Walking down the street in lower Manhattan one is often caught in a stream of pedestrians--a line of solitary figures in suits, their sex easily distinguishable by one detail: women carry purses, and men do not. It may seem obvious to some (if it does to you, please feel free to stop reading), but the question this brings to my mind is why don't men carry purses? How do they know they have everything they need when they leave the house? Do they often go through the day wishing they had carried something with them that they simply couldn't shove into their pockets or stand to carry? I cannot count the number of times male friends have asked me to carry things for them: cameras, phones, glasses, etc. etc., yet they never seem concerned with being able to carry these things themselves. Why not?
Most of us have seen the episode of friends where Joey, dressed and accessorized by Rachel, carries a "murse" to an audition and is berated incessantly for it by nearly everyone he meets. The bag was not frilly, but still the fact that he carried it supposedly feminized him. Here I will propose three possibly reasons why:
1. Men are simple whereas women are complicated and perhaps a bit high maintenance. All men really need to have with them is a wallet, keys, and a phone, and all of those things fit quite easily into pockets making any extra baggage unnecessary. A woman, on the other hand, must have a hair brush, lotion, blush, lipstick, gloss, a mirror, hand sanitizer, and a plethora of other items that a man would have no need for or would never think of carrying with him at all times in addition to the wallet, keys, and phone. And since women are forever image conscious, they must have a bag that not only fits all of those things they find it necessary to lug around, but it also must be fashionable (often meaning nothing more than that it must cost an arm and a leg).
2. Men's clothing is made to accommodate the necessities of life whereas women's clothing is not. Men's jeans and jackets have pockets designed specifically to hold wallets, etc. If you need to carry a pen and a checkbook, just put on a blazer, and you get an inside pocket to stow them conveniently on your person.
Women's clothing is not so practical. Very few clothing items worn by women have functional pockets. Women's jeans are made to fit close to the body, making it so that any item placed in the pockets protrudes and ruins the effect. In fact, many pockets on women's jackets and pants are there for purely aesthetic reasons, some not extending more than an inch so that it's nearly impossible to place in them anything larger than a single coin. A hat I own has a buttoned pocket on the side which I never paid any attention to until someone asked me what I kept in it. The question was obviously asked in jest, but it made me wonder nonetheless. All of these useless pockets make it necessary for women to find another way to carry their things, and the purse is the perfect solution.
3. Women are the designated caretakers of society, and men need taking care of. I once went out to eat with a guy who asked if I had hand sanitizer in my bag, and when I told him I didn't, he seemed utterly taken aback and put out that he would have to find a bathroom wherein he could wash his hands. As a matter of course, I made sure to put my Purell back in my bag as soon as I got home, feeling a bit embarrassed that I had been so ill-prepared. In addition to that, I am also called on regularly to provide gum, tissues, pens, lotion, chapstick, an umbrella, and even a mirror on occasion for others in my company. I have no idea how I would accomplish all of that without the use of a purse. In college I often teased a friend of mine who carried a "mother-bag" which contained everything one might need in any given situation, but now I find myself emulating her level of preparation, and I only find it strange that men who've grown up going through boy-scouts with the boy-scout motto, "Be Prepared," can go through life as adults looking for someone else to provide all of the things women routinely carry around.
That's all I've got for now, but I think there's room for discussion. Why do you carry a bag around? or Why don't you?
1 comment:
It's TRUE! Women are more complicated, that's why some days I wish I were a man. haha!
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