Of purses and cunnilingus
by digby
The Congress of yore might conjure images of spittoons and old male politicians with briefcases, but the 113th has ushered in a historic number of women — 20 in the Senate, and 81 in the House — and with them a historic number of handbags. In some ways, the female legislator’s purse or bag has become one of the most outwardly physical manifestations of the nation’s changing deliberative body.
“What a woman senator slings over her shoulder is the next tangible and Technicolor proof of how the esteemed body has changed and is changing,” said Tracy Sefl, a Democratic strategist. “Today’s purses and bags are as new and interesting of a visual as the red power suit once was. They pop on the C-Span cameras, they serve a purpose and — intentionally or not — they make a statement.”
Or, as Bethany Lesser, a press secretary to Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, pointed out, “The cloakroom is no longer just for coats.”[…]
“Historically, bags were, quite literally, unwanted baggage in the halls of Congress and Parliament,” Robb Young, the author of “Power Dressing: First Ladies, Women Politicians and Fashion,” wrote by e-mail.
If you can believe it, this story actually goes on and on — and on culminating in a supposedly hilarious exposé of the femme pols who make their “purse-boys” carry their bags. (Because manly men carry everything in their pants pockets, apparently and never have an aide haul their stuff around for them.)
The main upshot here seems to be that women carry purses. And those purses make a statement. The statement is that they are being carried by women. Which means something, I don’t know what. I can hardly wait for the NY Times to blow the lid off of sensible pumps and nude panty hose. These times they are a changin.’
I guess I should go easier on this story on the day that Micheal Douglas revealed that going down on a woman will give you cancer — which comes as a huge relief to any number of men who had run out of excuses, I’m sure.
Are we really sure this country is ready to elect a woman president? I honestly remain unconvinced.
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