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The only reason to include these passages is if you believe that it's emasculating for a man to provide assistance to a woman. It's hard to imagine any article tweaking the noses of male politicians who have assistants of either gender carrying, say, the boss’ briefcase.

We have a historic number of women in Congress this term. These women have power over our economy, laws, and military. These women also have purses, and, cool, the Times wants to tell us what they look like and contain—how big, what color, what stuff goes in which compartment, etc. These women also have assistants. These assistants sometimes carry the purses. This is, in the end, quite unremarkable.

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When Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, represented Texas in the Senate, she had her purse trotted through the Capitol by a rotating cadre of young male aides, to some raised eyebrows.

But now some version of the so-called “purse boy” is almost commonplace.

On the first day of this session, a young male aide to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat and House minority leader, juggled the coats of female members as he tried to snap a group photo. And on the night of President Obama’s State of the Union address, Representative Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, was trailed through Statuary Hall by a male staff member holding her bag.

After expertly picking her way through the crowd, Ms. Sinema turned to her aide and asked, “Do you have all of my stuff?” He did.

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