This reminds me of a guy I used to work with. Black guy, but with light skin. Could pass for an Arab. He was a flight instructor, and took a student on a flight from L.A. to SFO. He was wearing a camouflage T-shirt with silkscreened grenades and linked machine gun ammunition belts on it. This was very soon after out little dust-up with Libya. They were soon approached by Security after landing at SFO., since from a distance it looked as if he was carrying actual ordnance.
‘What’s your nationality?’
‘American.’
‘No, I mean where are you from?’
‘America.’
‘Look, what is your ethnicity?’
‘Oh. I’m Black.’
‘What about him?’
‘Erm… He’s Egyptian.’
My experience too, now. Twenty, thirty years ago it was VERY common for men in France to carry bags EXACTLY like the one in the ad. Old men may still do so. Young lads go larger or go without.
I remember when it was OK for a straight male to wear a “fanny pack” which was a remarkably goofy name for a belt pouch. I personally hate stuffing my keys, cell phone, wallet and money clip into my pants. As early as I can get away with it during the autumn and as late during the spring, I wear a jacket wherein all of those items are placed. During the summer, I will almost always carry my laptop bag even when I don’t need it.
It is an interesting question to determine when men were disallowed from carrying a bag for their items. Before WWI, wristwatches were consider a feminine article until the troops found them very useful in combat. Is it possible that eventually men will be allowed to use a bag to carry their items? By eventually, I mean before I die. Say 50 years or so.
Real men carry whatever the fuck they want. We eat quichetoo, if we fucking want to.
I have travelled in Italy, Germany, and France and haven’t noticed any more of them than I do here.
What some folks are calling “satchels” are also called messenger bags.
I have carried a leather bag of one sort or another since 1980. Once I walked into an Ann Arbor bar and some woman shrieked, “There’s a man with a purse!” She was far more embarassed than I was. I don’t call it a “murse,” it’s just a bag. I use it because if I don’t keep everything in one bag, I forget stuff. It’s easier to just grab one thing when I leave the house than having to take inventory.
I do refuse to use anything without a shoulder strap.
They are allowed to now, without anyone thinking it’s odd. It’s just that there are some styles of bags which are more for women than for men; it would be completely unremarkable for a man to have a rucksack, courier bag, camera bag, sports back, all sorts of things, just not the bag in the advert which looks like something a traditional grandmother might carry.
Just dropping in to note: the direction some of the posts in this thread have gone is making me think strongly of Monty Python’s ‘Synchronized Swanning About’ sketch.
When I think of it, around thirty years ago there was a fashion in Sweden with small purses with a wrist strap and it was not considered completely manly to carry one (they had a pejorative nickname involving the possible sexual orientation of the owner).
I tried carrying a bag with a shoulder strap for a while, but stopped. Not because it impugned my manhood, but just because I didn’t really like it. I have a lot of resistance to carrying stuff, in general, even stuff I can see as useful to have. I couldn’t train myself to carry a PDA either, and was way late carrying a cell phone just because I didn’t like the extra baggage on my person. Can’t train myself to carry a Swiss Army knife or Leatherman, either, and I don’t wear a watch or jewelry. Back when you still used checks, I was forever without my checkbook because I hated having it on me. Keys, change and wallet was about all I could force myself to accept for a long time. And, curiously, a guitar pick with the change.
I admit that I DID wear the shoulder thing with the strap across the chest, rather than dangling off one shoulder, which I think was partially because it seemed more acceptable as a masculine fashion accessory that way. It WAS actually less annoying that way, too.
I might think about this again if I can convince myself that I want to try carrying a more modern mobile device.
When I decided I wanted to use a bag instead of my pockets, I looked all over and finally found a rectangular, brown leather bag at a Wilson’s store in the mall. It was advertised as a man’s bag and it was a closeout. It was about 5" wide by 9" deep, zipped open and had a handy credit card holder and inner zipped pockets. It held money, credit cards, two bunches of keys, a couple of pens and whatever else I needed to carry around.
Sadly, it was indeed a closeout and I haven’t seen one like it since.
After about five years, the main zipper started to act up and earlier this year my wife bought me a new bag. It’s similar, but bigger 9"x10", vinyl, and not nearly as nice. It’s made by Relic, sold as an organizer shoulder bag for women.
I’m a 52 year old, hetero male. My bag purchase was initially inspired by colonial period reenacting. Pockets were more rare then and men carried nearly everything in pouches and bags of one sort or another.
Oh yeah, I wear the strap across my chest.
I think the European carry-all idea in the recent commercial is based on the Seinfeld episode when Jerry carries one.
We 
