Meaning:
`Handbags at ten paces', sometimes shortened just to `handbags', is a comic
reference to a confrontation which is histrionic but which doesn't involve
physical violence. Such confrontations are also called handbag situations.
Background:
This British phrase might sound odd to anyone who is not familiar with the
earlier pistols at ten paces, which relates to duelling. That phrase, and its
counterpart pistols at dawn, were the stating of the arrangements that
preceded duels. ...
The handbags at ten paces and handbags at dawn versions began to be used in
the 1980s to describe confrontations between players in football matches.
Professional footballers know they will be sent off if they hit another
player, so emotion has to be expressed via posturing, facial grimacing and
verbal abuse. The implication carried by the phrases was that, although a
great deal of preamble to violence was shown, the actual confrontations were
in the nature of `I'll scratch you eyes out' cat-fights. These were typified
by the many high-profile matches between Manchester United and Arsenal in the
years around the turn of the millennium. These matches were usually highly
charged as they often had a decisive effect on the outcome of the Premiership
championship. This, coupled with the fact that many of the players had
reputations for violent play but didn't want to risk getting sent off, led to
several handbags at ten paces incidents.
The earliest record I can find of the term in print is from a piece headed
Who said what in the world of sport in 1986, in The Times 1 January 1987:
"It was a case of handbags at three paces."
Clearly, the precise number of paces isn't significant.
Why handbags? Well, as well as the obvious effeminate imagery, the phrase was
coined when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. She was said to give
ministers who she saw as slackers a `good handbagging', that is, a verbal
dressing down.
It may also have been influenced by the Monty Python sketch - The Batley
Townswomens' Guild presents the Battle of Pearl Harbor, in which the Python
team, dressed as women, recreate the battle by flailing at each other with
handbags.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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I suppose handbag situations often involve barking dogs that don't bite. They
wouldn't last long as even dogs get tired. In the end, no one's hurt and things
go back to the way like before.
It might not even be personal. Nobody's calling them handbags yet but in the
UFC, for example, veteran fighters could taunt each other long before the
faceoff where they put on a show of hostility. In a way, it's marketing, all the
way until they are in the octagon.
