Summer '22 - Intro to American Government & Politics

In America, marketing is everything to get consumers to buy their products. They make commercials, billboards, and jingles, and spend thousands on the packaging. But women pay the price for that (literally) most of the time. In our capitalistic society, we see the way that products that are marketed for women or the female gaze have an increased price compared to similar items that are marketed toward women. We see this, especially for items that only women need or typically use. 

The pink tax is not just how marketing is used to increase prices for women's products compared to men's products, but the issue that arises when women are forced to pay outrageous prices by monopolized companies for items such as tampons and pads. These are things that women need to continue with their everyday duties but they are forced to pay the price that society deems as acceptable by large name corporations. They explain that marketing for women costs more, so they put that price back on women to pay at the store. Women are not given the choice in how much more money they put in for a corporation's marketing nor their packaging for it is considered to be a business' expense to promote their products for an increase in sales of their items. 

One of the biggest issues is seen in the feminine hygiene department, for the arey expensive, but also are not tax exemptable even though they are basic necessities for women. Louisiana just passed a bill that allows for feminine hygiene products as well as diapers tax exemptable. This is an example that states have the option to help alleviate the price gap between men and women in this capitalistic society, but they do not care to do so. 

There are many examples of this within our society, but one of the most popular in media was when Bic made "pens for her". These gel pens average about $1.30 per pen, but the "women's pen" is averaged $2.35 per pen. 

We can also see the issue in other basic necessities for hygiene as well such as deodorant, razors, etc. When you compare the same razors, such as the cheap Bic razors from the drug store, the blue ones are for men and the pink ones are for women. At Walmart, Bic razors for men are $0.25 per razor, but for the ones geared towards women is $0.28 per razor. I understand that this is only a few more cents per razor so it isn't a big deal, but that is for everything that women must buy adds up over the year. 

Overall, while yes, women could just buy men's products and save money but it is for the women who do not realize there is a difference in price between their everyday necessities and will continue to pay more for the exact same product just because it is geared towards them. This is just another way for women to be discriminated against in society, especially with the wage gap between men and women. The issue is women continue to be discriminated against every chance society gets whether it be our rights, our pay, or the prices we have to endure at the stores. 

A solution to this would be either allowing for women to have a tax exemption on basic necessities, much like Lousiana did for their citizens or we can force large corporations to price match the same items for men and women allowing for women to pay the same price for either product.