What is the Pink Tax?
The Pink Tax was created for women’s feminine hygiene products, toys, and clothing. What is the Pink Tax exactly? It’s not actually a tax even though the given name says tax. It’s a raise of prices placed specifically on women’s products. One thing that I want to state is, it’s global. I will say some places are trying to ride of this “tax”, but it has yet come to pass. Virginia, Wisconsin, and South Carolina have proposed to rid of the Pink Tax for the 2020 legislative, but nothing has come up yet.
Some men will live their whole life unfazed by the fact that women are seemingly “more expensive to live with and to buy for” because of the Pink Tax, clothing such as jeans, and shoes, and bras are more expensive because of it. Not to mention, menstrual products. They expect women to pay more money just because they have something they can’t control.
Some men are disgusted by the fact women bleed from their private area but as soon as a girl goes on birth control to help with it, they are called “gross” and “horrible” because they think we’re on it for one reason and one reason only. Which is the same reason men use us, sex. The Pink Tax is one of many way’s the patriarchy continues to put women down.
The Pink Tax is also known as “The Luxury Tax” which doesn’t make sense, right? The Luxury Tax is meant for things such as beer, and The Luxury Tax is meant for things that only “wealthy people” can buy according to certain business owners. But people with periods can't control that they have them, and it’s nowhere near a luxury. Because of this “Luxury Tax” on women’s feminine hygiene products, women on average spend around $13-15 a month.
When you add up all that for their entire lifetime, that’s $6,360. It’s crazy, right? Imagine what you could do with all that money. You could save up for college or a good house and/or apartment. The reason it essentially costs more to be a woman, isn’t a women’s choice and it even adds to little girl products. Target was selling 2 scooters which were built exactly the same except one was pink and the other was red. The red one was only $24.99 while the pink scooter’s price doubled in price going up to $49.99. Now when we look at general things such as clothing, women’s clothing costs 8% more than men’s clothing. While making the clothes is a bit more expensive, it is only a tiny fraction to ending retail price.
Now, let’s talk about feminine hygiene products. While products such as shampoo and conditioner are made the same, along with men and women’s deodorant being made the same, the women’s version costs more. Which makes women’s personal care products which consists of, hair care, razors, lotion, deodorant, body wash and shaving cream spike up to being 13% more expensive just because it’s a women’s product.
The same goes for the menstrual products. If you haven’t heard, there is something called the Tampon Tax which is essentially the same as the other things, minus the fact menstrual products are basically a medical need. Women cannot control their periods. They can take birth control and get shots to help it, but it won’t really go away until the woman gets older. One other thing is women still only make 80 cents for every dollar a man makes to do the same job. In conclusion to everything, women are underpaid, and women’s products are overpriced. I leave you with one question. . .
Do you think women should pay more for basically the same product? Do you believe states should tax tampons and/or pads which is technically a medical necessity?