Special hell

[ladyofastolat]

You know Shepherd Book's thing about the special hell reserved for people who talk in the theatre? Forget talking in the theatre! The special hell needs to be reserved for designers who think that fake pockets are a good idea

Comments

[kalimac]

I think it's women's clothing. Samuel R. Delany tells a story in one of his essays about the time his wife, Marilyn Hacker, got soaked by rain coming home, and put on a pair of his trousers since that was what they had clean, and was totally astonished by the roomy, comfortable pockets. Delany's point was how unaware we are of the cultural restrictions we live under.

For my part as a man, I need my large pockets because they're the only place I have to carry the things that women put in purses.

[ladyofastolat]

It could, of course, work the other way round: that women are only forced to reluctantly carry handbags around because their clothes don't provide them with sufficient pockets. I only carry a handbag for less than half of my trips outside, and that's usually because I've deliberately chosen one big enough to carry a Kindle and a paperback book. If I don't need a book, I prefer to go without my handbag and use pockets for what I need.

[songblaze]

And being a woman who can't comfortably carry a purse is a real pain in the butt. I can't carry it on my left shoulder because I've injured that shoulder too often and it doesn't carry anything well. I can't wear it on my right shoulder straight down because it'll fall off because my right hand is resting on my service dog's harness, which lowers my shoulder slightly. I can't wear it cross-body because I've messed up my neck.

And I have no pockets of reasonable size to put anything into.

I've gotten used to sticking everything but my phone in my dog's harness. I'm dreading the day I have to get a new phone, because they've gotten far too big to fit in my pockets - my current phone's screen is a little over 3"! And I sure as hell don't want to put it in my dog's harness, because dogs do things like, oh, violently shake and knock into things.

[ladyofastolat]

That sounds horribly awkward. I hate carrying things on one shoulder - my shoulder and neck muscles keep threatening to go into cramp if I do so - but would be lost without cross-body bags. (Right shoulder to left hip. If, in a fit of distraction, I put it on the wrong way round, the entire world feels wrong.)

[songblaze]

It's definitely annoying. If my dog's harness didn't have fairly large pouches that zip securely shut, I don't know what I'd do.

[melchar]

Very much agreeing. My shoulders are messed up, so shoulder purses don't work. Waist purses worked for years, but then -shingles- and post herpetic neuralgia means no belts or belt purses any more. So it's pockets now, because even the stripped-down contents of a purse can't be 'cleavage carried'.