Not like the other girls...

[graculus]

I've admitted for many years that I am a geek and have no issues where that is concerned. Next week I've got a couple of days off work and admitted that it's time for my biennial shopping trip for clothes since my underwear is starting to fall to bits - in general, if I need a pair of trousers, for example, the fact that a couple of local supermarkets now sell clothes has been sufficient for me.

However, the statement I made at work that provoked the most disbelief was this one: I have never owned a handbag.

Peeps at work - "But where do you keep your stuff?"
Me - "I have a briefcase for work, otherwise I use a daysack or my pockets."
Peeps at work - *stunned silence*
Me - "Do you really need a handbag and a briefcase if you're working?"
Peeps at work - "Probably not, but still... never?"
Me - "Nope."

And then I told them I didn't really care for buying shoes either. ;) E.T.A. Last wore a skirt in 1991, don't own a skirt or a dress and haven't for a similar length of time.

Help me, oh friendslist - surely I am not alone in this lack of slavish devotion to the cult of handbags and shoes? I always knew I was not a 'girl', even when biologically I was young enough, but even so...

Comments

[sazandra.livejournal.com]

I quite understand the not having a handbag thing. For years I kept my purse/wallet and all in a carrier bag tucked into my workbag - for several years I had two jobs, one morning in the NHS, one afternoon in the council, and in the council I didn't have a permanent office so carted stuff around in a shoulder bag. Even when I'd got just my previous council job I still had to move around from building to building during the working day so a handbag was so not practical. I can't remember at what point the carrier bag got replaced with something a little more durable like a plain handbag.

I still have a big shoulder bag/holdall - big enough I can get my monopod in there and my camera along with my handbag, sometimes it's bits of shopping, or when I need scarf and gloves to keep warm in the mornings there is room in there for the journey home.

Buying clothes and footwear in definitely a chore, buying only what I need most of the time and just about everything is practical and non-girly.

I know exactly the last time I wore a skirt - for my interview when I got my job with Adult Learning, so October 2000 - and it was a rarity then. I have no idea whether there is still a shirt hiding away in the back of a wardrobe or in the bottom of a drawer, I just live in jeans.