The pink Tax

When being a women costs you more

Being a women can be expensive in ways that are ordinary. They barely feels like a discrimination anymore.

A razor. A period product. Bras. Hair removal. Shin care. Make up. Hair cuts. Professional clothing. Causal clothing. Pregnancy related expenses. None of these individually explain the entire problem. Together they reveal something bigger. Women are often expected to soemd money simply to meet the standards that men are not held as intensely.

The pink Tax is commonly used to describe the tendency for products marketed towards women to cost more comparable products marketed towards man. It is not literally government tax. Just the invisible cost to pay more to fit in.

A product cannot be more valuable just because it is pink. The deeper problem is system of expectation surrounding women.

Patriarchy does not exist in dramatic form. It can survive in ordinary day to day assumptions on how a women should look like and how she should dress and how she should smell and how she should walk and laugh and how she should appear and how much efforts she should put into remaining presentable.

A man can age. A women is told to fight aging. A man can have body hair. A women is expected to remove it because it is considered ugly. A can appear in simple short with minimal grooming. A women will be judged for her hair, skin, clothes, makeup, body shape and overall appearance before anyone evaluates what she actually has to say.

I came across a meme that say Men are asked not to smoke because it is not good for lungs. Women are asked not to smoke because it is not good for their honour. Why? Is it because Women got no Lungs or because A Man got no honour?

Simple words right? It kept resonating and provoked something deep inside me. Smoking is wrong no matter the gender. Why this discrimination?

This is where Misogyny enters the picture. It is not merely hatred expression openly on women. It can appear thligh contempt, punishment or unfair expectations in women just because they are women.

And the market can profit from these expectations. Feel insecure about you body? Buy something and fit the society.

The cruelest part is that women can be pressurized into spending money to avoid judgement and then critisised for caring too much about the appearance.

Too much make up? Fake.
No make up? Unprofessional.
Dressed attractively? Attention seeking.
Dressed simply? Unkempt.
Ageing naturally? "Letting herself go?"
Trying to look younger? " Obsessed with beauty"

Patriarchy created the expections
Misogyny enforced the punishment
And the market sells the solution
And women pay for it.