The Feminist and the Handbag

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, but I guess what triggered me to start writing about it was a conversation between two of my friends on twitter. A female friend tweeted her delight in finding internal pockets in the (men’s) jacket she was wearing. A mutual male friend of ours replied, ‘wait women's clothing don't have them? No outer pockets on a lot of stuff too?’ He was surprised. No one who frequently wears women’s clothing was. I decided to bring him up to speed, responding with: ‘This is why women carry handbags. There is very little utility to women's clothing.’ And suddenly I felt the familiar, bitter taste of having been duped.

Why is there very little utility to women’s clothing? Why don’t we get pockets which actually open? Why do we have to put up with the ‘false pockets’ that are frequently sewn onto women’s jackets and pants to give visual interest without ruining the ‘line’ of the garment? Why, when pockets are actually present, are they so rarely large, stable, or loose enough to accommodate a phone or a wallet? And why, given this is the case, do women go on to cop so much flack for carrying handbags around with them?

Oh wait. Is this one of those double standards which we feminists are always going on about; one of those innocuous little things which everybody just accepts because it is the norm?

Women carry handbags. It is known.

But why? I have watched my male friends get ready to go out. They slip their wallet into one pocket, their keys into another, their phone into a third pocket, and some of them even still have spare pockets large enough to carry a novel for the journey. Those of my friends who wear women’s clothes, though, face an entirely different situation. If they are wearing the right jeans or jacket, they may have up to two usable pockets (not at all guaranteed). However, in most cases they won’t have any pockets at all. Utility and style rarely meet in women’s fashion, so they grab a bag.

Contrary to all the jokes, most women don’t ‘have’ to leave the house with everything they pack in their day-to-day handbag. Most of the items in a woman’s everyday handbag are in there because, if she’s going to have to carry it anyway, she might as well make it worth her while. Excuse us for making use of the one useful item we find in our wardrobes.

Choosing the right bag for other occasions is also an important decision. When going out, women usually carry the same sorts of essentials men do, with the addition of lipstick, tampons, and, perhaps, a small roll of Hollywood tape.  Not wanting to be weighed down, a woman may forego the bag with a shoulder strap for something smaller with a handle, or even a clutch. This is where the problem of a lack of utility gets pricklier. Men’s clothing would provide ample space for the few items a woman requires for a special occasion.

Unfortunately, the number of pockets in women’s clothing actual decreases as the need increases: when she’s most likely to want her hands free – like when drinking, dancing, or balancing on oddly-shaped bar stools – she’s least likely to have them free. When she’s carrying only her most valuable essential items – money, phone, cards, keys – she is more in danger of losing them. On top of this, the lack of utility in her clothing is making her vulnerable to attack. She is down to one hand to defend herself and no ready access to items like her phone which may be used to call for help. Her clothing, because it is designed to do just one thing (cover her body), is putting her at risk.

If one is in a relationship with a man, or someone who is likely to dress in men’s clothing, there is another option:  handing over the few items one wishes to carry to one’s partner, to be kept in his pockets. Convenient as this seems, a tiny, rebellious part of my brain screams that it is terribly old-fashioned and means that one must be constantly asking permission to access one’s means of communication and finance. It also means that one is tethered to their partner and still without means of calling for aid if the situation requires it and the partner is not present.

So suddenly I’m looking at my handbag with suspicion wondering if, somewhere along the way, someone should have thrown her beautifully designed bag to the ground and demanded that someone make her beautifully designed clothes do something a little more, well, useful.

But maybe she couldn’t. After all, all her stuff was in there.

In order to be concise and clear, I have used the term 'women's clothes/fashion' to refer to clothing found in the 'women's' section of, for example, a department store. It has nothing to do with the gender/sex of the person wearing the clothes. I speak of it as a 'women's/feminist's' issue as the overwhelming majority of people who face this are female or identify as such.