fasteners and were separated into compartments to make them more practical. The male handbag soon gave way to the female handbag.

5 Thongs

Thongs are a category of underwear or swimwear connected together by a narrow piece of cloth. When used as underwear, women prefer them over regular panties because they do not create those infamous panty lines. The g-string itself is a kind of thong. However, it is differentiated from thongs by the use of thin strings in place of the wider fabric used in thongs.

The first thong appeared In Africa in 42,000 BC. Thongs later reappeared in ancient Egypt, Greece and Crete in 1570 B.C. and Japan in 250 A.D. Like today’s thongs, they all covered the private parts while leaving the buttocks exposed. However, unlike today’s thongs, they were often worn by men. Thongs later went out of fashion until they reappeared in the 1800s.

This time, it appeared as the jockstrap, which men used to protect their privates during sports. The modern thong made its first appearance at the 1939 New York World Trade Fair after Fiorello La Guardi, the Mayor of New York, ordered female nude dancers to cover themselves up. The dancers turned to thongs, which covered their privates while still leaving enough skin exposed to keep their audience entertained.

4 Disposable Menstrual Pads

Reusable menstrual pads were not a thing until World War I. Years before the war, some executives of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation—which made the first disposable pad—were touring Europe when they came across some new material made from pulp and paper. Cellucotton, as it was called, soaked in five times more water than regular cotton while costing half as much.

The executives took cellucotton back to the United States. However, Kimberly-Clark did not find any use for it until World War I came along. Cellucotton was mass produced for use in dressing injured soldiers. However, the female nurses treating the wounded soldiers soon discovered that it worked well for soaking up their menstrual discharge.

Kimberly-Clark never paid attention to that until the market for cellucotton dried up right after the war. In 1920, it rebranded cellucotton and sold it as Kotex (from cotton texture), which became the first brand of disposable menstrual pads. Poor sales later made executives repurpose the product again into Kleenex, the first brand of facial tissue that hit the market in 1924.

Pictured is a German soldier using what would eventually become a menstrual pad as a face mask!

3 Stockings

Stockings are another clothing material that between switched genders. They are exclusively worn by women these days even though the first stockings were made for men. Women only started wearing stockings in the 18th century. Men have been wearing them since the 9th century. Men of the upper class generally wore white or colored stockings while poorer men only wore black.

For the unaware, stockings (also called hoses) are those close-fitting clothes that cover the feet and part of the legs. A variant of it is the pantyhose, which is a combination of stockings with panties. Men never wore the pantyhose. To avoid confusion, stockings, pantyhose, tights and breeches all belong to a category of clothes called hosiery.

Things slowly changed between the 16th and 20th centuries when stockings switched from being a masculine item to feminine. The period is even called the “The Dark Ages of Tights” for this reason. By the 19th century, stockings had become so closely associated with women that men stopped wearing them completely.

2 Skinny Jeans

Skinny jeans share the same history as jeans. The first jean was created by Jacob Davis in 1873. However, the invention was closely linked to Levi Strauss, a German immigrant who moved to New York in 1851. Levi worked in his brother’s textile store until 1853 when he opened a textile store in San Francisco.

This was during the California Gold Rush when lots of men worked in the mines. One day, a tailor called Jacob Davis walked into his store and requested for a tough textile material that could withstand heavy work. Levi sold him some denim material, which Davis turned it into the first jean trouser.

The product was so successful that other miners started requesting for similar trousers. Davis partnered with Levi to patent the jean. Levi later founded Levi Strauss & Co. to mass produce jean trousers.

Jeans were still considered a male clothing item until 1930 when Levi Strauss & Co. created the Lady Levi’s® Lot 701, which was the first jeans exclusively made for women. The jean was slim and reached the upper waist. However, it slowly got smaller as Levi moved from marketing it to older women to younger women.

1 Everything Pink

A century ago, boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Today, it is in the reverse. How did the color switch happen?

The whole thing began in the 1900s when the first colored baby clothes appeared. Before then, it was almost impossible to tell the sex of a baby at a glance since every baby wore white dresses. White was the preferred color because it could be bleached to remove any kind of stain. Boys also wore dresses because they were more practical than shirts and shorts.

Colored dresses only got popular at the turn of the century. However, no color was associated with any gender. By the time World War I came along, it was generally agreed that boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Boys wore pink because of its powerful appearance. Blue was preferred for girls because it was considered prettier.

Boys only dumped dresses for shirts and shorts at the end of World War II. However, boys still wore pink and girls wore blue. The real switch occurred in the 1960s when supporters of female liberation movements began dressing their daughters in pink over concerns that girls were being conditioned into behaving effeminately by the kinds of clothes they wore.

Meanwhile, boys slowly switched away from pink to blue. The garment industry delivered the final blow around 1985 when they started marketing pink clothes to girls and blue to boys. The garment industry was not interested in gender equality or whatever. They just wanted to force parents into buying new clothes instead of sharing clothes between babies of different genders.

Despite people traveling thousands of miles across the world to set eyes on a monument, there might be some locals who would gladly travel thousands of miles just to escape it. While you view a building or structure as a work of art, many locals may see it as a blight on their landscape or a cruel reminder of their history.

Here are ten landmarks originally hated by locals. Quite often, the reason for his enmity is the constructions in question being seen as eyesores. In some cases, they were also seen as egregiously expensive eyesores.

10 The Shard
London, England

The Shard, formerly called London Bridge Tower, is the tallest building in the UK, standing at an incredible 310 meters (1,016 ft) and offering 72 floors and an observation deck. Since its construction in 2009, it has become one of the most famous landmarks in the English capital; however, it wasn’t always loved by the public.

The building was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, after he was inspired by the adjacent railway lines and the masts of sailing ships. However, it faced much criticism before it was even constructed, with the English Heritage organization stating it would be like “a spike through the heart of historic London.”^[1]

9 The Gate To The East
Suzhou, China

The Gate to the East (aka Gate of the Orient) is the largest conjoined skyscraper in the world and has received multiple awards and accolades since its completion in 2016, as it uses the most steel products and has been deemed the tallest gate on the planet. If all this wasn’t enough, it offers the deepest private wine cellar and tallest swimming pool in China.

It has, however, received much criticism. Locals reportedly described the building as “humiliating” and that walking through the arch was “like being forced to crawl between someone else’s legs.”^[2] The media also referred to the landmark as “a climactic icon on the 21st century architecture of spectacle.”

8 The Eiffel Tower
Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most famous landmarks in the world and is often associated with elegance and romance. It might, therefore, be hard to believe that it wasn’t always so popular with Parisians. The iconic building was erected to serve as an entrance into the 1889 World’s Fair, which was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.

However, the steel structure looked out of place with the French capital’s classic architecture. Parisian academics and artists were not afraid to express their dislike for the landmark, stating: “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate lovers of the beauty, until now intact, of Paris, hereby protest with all our might, with all our indignation, in the name of French taste gone unrecognized, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the construction, in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.”

Despite the outcry and the threat of demolition, it now serves as an international symbol of love and romance.^[3]

7 Vittorio Emanuele II Monument
Rome, Italy

Construction began on the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Rome, Italy, in 1885 in honor of Victor Emmanuel II, who served as the first king of a unified Italy. The dominant building is flanked by Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill and is largely made from white marble.

However, despite the building’s grandeur and opulence, many locals disliked the architecture, giving it a variety of nicknames, such as “false teeth,” “wedding cake” and “the typewriter.” They also believed it was created from the wrong marble color and was far too large.^[4]

6 Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain

Sagrada Familia is an unfinished Roman Catholic church and the most famous edifice in Spain. Construction began on the church in 1882, and it is expected to be completed in 2026. It is one of many architectural designs by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, who also designed Park Guell and Casa Mila. There were, however, many people who would have preferred for the church to have been torn down.

Pablo Picasso once stated he wished for those responsible for the design to be “sent to Hell,” and George Orwell went as far as to say it was “one of the most hideous buildings in the world.”^[5]

5 Empire State Building
New York City, US

It is hard to imagine the Big Apple without the Empire State Building, which provides both locals and tourists with breathtaking views of the New York skyline. However, the 102-story skyscraper was not an instant hit with locals, who viewed its construction as a waste of money that was located too far away from public transport.

The building’s construction came in $19 million under budget and was completed ahead of schedule, with the building officially opening on May 1, 1931. However, as the opening overlapped with the Great Depression, only 23 percent of the office space was rented in its first year, which led to it being dubbed the “Empty State Building.”^[6] However, new life was breathed into the landmark when the building was purchased, renovated, and aggressively marketed as the world’s tallest building. It was later selected as one of the greatest engineering achievements in US history by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

4 Centre Pompidou
Paris, France

It is easy to see why locals might not be too fond of Centre Pompidou, as the building looks as if it’s covered in scaffolding. The Centre was completed in 1977 and offered the first collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe.

The exoskeleton design is not only unsightly, but it clashes with the capital’s historic architecture, as it is surrounded by beautiful, old buildings, including the oldest surviving house in the city, which was built in 1407. The brains behind the building were Englishman Richard Rodgers and Italian Renzo Piano. Rodgers once commented that a Parisian woman was so infuriated by the building that she hit him on the head with her umbrella.^[7]

3 Valley Of The Fallen
Madrid, Spain

It is hard to believe locals could possibly hate a monument that commemorates those killed in Spain’s 1936–1939 civil war. That’s because it also serves as the grave site of General Francisco Franco, a brutal dictator who reportedly forced thousands of political prisoners to build the monument. Many believe Franco stated he would reduce a convict’s sentence if they volunteered to join the work detail; however, there have been allegations that he enforced labor. In fact, Jaume Basch, a Catalan politician, described the landmark as “something like a Nazi Concentration Camp” in 2017. The site reportedly holds 40,000 bodies, but only Franco and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the National Chief of the Falange Espanola de las JONS, are buried inside the church.

Security was tightened after the site was bombed by anti-fascists in 1999. While many people would happily pay the €9 admission fee to either lay flowers or spit on Franco’s grave, both actions are no longer permitted. It now serves as one of Spain’s most hated landmarks, which you can spot miles away on the A-6 motorway, as the large granite cross can be seen above the rock of the Sierra de Guadarrama.^[8]

2 Palace Of Parliament
Bucharest, Romania

Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament is the most hated building in the city. Thanks to its opulent architecture, which glows gold at night, it is now the most popular tourist attraction in Bucharest, attracting tourists from all over the world. However, locals despise the building, as it was originally built for Nicolae Ceausescu, a communist dictator. While the nation was forced to endure extreme poverty, Ceausescu was plunging the country’s wealth into building his palace. During this time, parents were unable to feed their children and were forced to place them in the state’s care.

Despite the country’s communist regime falling in 1989, residents across the city are reminded of their nation’s history every time they set eyes on the ostentatious house of Romania’s parliament.^[9]

1 Christ The King Statue
Swiebodzin, Poland

The Christ the King statue is the tallest statue of Jesus on the planet, standing at 33 meters (108 ft) and rivaling Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer. Despite being crowdfunded for $1.4 million by locals and other towns, it has become one of the most controversial landmarks in Poland.

The erection of the monument caused arguments between both Christians and atheists. It was also heavily criticized for its location, as it is situated near the German border by the Berlin-Warsaw motorway, near a large supermarket. However, one of the latest controversies is the recent installation of antennas within Jesus’s crown to broadcast an Internet signal for Divine Mercy Parish.^[10]