Liberation = No Handbags!
How many women can get by on a day-to-day basis without a handbag? Not a serious feminist issue, of course, but women do seem to be utterly dependent on these 'life capsules'. Some are, granted, highly practical and don't get in the way, but many are bulky, unwieldy, fiddly, uncomfortable or annoying to carry. Even the practical ones mean you have slightly less ease of movement than a bagless bint (word used for alliterative purposes rather than as a term of abuse) and you always have to be aware of where it is when you put it down.In a very unscientific poll last weekend, I took a stroll through the town centre. Every woman had a handbag. Only one woman bar me was bagless - and her husband was carrying her handbag. Why is this? I know men's clothes are generally baggier, so there's more room for a wallet, but why do we constantly need things with us? Handbags can contain everything from chewing gum and sanitary towels to a spare outfit and hair straighteners, but when we're out for just an hour or two, and we have no medical conditions, can't we survive with just money, a mobile and keys? And can't these items be secreted about our person?
If our clothes don't have big enough pockets, why don't they? Why don't we demand them? Why, too, is it acceptable for men to have bulkily-filled pockets but unattractive for women's silhouettes to see the shape of a mobile phone cheekily swelling a rear pocket?
A challenge, then. Spend one day (when you don't have your period or any major extenuating circumstances) without your handbag. Wander about the town, skip along country lanes, mooch about the pub, boogie about the dance floor - and feel the freedom. It sounds a small thing, but I honestly feel much freer when unfettered by a bag's unreasonable demands. Unless I have a real need - for a rucksack or picnic hamper - I want to remain a bagless bint.
posted by Growlergirl @ 4:32 pm
2 Comments:
I find it is definitely the lack of pockets. Of all my clothes, hardly any have usable pockets (I don't wear jeans). We should demand them, but where do we start? It's fine in winter because my coats have pockets, but in the summer I need a bag to carry my phone, money, keys and cigarettes.
Lack of pockets in women clothes is a serious problem. Skirts don't have them at all. Even with trousers if you want pockets that is probably going to reduce your choice by about fifty percent.
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