I’m a Woman Who Doesn’t Carry a Purse

I never carry a purse. I don’t even own a purse.

I’ve always thought it ridiculous that women were expected to shlep a little bag full of stuff around wherever they went, and men were not.

And that very often a woman ends up carrying around stuff in that little bag for the man in her life. Dude! Is there a reason I have to serve as your packhorse? Why don’t you carry your own damn purse?

Because men don’t carry purses and women do.

Look at photos of women in the news. Check out the women around you when you walk down a city street or settle into your airplane seat. You rarely see a woman without a purse.

And you never see a man with one.

So why do women have to carry purses?

Why Do Women Need a Purse?

Maybe so they can tote around the make-up that society requires that they wear at all times because it just isn’t okay for women to go around with naked faces.

Men don’t have to wear make-up. So there’s no need for them to bring lipstick and blush and foundation and eye shadow and facial wipes and concealers and moisturizer and zillions of other “beauty products” with them whenever they leave the house.

So? No purses for the dudes.

I don’t wear make-up, which means that I don’t need to lug all that cosmetic crap around. So? No purse for me either.

My own personal theory about why women have to carry purses, backed up by absolutely no scientific evidence?

I think it’s because women have to carry tampons but have to pretend that they don’t carry tampons because although bleeding every month is an integral part of being a woman, nobody is ever supposed to know that we’re bleeding.

So the purse was developed as a way for a woman to secretly carry her “sanitary supplies” around.

Back in the 1970s, when I was a young feminist, I decided that having to hide the fact that I was menstruating was malarkey, so I’d boldly march through the college library to the women’s bathroom, openly holding a tampon.

ONE

Yes that’s right ONE. That is all you really need. Having said that, I own more than one handbag myself. I actually have three but I only ever use one. Maybe it is time I decluttered the other two. I used the other two bags more often before I needed prescription glasses but they are not big enough to hold the case. One of the reasons why I stick with just one bag is because I just can’t be bothered moving the items I keep in there all the time from one bag to another.

I don’t like to carry a big bag because like every other space the bigger it is the more you fill it up with needless stuff. The one I use all the time is actually ready for the bin. Its handle fell off some months back and I have been holding it on with a safety spring hook (You know, like a climber would use. You never know I might find myself in a “MacGyver” situation one day and that hook will save my life. LOL). That said, this old bag suits my needs really well and that isn’t easy to find so I will continue to use it for as long as it will hold together.

I know some of you lovely readers are probably thinking “you must be mad, get a life”, but the question was “how many handbags does one woman need” and the answer is one. All extra bags are just an extravagant fashion statement really. We are all allowed our one little weaknesses though I suppose.

Thank you to Angelina for sending in that question and inspiring this post.

For more on handbags check out Day 97 Handbag Clutter.

ITEM 230 OF 365LESSTHINGS

I believe these shot glasses have been in my possession since my grandmother died so that is 29 years to add to the weeks clutter years tally which is now 43 years.