BREAKING NEWS: Men are wearing purses!
ABC’s Nightline news program scooped the fashion world last night by airing a short segment that reveals a shocking fact: Certain men, it seems, have been carrying bags that look “suspiciously like purses.”
Correspondent John Berman demonstrates the resourcefulness of a crack reporter by stepping a few paces outside ABC’s New York studios to interview some New Yorkish but actual handbag-carrying men. He asks them penetrating questions, such as “What do you carry in your man purse?” and “What kind of comments do you hear?”
But wait! There’s more to the story: Andy Roddick doesn’t like man purses! Ah, but Roddick hasn’t won a tournament this year, Berman notes. So, uh . . . touché! But Chewbacca wears one! “And who would question his masculinity?”, Berman quips.
Our favorite cameo in the report comes from an unidentified but suspiciously normal looking shoulder-bag-carrying man who shakes the reporter’s hand and says to him “Don’t make me look foolish” before walking away.
If you missed last night’s program, you can view it on the Nightline website, or read the printed version more discreetly if you’re at work. But if discretion isn’t really your bag (and we realize that for many purse toters it isn’t achievable), Nightline is soliciting “video” responses to its report. That’s right: You can film yourself holding a man purse and send the footage to ABC! We bet the more foolish you look, the better the chance your video will be featured. Or take the opposite tack: make grunting sounds, insult bag carriers as pansies, then insist that your camera bag isn’t a man purse.
What’s that sound we hear? Sharks, jumping?
(Thanks again are due man-bag news scout Craig Keirstead for alerting us to this important moment.)
- Why are more and more men carrying “purses”? (video) [ABC Nightline]
- Man-Purses: Hot or Not? [ABC News]
- How Andy Roddick carries his balls [The Satchel Pages]
- Chewbacca’s purse [The Satchel Pages]
July 27th, 2006 at 3:37 am
As luck would have it, I happened upon Nightline for the first time in years just last night and saw this story. They’re not jumping the shark now. They already jumped when Ted Koppel left. Ol’ Teddy never would have done a fluff piece like this, which really should have been the closing human interest story on World News Tonight rather than Nightline. An awful lot of the “man purses” they showed looked just like soft briefcases worn messenger (cross-body) style to me. Still, how can you object to anything that gets the word out that men don’t have to be afraid of the bags?
April 15th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Um, why no mention that I have seen so far for the utility of these “man purses” to carry a man’s CONCEALED HANDGUN?
40 or more states now enable citizens to have a license to carry a concealed handgun. I guess this site is just too “cool” and “urban” to mention the fact that these bags can be used to comfortably carry a gun for personal defense.
Of course, most defense experts will note (correctly) that “purse carry” is not preferable, because of the slowness of bringing the gun into action, and because of the possibility that the bag gets forgotten or snatched. But in some environments and situations, “purse carry” is a good way to go.
Why is it so blatantly overlooked here?
January 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Iam man in my fourties. I have had a purse for about ten years now.It is a shame that I cant carry it without my wife being at my side.(that way people think Iam holding her bag).
April 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I’m 6′2 225 all man and I have no discomfort carrying a satchel…. if anybody doesn’t like it, I’ll break their nose…;o) Or if they try to rob me I will pull my leagally concealed .357 so the moral is be careful of real men that carry bags…..