Digging Deep for Boy-Girl Differences

In observing the other day that the contents of any male’s pockets betray his age, his interests, his foibles, his frailties and sometimes his secrets, I admitted that I had only the vaguest idea what females carried in their purses.

Among the things that girls and women do carry, I suspect, are certain articles that are not to be found in the pockets of men and boys; though contemporary women have access to the man’s world, this differentiation persists, and it reflects certain fundamental differences in the concerns of the two sexes that begin in childhood.

Leslie N. Herschler, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade students in Lynwood, has sent me several brief papers written by his pupils in answer to the question, “What do you carry in your purse or pockets?”

My point is graphically illustrated by the inventories offered by a 12-year-old girl, Tusaba Banks, and an 11-year-old boy, Miguel A. Daniel.

Tusaba listed the following articles: “Hair brushes, combs, pencails, diary, phone book, eye liner, mascara, finger nail polish, nail filer, nail clipper, blush, lipstick, chap stick, lip gloss, gum, candy, pictures, paper tissue, apples, grapes, softball, neckelass, ring, bracelets.” (Herschler sent the papers to me unedited, and I have left them that way.)

Miguel disposed of the question with nine words: “I carry 12 cents in my pocket every day.”

It can be seen from these reports that girls are a great deal more concerned with their personal appearance, or at least with the tools and cosmetics necessary to its enhancement, than boys are. And evidently this interest is well-established even before adolescence.

I suspect, however, that neither list is complete. It seems hard to believe that an 11-year-old boy would have nothing in his pockets but 12 cents. And why 12 cents every day? Maybe that’s because there is nothing a boy can buy for 12 cents these days, so how can he spend it? When I was 11, I could buy a candy bar for 5 cents and ride the yellow streetcar home from school for 7 cents--12 cents well spent. Today 12 cents is useless change.

I also question whether there would be room in Tusaba’s purse for an apple and a softball after all those other things were stowed away, not that I am not familiar with the awesome capacity of a female’s purse.

Also, I wonder that Tusaba didn’t list any money. It seems to me that, from time immemorial, girls have always carried bus fare, at least, so that in case anything went wrong they could always get home. I believe this cushion against a compromise is called mad money.

Yesenia Tovar, a 10-year-old girl, says she carries “crayons, ambolaps, pens, pencils, and 1 dollar” in her purse. That is a modest cargo, compared with Tusaba’s, and seems to suggest that Yesenia is more dedicated to her studies than to her face. I have no idea, though, what ambolaps might be.

Martin Delacruz also travels light: “I am 11 years old. I keep in my pocket my keys to my house and marbles and 50 cents.”

Arturo Delgade said: “I am 10. I keep in my pockets marbers and candy and money and my lunch ticket and my pensil.”

Jesus Jara said: “I am an 11-year-old boy. I carry keys, marbles, and a few dollars in my pockets.”

Most of the boys said they carried marbles. I had no idea that that ancient game was still played on the school ground.

Sanyu Banks said: “I am 10 years old and I am a girl. I have in my purse 2 pins, 1 book, 3 different kinds of fingernail polish, nail polish remover, 1 cut out picture of myself when I was a babby, some tissue, 3 old breakfast tickets, and I don’t carry more than 5 dollars.”

I doubt that the habits of these boys and girls will have changed much by the time they’re adults. Eliminate the candy and the marbles, and probably the diaries, and they will still be carrying pretty much the same things. The males will have added car keys and a wallet full of credit cards and ID, and women will have added the same. But they will carry no fewer cosmetics, probably more.

I just hope they’ve learned how to spell pencil by then.