I was reading through this and wondering what you were talking about.
These are satchel bags. They have been around for over a century, probbaly longer. They are just renamed messenger bags to catch the trendy people.
People put their laptops in them.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/64/S0096400.html
If you get something really trendy that girls would say, "oh thats such a cute bag," that is a little gay, but what the heck.