girl with the big bag

On women, objects, preparedness, and the refusal to be edited down

Every “what’s in my bag” video pretends to be about objects.

Lip gloss. Keys. Wallet. Except, it isn’t.

It’s about how women relate to possession. What stays close to the body. What is worth carrying through the day. What is refused the dignity of being left behind.

Watch carefully and a pattern emerges. Each item is explained. Contextualised. Defended. The object itself is less important than the reasoning for its presence. The bag becomes a site of narrative control, a curated argument for why one exists the way one does.

Interestingly, price is irrelevant. Expensive or worn-out totes, they are both treated with equal intimacy. This is not merely a fashion statement, it is something closer to authorship. A woman’s bag says more about her than any bio ever could. More than an Instagram grid. More than curated captions and posed selfies.

I carry a big bag. Most days.

It is often commented on, usually with light mockery.

Why carry so much? Isn’t that just baggage?

Yes. Precisely.

The big bag functions less as an accessory and more as a mobile archive. It holds contingencies rather than necessities. Notebooks, loose papers, trinkets, tarot cards, gum, half-read books, objects with no immediate function but future relevance. Items kept not because they are efficient, but because they acknowledge uncertainty.

This logic directly contradicts ideals of minimalism, which rely on predictability. Minimalism assumes the day will proceed as planned. That needs can be anticipated, reduced, optimised. The big bag assumes the opposite.

It anticipates delays, emotional detours, extended conversations, changes of mind. It belongs to people who do not fully trust structure to hold. Who prefer redundancy over vulnerability. Who understand that preparedness is not about control, but about refusal to be caught without options.

In this way, a woman’s bag reveals more than her biography. Not who she claims to be, but how she expects the world to behave and how much of herself she is willing to carry through it.

The big bag is not sentimental. It is strategic.

It resists the pressure to streamline the self into something lighter. It rejects the idea that reduction is always virtuous. Sometimes weight is intentional. Sometimes excess is protection.

So no, the big bag is not an accident.

It is a quiet refusal to be edited down.

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