Girl Grip: When did we start holding so much?

Whether you’re scrolling through your feed to see the next guy fail to hold some lip gloss, a wallet, a phone, a charger, and a water bottle all in one hand, or are personally familiar with the tower of things you wedge between each finger as you leave the door, the most recent trend of girl grip is all too familiar.

The confidence and determination to leave the house with a hand free, even when faced with a pile of things, is now called girl grip. When you can’t find a purse that goes with your outfit and your friend is waiting outside for you, there’s no choice but to carry it all.The trend currently circulating on the internet involves getting a guy in your life to attempt to carry as much as you carry daily, but even with generally bigger hands and a towering ego, they can’t get past the first 3 items laid out.

Such a vast skill discrepancy can be attributed to the day-to-day challenges and resources each gender faces. While women can carry the 10 items they want to bring out the door with just one hand, men can shove whatever they might need down their knee-deep pockets.

So if everyone’s got wallets, keys, and a few objects of choice for each outing, when were pockets deemed unnecessary in women’s clothing? The earliest tool for carrying one’s belongings was not a pocket, but more of a pouch on a rope, essentially the same for both men and women, giving ‘pockets’ a great start on gender equality. But if we know anything about the patriarchy, it’s that it never rests, so when men were eventually given some pouches sewn into their trousers and coats, women were left to tuck their pouches under petticoats that could only be accessed in privacy. How convenient?

Dresses of the 1790s got slimmer, eliminating the hidden petticoat pouch and any other solution for women to store their things – unless you count women not having anything to own or hold as a solution. If the men had all the money and pockets, what good would a pocket do for a woman with no ownership or freedom? 

Enter women’s rebellion and independence: As suffragists sought independence and equality, their clothing reflected it. Women began wearing trousers full of pockets and built for function, and with men off at war, women were needed in fields that required maximum functionality; pants became the norm. That was until the men came back and expectations for slimmer, more feminine silhouettes for women returned, leaving pockets in the past. 

Even today the distinction between men and women’s pockets is glaringly obvious. Women’s clothing trends still leave out functionality and take advantage of the obstacle by pushing the purchase of purses to hold it all. But hey! At least we can chuckle as every guy struggles to hold everything in lou of big pockets, and as for girl grip, we have sexism to thank for our acquired adaptation.