Clothes Hanger - in Culture

In Culture

A wire clothes hanger was also a featured prop in a central scene in the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest, in which Joan Crawford, played by Faye Dunaway, enters the room of her daughter, Christina, at night while the girl sleeps, to admire the beautiful clothes hanging nicely in her closet. She then becomes enraged upon discovering that Christina has used a wire hanger, instead of the expensive padded hangers Joan provided and instructed the girl to use. Joan wakes her daughter and gives her a thrashing. Joan's fierce cry of "No wire hangers, ever!" quickly worked its way into pop culture. Wire clothes hangers play a prominent part in the 2008 movie Birdemic: Shock and Terror. During a key scene in this "Romantic thriller" directed by James Nguyen, four terrified characters defend themselves against bloodthirsty hawks and vultures by waving wire hangers over their heads in the parking lot of a San Francisco Bay Area Motel 6.

Commonly used as an implement for roasting marshmallows or hot dogs at camp-outs.

Unfolded wire clothes hangers, because of their use in performing illegal or self-induced abortions (by inserting one in the uterus), have been used for pro-choice protest.