Should boyfriends/husbands/partners go into a woman’s handbag?  Uninvited?

Handbag Trap

Most men are naturally wary of a woman’s handbag. From a young age men are taught, nay commanded, to steer clear of the things. Even an open invitation would be treated as highly suspect; some kind of devious trap for the gullible.

After all, who knows what might be lurking inside?

Standard contents?

The Modern Male

But somehow, somewhere along the line, it seems things have changed. Women report unsolicited purse rifling is at an all-time high. This it appears is usually attributed to a total lack of respect on the part of the male doing the rifling.

Is this sort of boundary/fear really appropriate in the 21^st century though? In these modern times, gender boundaries have never been more unclear. As the recent phenomenon of the ‘man-bag’ indicates:

unclear

less unclear

What do you think? Is it disrespectful for men to go into their partner’s purse uninvited? Or is this an outdated hangover from unenlightened times?