Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon says, dryly (emphasis mine)
I think maybe even a few months ago I might have gone totally off-course with a typical (and, I swear, perfectly reasonable) rant about how women have to wear purses because clothing manufacturers steadfastly refuse to sew pockets into women’s apparel. And I might even have picked up on the counter-argument that many women, pressured to sacrifice practicality for a “clean silhouette,” won’t buy clothes with pockets. And a few months ago, after straining my little Y chromosomes extra hard, I might have opined that it’s out of control to deny pocketless girls even a small every-day (and not just “special days”) purse while their male counterparts slouch around in cargo pants with such big, baggy pockets that they can conceal not just an AK-47 and extra ammo but a carton of milk, a dozen eggs, and the collected works of Proust.
In those days I certainly would have steered clear of references to school boys and their boners. That, however, was then. This is now. Marcotte, having brilliantly lit a fuse under a rhetorical firework (danger of girls bleeding through their pants vs shooting up a school) sends it skyward where we can ooh and aah (emphasis, again, mine)
Of course, even if the rule was followed to the letter and security guards were miraculously discreet instead of getting a rise out of making teenage girls feel uncomfortable about their socially awkward fact of being members of the second sexâ€â€a fact teenage girls are just adjusting to, mind youâ€â€carrying the purse to class would broadcast loud and clear to other students that you were having your period. And we all remember, I’m sure, how teenagers are generally a classy set about each others’ sex-and-body mortifications. I guess they could make the mandatory humiliations a little more fair by walking around demanding randomly of teenage boys that they describe their unbidden boners.
The point being that a) unbidden boners (and during class in High School they’re almost always precisely that) are why teenage boys have historically been drawn to the loosest, baggiest pants possible, b) boys, especially lower and “outcast” boys are as subject to teasing about their boners as girls are about their periods but (and here’s why I think Marcotte’s crafted a rhetorical starburst) c) unlike tormented girls, tormented boys and their boners sometimes do shoot up schools! (Take a moment to ooh and ahh — that really was a wonderful device of rhetoric.)
And yet (emphasis mine one last time)...
The small Sullivan County school has been in an uproar for the last week. Girls have worn tampons on their clothes in protest, and purses made out of tampon boxes. Some boys wore maxi-pads stuck to their shirts in support.
After hearing that someone might have been suspended for the protest, freshman Hannah Lindquist, 14, went to talk to Worden. She wore her protest necklace, an OB tampon box on a piece of yarn. She said Worden confiscated it, talked to her about the code of conduct and the backpack rule  and told her she was now “part of the problem.”
And yet… somehow it’s girls, and their purses or lack thereof, that are part of the problem?
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-01 03:13.
Damn Figleaf, you're such a loveable bastard.
You notice, let alone care, that women's clothing is completely ridiculous? *swoon*
Lots of love from the Pacific for you XX
[Thank you, Dana. --fl]
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Sat, 2007-09-29 19:39.
A handbag is essential to life! Sorry, whatever job I do, I need my handbag within easy reach. I need a purse for grooming aids, sanitary napkins and spare underwear, medicines, a small drink (in case of coughs etc during meetings), purse, keys, calculator, pens and pencils, mobile phone, diary and notebook, identity papers, tissues, first aid supplies, snacks in case of low blood sugar etc.
When faced with a situation where carrying a bag would be inconvenient I can condense the “kit†into a bag on a belt around my waist!
I’ve noticed that some male friends who are also “on the road†a lot keep personal supplies in their brief case, along with their notebook computer etc. They might not face the issue of periods, but they do need similar things like snacks and tissues for similar reasons.
It seems that the school is "criminalising" a normal and necessary accessory and therefore putting many students offside and creating conflict when working together to ensure security would be more sensible (and effective).
[Oh it makes sense to carry *something* with us, and I remember how grateful I was when they came out with book bags back in the 1970s because, really, anything with straps is 100 times better than anything with briefcase handles. I still think, though, based on my own experience with filling up book bags, is that a lot of the stuff people carry in purses is just in there because they're already carrying a purse so "one more thing won't hurt" is pretty easy to say. Oh yeah, and the one thing I think makes nearly all book bags better than nearly all purses is that you can have a book in it, which, in addition to inhalers and/or menstrual supplies, is virtually indispensible as far as I'm concerned. Thanks, Avalon. --fl]
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Sat, 2007-09-29 14:33.
Yes, I don't like the way schools treat students, either.
Bleeding through the pants still happens to me all the time, though it's not as bad as when I was a teenager. Pockets wouldn't cut it since I need multiple "giant mama pads" per day and tampons don't cut it. Long shirts or jackets, multiple layers, and very dark colors when I'm menstruating. Heavy periods are not that unusual and are a very common complaint. Not at all trying to be argumentative, just backing up the idea that it really can be a problem for some women.
I know that the discussion isn't about inhalers. What I meant to say is that pockets are sometimes insufficient, students or not, menstruation or not. I would hope that purses wouldn't be a hindrance with a Civil Engineering job, though I guess they could be. Again, I detest carrying stuff around, but it's sometimes a necessity.
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Sat, 2007-09-29 13:43.
In the cases I mentioned, sometimes you wouldn't have time to go back to your locker. I am not saying that there isn't a need to transport some items, but I thought "bleeding through your pants" over the top. The protest wasn't about having inhalers. I may be wrong but some schools wont let a student have any kind of drugs even inhalers,they have to be dispensed by a nurse. They think that illegal drugs can be used that way. I said I didn't like the policy, but for a different reason, I think there are other ways for providing security. Its as if they are treating students as prisoners or terrorist.
[Yup, the sword Marcotte was playing with *does* have a double edge (since as you say purses, as socially constructed, really are kind of patriarchial.) Also yeah, it's almost impossible that there wasn't a better way for the school to handle that situation. Thanks, Five. --fl]
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Sat, 2007-09-29 12:35.
Women don't wear pockets, because some clothing isn't made with pockets. Did you ever think of why jeans became so popular, painter's pants and then cargo pants the fashion. It wasn't to look like the guys. Its the fashion gurus trying to keep the teenage girls in something in the sleek. Even at that I can't see girls completely pocketless, unless they dress differently in the rest of the country.
I think the policy is unnecessary, but some of what you say, can happen in the workplace, especially if you are a cashier or on the manufacturing floor where you are not allowed to carry a purse. I guess what I am saying is, is that it is an issue you learn to deal with. A lot jobs a purse is a hindrance, like Civil Engineer, and I think women understand that our need to have one is a matter of habit and expectation of fashion, not in anyway defining the feminine.
Maybe I am taking this the wrong way, but I think the protest is to say lets maintain the patriarchy view, because I want to know if they are going to let a purse define them for the rest of their lives.
[Yeah, there's a bit of irony in fighting for the right to wear stereotypical badges of femininity. What gets my goat in the issue is the way the administrators are leveraging the tradition of menstural humiliation, making purses a *literal* badge of femininity! It's also why I really appreciate the students responses of tampons and pads as accessories. Not least, of course, because it appears to be more embarassing to the administration than to the students. (Which wouldn't happen, of course, if people could somehow possibly unhook the idea that menstruation was some sort of acknowledgement that women can have "Teh Sex!!!") Thanks, Five. --fl]
Submitted by 1645 (not verified) on Sat, 2007-09-29 13:08.
A cashier or someone on the manufacturing floor might not be able to carry a purse on the floor, but they probably have some kind of assigned locker or break room where they can leave personal items.
Lots of people need to carry extra items for all kinds of reasons. Though I hate purses, I find it difficult to carry epinephrine and an inhaler without one (granted, in schools, the nurse would be required to keep it). I don't know how men carry around epinephrine. Some people, like my son, need to carry around glasses and can't wear them all the time. Sometimes pockets aren't enough, and sometimes it's not about fashion, but necessity.
I've also found that the manufacturer of my favorite jeans now makes the pockets of the same style smaller, and now my wallet falls out.
Great that the kids are openly protesting this themselves, and that the young men are being supportive.
[We can keep a *lot* of stuff in our pockets, B, even plain old jeans pockets (let alone cargo pants.) Which is the biggest reason we've never needed purses. (See the description of the contents of Tom Sawyer's pockets in Twain's book.) As for jeans pockets getting even smaller, yeah, just when cell phones got small enough to fit into those coin/watch pockets on jeans they started making the pockets smaller. $!%$!@$#~. Thanks, B. --fl]