# Doper Men: A poll about your women's purse **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 5, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139 "2008-05-05T16:14:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/1 "2008-05-05T16:14:19Z")
So yeah. All these women carry purses, they go purse shopping, they use different ones for different occasions, blah blah… Here’s the question, and you can answer it for your wife, SO, daughter - whoever. What’s the purse look like? Could you pick it out of a pile of purses at a party? My daughter - oh hell yes, practically everything she carries around with her is that Burberry plaid pattern. My wife? No clue. She’s got the little thing with the handle she can slip her phone into for ballgames and such. But I know there’s a ‘main’ purse, and right now if it were on my desk, I’d have to look through it to see whose it was. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/2 "2008-05-05T16:17:01Z")
I could pick my wife’s purse out of a thousand purses. That damned Dooney and Bourke monstrosity couldn’t blend in to anything other than a schizophrenics coloring book. ETA- I said wife. I meant girlfriend. I need to have a drink and go lie down now. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/3 "2008-05-05T16:17:09Z")
Heres what I know: It was very expensive and it doesn’t get used. It was a waste of money. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/4 "2008-05-05T16:20:08Z")
My wife uses a very small backpack thingy instead of a purse, so yeah, I could pick it out, no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/5 "2008-05-05T16:21:16Z")
If it’s huge and weighs more than your average pachyderm, that one belongs to my wife. I think she’s carrying a pink one at the moment, but that changes fairly regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/6 "2008-05-05T16:26:35Z")
My wife alternates between two purses, and I could pick either of them out easily. One of them is bigger, and doubles as a diaper bag when we’re out, so I’m in that one often enough to recognize it. The other I bought for her as a gift after a painful hour of talking to the woman at the department store about what to get her. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/7 "2008-05-05T16:29:54Z")
My wife has a smallish, black purse with many pouches on it. I think I can pick it out. She has never carried a large purse. My daughter is not yet at the purse stage. My one sister however, has been known to carry a purse that carried everything and weighed far too much. My niece use to tease her about it being a Mary Poppin’s pocketbook. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/8 "2008-05-05T16:31:21Z")
I feel like the Bad Husband now, you guys all know this. I DO know the little black ball game thing when I see it, it has a very distinctive strap. I’ll take half credit for that. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/9 "2008-05-05T16:42:52Z")
[QUOTE=Mr Bus Guy] I feel like the Bad Husband now, you guys all know this. I DO know the little black ball game thing when I see it, it has a very distinctive strap. I’ll take half credit for that. [/QUOTE] Don’t feel to bad. My wife just got this purse recently. I don’t actually recall what her prior one looks like. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/10 "2008-05-05T16:49:55Z")
Can I answer for my husband? He could pick out my purse in a heartbeat, just maybe not my _current_ purse. I tend to carry very small purses (men always comment on my purse being “the smallest purse in the world”) so mine is easy to pick out, but for some reason this weekend, when I put my purse down somewhere other than my usual place, my husband kept insisting he knew it was on his dresser in the bedroom. Turned out, one of my old purses was on his dresser, just one I haven’t used in something like a year. ---
**Author:** ![akira5822](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@akira5822](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akira5822)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/11 "2008-05-05T16:51:51Z")
My wife’s current purse is amazingly butt-ugly patchwork patent leather nightmare, that is the only reason i could pick it out of a crowd. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/12 "2008-05-05T16:52:54Z")
My wife doesn’t carry one. When she has stuff to carry it’s a cheap Wal-Mart backpack. It would be no problem to pick out. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/13 "2008-05-05T17:15:53Z")
My wife has graduated to custom-made handbags, so it’s easy to pick hers out of a crowd. Hers look nothing like anybody else’s. Women stop her on the street to ask where she gets them. It’s a closely guarded secret. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/14 "2008-05-05T17:34:17Z")
I believe could. Had she not pointed out to me that it was a Coach bag, right around the time that we had the handbag thread, I probably wouldn’t have noticed at all. I believe I could still pick out my ex’s bag. I could definitely pick out her beach bag, as for years I had to seek it out to find where we had parked our beach towels. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/15 "2008-05-05T17:43:22Z")
I could easily. My wife carries hand-made bags from [this](http://www.victoriahorner.com/home.html) lady. They’re somewhat distinctive in materials and design. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/16 "2008-05-05T19:29:32Z")
My wife has several purses that she uses depending on what she’s doing/where she’s going/what she’s wearing. I’m pretty sure I’d be able to tell which one was hers from a pile o’ purses though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/17 "2008-05-05T19:31:41Z")
Absolutely. It’s a blue suede number. She’s never gone in for a designer bag, or a basic black bag, so I’ve never had a problem picking hers out. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/18 "2008-05-05T20:59:26Z")
I could pick out her current purse because she’s used the same one for about 6 months. It’s big and ugly. I’m sure she’ll get a new one soon and it will take about another 6 months to learn to recognize it. I saw my daughter (17yo) with a purse yesterday and my first thought was, “I didn’t know she had one.” ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/19 "2008-05-06T01:55:53Z")
I have bought my wife a few of her handbags as gifts. I can recognize them easily. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-men-a-poll-about-your-womens-purse/448139/20 "2008-05-06T02:32:49Z")
I believe my wife’s purse is somewhat dark-ish in color and I have a recollection of it being vaguely purse shaped. At the police lineup of purses, I wouldn’t have a clue. I can’t even use the “it’s new” defense, because I’m pretty sure it isn’t.