His and Hers

When a matching pair of something, usually bath towels, are labeled 'His' and 'Hers' in order to signify a couple living together. Mostly a Discredited Trope these days, and is almost never played straight.

Parody can come either in the labeling of the objects (for example, "Its" instead of "His" or "Hers"), or in the object itself (say, a military family with His and Hers rifles).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Played straight in Little House with an Orange Roof, as the two families who are forced to share one house both brought all their own furniture...and labeled it.

Comic Books

• This page shows a series of comics that played with this concept for laughs.
• A comic by Peter Bagge used "hers and its" (the guy was a big dork - however, the girl was an even bigger dork).
• Apparently played straight in Superman, where Lois and Clark have a "His and Hers" towel rail. But only for contrast with Bizarro's bathroom, which has a rail labeled "YOUЯS".

Films — Animation

• In Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, when the protagonists snoop around Mr. Krupp's house, they find out that he's so lonely that he only has one copy of everything, and the one exception are the towels: labeled "His" and "Also His".

Films — Live-Action

• In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: upon learning that Tick is married, Adam says that he "would have bought you a lovely matching set of hers and hers bath mats."
• Parodied in Fatal Instinct. Laura Lincolnberry is married to a spousal abuser: This is made clear when we see three towels in their bathroom, labeled "His", "His" and "His".
• In The Parent Trap, Hallie-as-Annie complains to her mom about the twins (having been separated in a Solomon Divorce and didn't even know the other existed until they met by pure chance) being "his and hers kids", as if they were a set of matched towels: "That just sucks!" Mom agrees totally.

Literature

• Dave Barry mentions several items that you spent money on and now regret, like whiskey, children, and His & Hers jetskis.

Live-Action TV

• On Batman, both Batman and Robin have their own specially-labelled fireman's poles to descend to the Batcave. Yes, there is a lot of Homoerotic Subtext. However, it's worth noting that they go down the poles as Bruce and Dick and enter the Batcave as Batman and Robin, so presumably they're individualized to assist the costume change on the way down.
• CSI: NY has an episode dealing with a "committed threesome". In the bathroom, which also has three sinks, Sheldon finds hand towels labeled "Hers", "His", and "Hers".
  Sheldon Hawkes: Hey Mac, there's three of everything in here... except the tub.
• Played with on Friends. Ross buys Carol and Susan a matching set of "Hers and Hers" towels. They're identical, as a joke.
• Some of the Zonks on Let's Make a Deal, especially bathtubs and junked cars.
• Played with on The Man Show in the episode where Adam and Jimmy visit Snoop Dogg's crib. While giving them the grand tour, Snoop shows them the bathroom. On a towel rack is one large towel marked "His" and several smaller towels labeled "Hos." This prompts a question from Jimmy, "How many 'hos' should a 'his' have?"
• Game Shows: Dozens of game shows have offered "his and hers" prizes, although said prizes were very rarely if ever specifically labeled that way. Said prizes ranged from watches and luggage to cars. Sometimes, it was clear which was intended for the man and which for the woman (such as watches, by the size of the wristband), but just as often it was two of the same thing with the only difference, if any, being color.
  • Even in the latter case, if two cars were the prize/part of the prize package and they were not an identical make and model, it was often the sporty-type car that was intended for the man and the more sedate "family" model for the woman.
• At some point late in the series, Mork & Mindy had matching nightshirts that were labeled HERS and MINE.

Music

• "Piggy Bank Love" by The Bonzo Dog Band:
  She dreams of cheap land, children
  Towels labelled "His and Hers"
  Plaster ducks in pairs
• Pulp's fourth studio album, "His 'n' Hers," is named in reference to this phenomenon.
• Mentioned in Victoria Wood's Political Correctness Gone Mad song: "If you're buying him a present/'his' and 'hers' things can be pleasant/but don't bother wrapping 'hers'.

Theatre

• The Leonard Bernstein musical Wonderful Town has a song called "One Hundred Easy Ways" about all the things a woman can do to make a man lose interest in her. (Basically, by being smarter than him.) If you follow the steps you can "mark your towels hers and hers".

Webcomics

• Girl Genius, with operating tables and handcuffs. Sort of justified in that all the people involved are mad scientists, so it's not quite as bizarre as it seems.
• A pair of Orcs in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic do it with their swords.

Web Original

• This poster.

Western Animation

• In the 1954 Disney short Casey Bats Again, Casey is disappointed that, in his efforts to have a son, he wound up with nine daughters. In one scene, we see a towel rack full of "Hers" towels before cutting to him forlornly holding a "His" towel.
• Looney Tunes: In one Bugs Bunny cartoon ("Hare-Way to the Stars", 1958), he has a pair of towels labeled "His" and "Hares".
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • In one episode of , Mojo Jojo has only one towel, labeled "Mine".
  • In another episode, the girls watch new neighbors move in, and hope the head of household is a single woman, so they can hook Professor Utonium up. They see a pink bathrobe and a blue bathrobe being moved into the house together, and mutter "married" in unison.
• In the Recess episode where Gus is introduced, everyone is just calling him "new kid". He feels so disturbed by this that he even sees his family's towels as "His", "Hers" and "New Kid's".

Real Life

• In Real Life, numerous companies still do make "His and Hers" lines of products, including everything from bath towels, bath robes, and pillows, to certain types of lubricant.
  • ThinkGeek had a chromosomal variant of the towels.
  • Halifax Paper Hearts makes these, as well as Hers & Hers and His & His variants.
• The basis of an awful joke, a snake charmer and an undertaker get married, their towels are marked 'Hiss' and 'Hearse'. A humorous, slightly tasteless UK variation comes from an image of a falling-over-drunk stickman and presumably his stick-wife, about to hit him with her handbag. The caption reads "Pissed and Pursed."
• Restrooms in some businesses — usually taverns — are labeled "his" and "hers," in lieu of the usual "men" and "women."
• There's a chocolate bar marked as "50% his" and "50% hers". 'Her' 50% is considerably bigger than 'his' 50%. Example.◊
• In a Star Wars themed set, one towel with Princess Leia's silhouette says, "I love you" and the corresponding Han Solo towel, "I know".

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