Hazardous Haversack

(gauche embarras de richesses)

It has been my research to document the world I live in. I’ve gone through distinguishing good and evil, and finding a muddled gray no matter how hard or discreetly I delved. I’ve questioned right and wrong, and found that it’s not always wrong to do the wrong thing. For the past few months, my studies have been focus on my gender, male, and the differences to the opposite gender, female. I’ve noticed stark difference in the ways we reason, the ways we dream, the ways we are motivated, and the ways we move. This is a theory that I am confident in, because I was once shown how much an index card under on foot can offset a person’s balance. As you may guess from the title, I’m discussing the ‘Purse’ the stereotypic feminine baggage worn and carried from West to East in some form or fashion. I’ve notice and accounted through multiple situations, and many discussions with men and women, whether respectively they considered their own sex (i.e. themselves included) clumsy, and their views on the opposite sex. What I found was a commonality between the two genders. Men agreed that they more often found women being clumsy, and women attested to this by agreeing they considered themselves clumsy, or more often clumsy. On the opposite angle, men supported that they mostly did not consider themselves clumsy or oafish, and women supported this claim considering men much less clumsy than themselves. These were the types of results that led me to dig deeper into the circumstances, and causes for the more nimble and dexterous refinements of men, and the more accidental and clumsy movements of women.

In the perspective of men, when it comes to clumsiness, it is not regarded as a positive trait, but an incautious and careless one. For this reason, even from a young age, men have been raised in such a way that has not treated their ineptitude as a jest. Knocking over a glass at the table will serve as a lesson to be more careful when such a situation presents itself again. Not only that but if other men are around, the man will no doubt be told to pay attention better in future, or something to that effect.

Quite a different result can be had for women though. Clumsiness is often portrayed and renown for its attractiveness or cute quality. Although this may not be the case in all circumstances, it is a stand point to say that women carry a more lax accountability for clumsiness. The result is different from male scolding, women are often told, “it’s no big deal,”; “it’s not your fault,”; “I’ll go grab something to clean it up,”; “in was an accident, it’s nobody’s fault,”; “it’s just a little spill.” These sorts of sayings reinforce the tendency to make accidental and careless slip-ups alright and acceptable happenstance.

Then comes the big infamous ‘why?’ Why do women seem clumsier than men what could be the cause beside upbringing? Then it hit me, the Purse. Most women may not realize but, on average, a normal women’s handbag weighs somewhere between 3.5 lbs and 5.2 lbs. This may seem like a minuscule amount to carry in relation to your own body weight, but in relation to the body’s ability to balance itself, I can assure you that less than 5 lbs is more than enough to completely throw the body out of balance if used correctly. Take for instance this example.

Try this experiment in front of your mirror to see, if you don’t believe me. Put your feet together and stand facing the mirror, without using your hands for balance. You should feel well balanced and firm.

Try to raise one leg keeping it close to your body, still without using your hands for balance. This should feel less balanced than before, but it shouldn’t leave you grasping for the shower curtains just yet.

These are your constant points to refer to when we continue, try to remember how balanced you feel at these moments.

Set you foot down, and bring your feet back together. While looking in the mirror, tilt your head as far you can towards your shoulder of choice. Keep it there for a few moments; it’s amazing how the human head of about 8 lbs can throw off the balance of the entire body by simple rocking to one side.

For the fun part, raise a leg and try the same exercise, you should feel a similar unbalance that leaves you less sturdy than what you had previously done.

The body is susceptible to changes over time, especially balanced changes over time. Imagine the difficulty of wearing a sandal and sneaker on opposing feet, the very slight difference would in fact disturb you body’s ability to maintain equilibrium. The purse is in fact a habit of unbalance. A five pound bag on one shoulder will cause the body to adapt to wearing a purse over a great deal of time, but then even the slightest changes like setting it down can play with the body’s sense of balance. It may be minor and probably unnoticeable to most women, but this is simply a theory, as to why clumsiness has become a staple to feminine gestures and habits. Men have removed this problem by having pockets on both sides of jeans and normally weighted equally. Just some research for thought.

~ by remothe2nd on April 14, 2008.