Women are not your pack mules

Stop asking us to carry your stuff

A woman with a purse.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Srdjanns74/iStock, marvod/iStock, Le_Mon/iStock)

Earlier this month, The Philadelphia Inquirer published a screed titled "Hey, grownups, it's time to lose the backpack," which sent me into a mouth-frothing, inarticulate fury for the better part of a week. It wasn't because I happen to love backpacks, although I do, but because of course the piece was written by a man and aimed at a woman who accidentally bumped him in an elevator with her "monstrous pea-green concoction."

What the author of the Inquirer piece apparently didn't understand is that it is due to the societal preference that women carry handbags that we end up being the ones to schlepp around everything, for both ourselves and our partners. It's this burden that sometimes requires us to resort to backpacks just to keep ourselves from injury. And the writer isn't unique in his ignorance: Most men don't realize that they inadvertently use the women in their lives as pack mules.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.