Have you been around twenty, thirty something women with considerable disposal income lately? If so, you might have noticed a gazillion Vera Bradley bags. Often floral, look soft, and very very feminine but clearly aimed at the grown woman (come in all sizes, often go inside bigger purses). And very very popular. (Rivaled only by the Longchamp bags everywhere). My first reaction to them was negative. Many are just ugly. Also, I don't like it when something is too popular, when everyone is getting it just because it is a must have.
Ha, ha. New Years comes and goes and some time later I get a belated gift, a Vera Bradley large cosmetics bag. Ha.
I love it. Now that I think about it many things that are so terribly terribly popular are popular because they are well made, because they are genuinely good items. Of course, it's cooler and hipper to look down on trends (ipods anyone?) but many trends have very reasonable decision making behind them. Lesson learned again: humanity at large, generally not that stupid.
Then I tried to apply a little critical thinking on what it was about these bags that bothered (and selectively still does) me. They're feminine. Unapolagetically and unmistakably feminine. The entire store sells nothing for men. They're just for women, and for well off women in fact. Well, if it's for women it must be silly right? If it's for rich women it must be really silly and unserious. Right? When you're in the airport and you see businessy men getting their bags they certainly don't look all floral. Cuz the mens, they are serious. Mmmm.
Because something is cultural doesn't mean it's not real. Is femininity constructed by culture and has nothing to do with the biological difference between men and women? Yes.
Feminity isn't going to go away any time soon. Femininity is associated with women in our culture and we're not going to change that this generation. That being so, and the corporate world increasingly being made up of a fair number of women, of women with good jobs and disposable income, why shouldn't the luggage at the airport have a fair amount of feminine bags? Why must women be as like men as possible (except not too much so, otherwise they're dykes and totally unserious) to be taken seriously? The black suitcase is coded male and serious and we can't change that, not even though a gazillion women today use a black suitcase. If we can't change that (though we're working on it) maybe we can change having the black suitcase being the default serious look. Some women, having grown up in this culture, grow up identifying strongly with femininity, that sure as hell shouldn't shut them out of the corporate world. There's nothing inherently silly in soft, pleasant and well made bags by Vera Bradley and I for one am now looking at them in a whole different way. Ha!
