We hate to be the ones who have to break this to you. But someone’s got to do it.

It’s about that, uh . . . bag you always have with you. Yeah, that one.

It’s a man purse.

Yeah, we know, you call it something else. It’s a bookbag, or a courier bag, or an attache, or a gadget bag. Maybe that’s what they told you it was when you bought it.

Trust us, it’s a man purse.

We know, it’s where you carry your work files, your laptop, your gadgets. We know there’s no lipstick inside.

It’s still a man purse.

Yes, it looks “rugged.” Sure, it’s got some remote military pedigree. It’s just like the bags those soldiers carried in Calcutta or Dieppe or Algiers. We’re sure the super-high-strength fabric it’s so solidly constructed from could slow bullets.

You’re still packing a purse.

We understand you studiously avoided lots of other bags that looked a lot more like purses. After consulting your girlfriend or wife or fashion consultant, you very carefully selected this one (even though the slightly more “girly” one had better features) because it meant fewer people would call it a man purse.

Tough. It’s a man purse.

That messenger bag you used to have? It was a man purse too.

That cafe bag you almost bought? Man purse.

That clutch? Definitely a man purse.

Go bag? Organizer? Tote? Man pack? All man purses.

Sure, there are degrees of flagrance. Your buckle-happy he-man potato sack will maybe arouse fewer snickers if you grunt loudly as you throw it over your back.

But it’s still a man purse. They all are.

Live with it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Backpacks, Clutches, Commentary, Fashion, Laptop Bags, Man Bags, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.