Ladies Handbag - just a showpiece ?

I have been doing some shopping offlate and the other day been to a shopping mall. Noticed a girl trying to get her handbag fully onto her arm but the bag refused to cross the elbow. I have seen a lot of ladies infact lot of girls in their teens carry this kind of a bag and most of them arent bigger than the size of a red brick. Can all the ladies who are reading my blog enlighten me on this? :P ... let it be on a lighter side ;)