The Inequity of the 'Pink Tax'

 by Daisy Sissons (this was originally written and delivered as a speech)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Imagine you’re in a shop. You desperately need some foam ear plugs. Your brother has been snoring every night this week and you just can't take it anymore. You see a blue packet first. £4.59! What a bargain! Then a little way down the aisle you see an identical packet. It has the words ‘For Woman’ branded on the front. The pink packaging only confirms this because everything feminine is pink. Obviously. Lucky you found these pastel purple ear plugs. Your womanly ears are finally being catered for. Then you see the price it’s £5.79 which is £1.20 more expensive. Or maybe you don’t see the price because the cheaper blue ones are strategically placed half way down the aisle. Anyway, the price must be justified because women's ears are so different from men's. Aren’t they? Even if a woman's ear was drastically different (which it’s not) I’m sure you would agree with me that the ear plugs would need to be smaller and more delicate to fit our feminine ear holes. And if that's the case… shouldn't they cost less?

Ok. Now, stop imagining because you don't need to. That story isn’t exaggerated at all. It's completely factual. Unfortunately. 

The men in the room might be wondering why this is relevant and you could be thinking ‘hmm this doesn’t affect me at all’ Don’t you care about the Woman in your life? Don’t you care about your sister? Don’t you care about your mum?  Don’t you care about them? If the answer is yes. To any of those. You must care about Pink Tax. I can hear you thinking ‘It's only a few pounds here and there - sometimes it's even less than that so why worry’ But if you couple these unfair prices with the gender pay gap where women earn 60% less than their male equivalents, everyone can see this is a system designed to push women down whilst raising men up. I say everyone. The Patriarchy* clearly can’t. Or maybe they just don’t want to. 

Some people may say that women care much more about aesthetic values than men so of course they are willing to spend more money. On the surface this is true. Generally women do seem to care more about looking put together. You only need to look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the well put together, and striking female American politician compared to the dishevelled look of  Donald Trump, the president to see what I mean. However if you dig a little deeper you should realise it isn't as simple as it might appear. A recent study found that employers are more likely to award ‘prestigious jobs’ to women who wear makeup compared to those who do not. This has an enormous impact both socially and economically. Socially, it makes us feel self conscious and implies our thoughts and intelligence are not enough. We must look perfect at all times. This means we, as women, must spend more time and money just to be taken as seriously or nearly always less seriously than men. Remember how in The Little Mermaid, Ariel sells her voice to Ursula the ‘ugly’ and ‘evil’ octopus in exchange for human legs? Why does she do this? For a man. She is sacrificing her own body and completely changing herself. Just for a man. Similarly Ursula is deemed far too ugly to get a man's attention so must steal and cheat. Why does she do this? For a man. 

So, Women - work together to love your mermaid tails, be kind to octopuses and most importantly never shame a woman for having legs. 

And men - love all women with or without tails. 

 

*a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it