So you’ve probably seen several of your female Facebook friends post status updates such as:
- “I like it on the kitchen table.”
- “I like it on a chair at the bar.”
- “I like it on the floor of my van.”
While on the surface, this seems like a titillating reveal of personal information; it’s actually very mundane. The status updates refer to where the person puts down her purse when she gets home.
(Sidenote: I saw one woman post “I like it in the shower” which would imply one of two things. Either she has a wet purse or she went T.M.I. because she didn’t understand what was happening.)
The purse location meme supposedly is to raise awareness that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Compare this to the bra color status Facebook meme earlier this year.
The bra color status event was very clever because … you know … breasts and bras … they kind of go together like peas and carrots. But what do purses have to do with breast cancer? Yes, most women carry a purse and most have breasts, but is that a strong connection to breast cancer awareness? How does the location of a purse get a woman to have a mammogram or do a lump check?
Before someone posts the inevitable comment that I don’t care about breast cancer, please know that I do. But the purse thing has two major considerations that may hurt the cause.
Several women’s groups are raising the question of whether things like this are contributing to some of the backlash and fatigue over breast cancer awareness month.
And even if you make a connection between purses and breast cancer, the thing that strikes me the most about the purse meme is just the sheer copycat nature of it.
You can’t make lightning strike twice by astroturfing a mediocre replacement of a previously successful grassroots viral meme.
And btw – my wife likes it on the hearth of the fireplace.
Chris Houchens 