They are like walking sticks. But what mysterious things do women carry in those huge handbags? NJOKI CHEGE explores
From tiny clutch bags to the downright huge-for-nothing sack-sized monsters, a woman’s handbag is the ultimate fashion statement. Or so we thought.
TV viewers still remember the image of a fallen marathon star runner’s mother whipping out a panga from her handbag and charging at a group of relatives that she had a tiff with.
It heightened the age old-old curiosity among men: What mysterious things do we women carry in their handbags?
A research firm was commissioned to conduct a survey among Nairobi women aged between 18-45 years to understand the enigma of the handbag and its purpose in a woman’s life. What they unearthed is a shocker.
The usual suspects were, of course, mobile phones, money, wallets, lotion, ATM cards, sanitary towels, tampons and wet wipes — the normal girlish stuff.
But it is cucumbers and courgettes that stopped the researchers in their tracks. Indeed, according to the researchers, out of 150 bags sampled, 21 had a cucumber. Other items found were panties, toothbrushes and — quite rare even for women standards — an empty soda bottle.
At face value, cucumbers and corgettes could pass for key ingredients for stew, but their suggestive shapes and sizes, not to mention their presence in a handbag, tell a different story.
lonely
“The women we interviewed gave several reasons for carrying cucumbers and courgettes in their bags. Some said they were lonely. Others claimed they are in sexually unfulfilling relationships, or that their partners live away in different towns,” says part of the report.
Not surprisingly, these two vegetables proved quite popular among lesbians.
But other women insisted they only carried them as a “snack and a remedy for puffy eyes after a night out”. Pauline Ngugi, a young mother, took almost two minutes before she could list everything inside her leather bag.
