![]() Recently, my friend and fellow Brooklynite, Marissa, announced she was finally, at the age of 24, ordering her first fanny pack: Everest brand, in a “versatile” maroon, a little over eight dollars. (I especially love Mat & Nat’s vegan selection.) But these, too, leave their own set of sweat marks, and can feel almost as cumbersome as shoulder bags.Įnter the purse-haters’ leading lord and savior: the fanny pack. Sexual and gender identities aside, backpacks are wonderful, especially when you’re schlepping a laptop or other large items. Ditto health editor Sally: “My gender presentation goes hand-in-hand with wearing stuff with all kinds of pockets and/or a backpack, so it’s not often that I feel like I can’t carry all my shit.” As out actress Leisha Hailey once told The L Word costume designer Cynthia Summers, “Lesbians don’t wear purses.” Hailey later softened her stance, but the stereotype still holds some water. “I have never owned a purse because I don't really like stuff that makes me read as feminine,” says Pilot, a New York-based writer who prefers to wear a backpack instead. Purses are also traditionally coded as feminine items, which makes wearing them uncomfortable for more masculine-presenting women and/or people who identify as gender-neutral. ![]() ![]() “I dream of walking out of the house carrying nothing, like a man or a child.” ![]() It's just another thing that I don't feel like I do well.” For people who like coordinating every aspect of their outfits, I’m told purses are fun, but in the summer, many women want to dress more for survival and maximum freedom than they do style impact. “Purses are a fashion statement,” says Lacy, a real estate manager in Minneapolis. Part of the problem with purses is the aesthetic pressure. “I dream of walking out of the house carrying nothing, like a man or a child,” says my friend, Jamie. (I know what you’re thinking: tote bags! But what is a tote bag if not a flimsier, less-compartmentalized purse? I don’t want to carry those if I can help it, either.) Moreover, I knew I was not alone in my desire for viable purse alternatives. I knew there had to be another way, because somehow men were getting around without purses just fine. No longer would I accept this long-hated item into my daily life simply because of my gender or my need to carry three to 16 lip products on my person everywhere I go. No longer would I allow the strap of a crossbody leather bag to form a diagonal stripe of sweat across my torso, awkwardly separating my breasts in the process. No longer would I weigh myself down with five pounds of crap I don’t really need to get through the day. Or so I always resigned myself to believing. Once again, those of us with too much junk to cram into a sweaty jorts pocket must rely, instead, on purses. As soon as it’s consistently over 70 degrees outside, we must say goodbye to winter coats and spring jackets - and, more importantly, the reliable storage space provided by their many friendly pockets. butt sweat, allergies, sunburns, boob sweat), but chief among them is the absence of outerwear. There are a number of objections to be made about summer’s arrival, in my opinion (i.e. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here. The archives will remain available here for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years.
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