The Pink Tax: I Don’t Just Bleed Once A Month
So my mom had this system when I was younger: she would have my sister and I buy small grocery items whenever we had some money saved up. When this happened we never had to buy necessities, instead it was more of getting to choose a dessert we wanted at home and being able to proudly say “don’t finish them, they’re mine!” As we got older we figured that it was better to save our money instead of splurging on cookies. Looking back, I guess this was my mom’s way of showing us the difference between needs and wants.
Like most things when coming into adulthood our purchases quickly became boring a.k.a. necessary and EXPENSIVE! “Well mija, what can I tell you…being a girl is expensive,” we weren’t buying cookies and tiny toys anymore.
Being a woman requires you to have a slew of necessities; from menstrual products, to shampoo, to “specialized” razors all in shimmering arrays of PINK. What is it with companies and shoving the color pink down our throats? It’s as if we won’t know the product was made for our use unless it screams at us from across the hall. My problem isn’t necessarily the color pink, instead it is the price increase that is placed on seemingly everything that is marketed towards women — this is known as PINK TAX.
If we take a look at Gayle Rubin we see that gender plays a big role in how our market system works. It creates the need for production and of course when there is a need for something, companies jump on the opportunity to be the sole provider.
How is this fair? As if bleeding for a week isn’t punishment enough. Out of our 50 wonderful states, only nine of them do not tax feminine products. Out of these nine states only four — a whopping 0.08% — choose not to place a tax on these necessary items. To top it off, this tax is placed because these items are considered luxury goods. Recently in California there was movement to try and get rid of the pink tax, but it was denied on the basis that it would leave the door wide open for the public to sue companies.
So our rights, as human beings, are less important than those of corporations. Why do corporations feel the need to constantly exploit those that literally keep them running? This concept isn’t new, we’ve seen it happen over and over since the beginning of capitalism. Who ends up with the short end of the stick? More often than not it’s women, especially women of color. Think about it, as women we make less than men — 80 cents to the dollar — and now we are expected to pay more. Within California on tampon taxes alone this adds up to about $20 million a year. $20 million a year, from one state alone.
So not only are we getting paid less, but we are expected to pay more for products that we need. Now some of you may be saying “of course there’s going to be a different price, it’s a different product all together. They have to make profit somehow.” To you I say let’s take a look at some of the ways our corporations “fairly” price their products.
Our first example, razors; for the purpose of comparison I’m not using the built in moisturizing strip ones. Just plain simple BIC razors in the color pink.
Each package holds four razors, each with three blades. Notice how the pink razors are smaller, yet individually — if we read the fine print — they cost $1.60 each. The bigger men’s razors cost $1.37 each; well,there goes the argument of using more material to produce them.
Now you’re not supposed to use razors without shaving cream right?
Let’s take a look at the prices of these two. The women’s shaving cream is $2.46 more per ounce.
Granted most items can be swapped out for their male counterparts in order to save a few bucks, but what about tampons? Last I heard they don’t make those for guys.
