Did I say otherwise? :thinking:
I was being silly.
They--especially the ones who carry relatively large purses--often carry a lot of things that they couldn't possibly use, such as long-expired department store credit cards and all kinds of other things (many not useful, even as fashion accessories because they're not visible) that collect over time. I have limited space, so I only carry things that may be needed in a pinch, and I take their criticism of my choices as a disagreement as to what is potentially useful. That's all I said. I don't mean to stereotype, either, as everybody is an individual, although I have been able to draw some generalizations about the people whom I know personally (women and men).
Bags of all kinds tend to fill up over time, no doubt about that. While a woman with a hefty purse might not remember everything that's in their bag at a given moment, they
do know that those things (whatever they are) ended up in the bag because they were useful. They might not be inclined to add more to the bulk, though, because they are also quite aware of how heavy the bag has become. I'm not excusing the behavior, just explaining it. Most of my favorite women don't even carry purses.
Maybe that's their ploy, but I'm not always around, and most men I know don't EDC emergency equipment. In fact, some of them regularly have their wives carry items around for them in their purses.
Calling it a ploy is a bit too cynical, I think. It's not so much a ploy as a societal practice that's so ingrained nobody even needs to think about it -- a woman in need of a tool will soon be set upon by men willing to help her with whatever her problem is. (laugh away, I know there's a joke in there somewhere.) Likewise, any man who wants some attention from a woman will quickly learn to be helpful from the example of other men. I don't think there's even enough conscious thought involved at this point for it to be fair to call it a "ploy".
Far from it--I've used my flashlights for them on a number of occasions, and eventually they came around to carrying a flashlight themselves (men, too), but it took some time and convincing. I still remember when the power went out at night at work (small company working out of a house in a semi-rural area at the time), and everybody needed a flashlight. As it happened, I kept a bunch of fauxtons in my desk for just such an occasion, and I immediately gave them out ("Keep it."). Most of my coworkers thanked me and seemed to finally see the light (after having ribbed me for my EDC ways for years), but one lady who always gave me the hardest time (in a friendly way, but it still irked me on some level over time) actually asked "What do you keep all those flashlights in your desk for?" Uh...REALLY?! :duh2:
I had a similar experience in my office. The power went out, and I loaned someone a flashlight, then later they asked to borrow it again. The second time I handed them a different light, and they said "no, I mean the big o...wait, why do you have
two flashlights?" I replied "that seems like kind of a dumb question right now, doesn't it?" Some people...
Sometimes people just don't want to think about bad things happening...they'll put a lot of forethought into being well prepared for touching up their makeup or picking things out of their teeth, for example, but not for things like arterial bleeding (I EDC a tourniquet
)
Funny you should mention it, because I EDC a bag of Celox hemostat. I figure it's less likely to make me look like a drug addict at work, and I can get a strip of fabric from anyone who's wearing socks -- it's the hemostat that I'll be more likely to need and less likely to find on-the-spot.
