@cusegirlscarryingsh-t turns inconveniences, random items into whimsy
When SU juniors Ellyana Perosi and Amelia Brubaker lived in Booth Hall, they struggled to carry their groceries from the street. Assuming other girls struggled to carry mundane objects, they launched @cusegirlscarryingsh-t on Instagram. Courtesy of cusegirlscarryingsh-t | Photo Collage by Ilana Zahavy
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Sofia Self was carrying only the necessities. She balanced a Nalgene waterbottle, a sugar-free Red Bull, three Slim Jim’s, a bag of caramel creams and her phone between the five fingers of her right hand.
“I always find myself being way too stubborn to put things in my pocket or grab a bag,” Self said.
The Syracuse University junior studio arts major’s precarious moment is immortalized on the Instagram account cusegirlscarryingsh-t, alongside over 30 other posts. Each post depicts a girl juggling whatever items they had on hand — without the help of pockets or purses.
“Women’s clothing is not made with enough pockets, which could have led to this phenomenon,” Self said. “But it really just seems like there’s a worldly stubbornness that we all have.”
The account is SU’s version of the girlscarryingsh-t Instagram account, which has about 1,000 times the fame but bears the same mission-statement-style bio. The SU rendition reads “after thousands of years without pockets, non-men have evolved a superior grip to carry our shit.”
Founders of the account’s Syracuse version, SU juniors Ellyana Perosi and Amelia Brubaker, said they were inspired by the bigger Instagram account. Perosi said she’s been following the account since high school.
The two first thought of creating their own account when they lived in Booth Hall together as sophomores, lugging their groceries into their dorm from the street. They figured there had to be other girls in Syracuse carrying things around, too, Brubaker said.
Many of the Instagram posts revolve around nightlife, Perosi said, with “some sort of inhalable flash drive looking device” almost always present. Some of her favorite posts feature mundane items like phones and wallets alongside some that come completely from left field, like a baby doll or a half-eaten burger.
Each post includes a photo cropped to focus on the subject’s hand, with a caption giving the figures’ first name and a list of the items in the picture. Friends often interact in the comments below. Brubaker’s favorite collection features a girl carrying ranch dressing, her phone, a Geek Bar, a chicken nugget and a burger.
“How fun is that? Burgers are one of my favourite foods,” Brubaker said. “Who doesn’t love ranch dressing? Who doesn’t love chicken nuggets?”
The point of the account is to be random, Perosi said.
“We did not go in with an intended message in mind,” Perosi said. “We just kind of wanted to have fun, but I guess the subconscious message that you sent is, ‘fashion industry, lock in and make better pants to fit our pockets.’”
However, Perosi isn’t in too much of a rush for more pockets in her clothes. She appreciates the art that comes out of carrying random assortments of items, and covets the “leg up” women gained because of the creativity they’ve developed while carrying their possessions pocketless.
Self said “sheer willpower” drives her to carry her items by hand instead of grabbing a bag.
Brubaker and Perosi have been friends since childhood. They’ve always bounced ideas off of each other, she said, creating a metaphorical “junk drawer” of concepts. The ‘Cuse girls account is one of the ideas that made it out of the drawer.
Living a 10 minute drive away from each other last semester already felt like a “long distance relationship,” Brubaker said. Now, the two are studying abroad in different countries. But receiving more submissions than ever has helped them stay connected with each other and with the SU community, she said.
Brubaker and Perosi often post on the account’s story, encouraging people to send in pictures through DMs to be posted in their feed. The account has never denied a submission.
Self said when she submits snapshots of her day, it gives her an excuse to chat with Brubaker. Though the founders’ close friends are sometimes the ones to submit pictures, Brubaker said she’s often able to get to know new people through what they carry.
“When I look at our account, it’s just a beautiful collage of women and girls and lovely ladies just hanging out and carrying stuff throughout their days,” Brubaker said.
There’s nothing “political or deep” behind the Instagram page, Brubaker said. She likes to think of it as a safe place where girls can share a sense of play, fun and whimsy amid the negativity that populates the internet.
The account is a way of finding little silver linings in life’s inconveniences, Perosi said.
“I really like how it takes a part of life that you would kind of deem to be inconvenient and transfers it into something funny and positive,” Perosi said. “That’s kind of like why we started the account, just for our own enjoyment.”
