There comes a moment in every woman’s life when she realises that she is being conned. Mine was at the age of 22 at around 4am. While a gentleman caller sat in my bedroom selecting a record to put on, I locked myself in the bathroom for some last-minute maintenance. It was here that I realised the startling fact that not only was my flatmate’s razor not pink, but it was sharper and better than the blunt, scented rubbish that I had been buying for the same purpose. It also had the bonus of having not been advertised insisting that women always need to be “beach ready … down there”, with an image of a silken scrap of material gliding over an attractive model’s shins. Imagine the same method being used to advertise a man’s bollock razor. It just wouldn’t happen.
Which is why I am glad that French feminists are drawing attention to the“woman tax” on products with a campaign that highlights the price gap when it comes to gendered products. French feminists are some of the most tolerant in the western world, living as they do in a country that is still scarily obsessed with cellulite many years after their British sisters gave up the ghost and started worrying about other, more esoteric, media-mandated things, such as backfat, cankles and the thigh gap. The difference in pricing for, say, female deodorant compared with the male equivalent has always niggled me, and now French feminists arepetitioning supermarkets and businesses over their unfair pricing of everything from pens (who remembers the wonderful “Bic for her” that was pink and specially designed for pathetic, floppy lady-hands?) to backpacks and razors.
Any woman who has suffered from period pain and stood doubled over in the chemist closely examining two packets of painkillers containing identical dosages will know that the pink one with the abstract womb is going to cost at least a quid more. But it’s especially formulated for “the ladies” so you’d better choose it, and don’t forget to pick up some luxurious tampons on your way to the till too, VAT added.
As chance would have it, today is also equal pay day, meaning that, thanks to the gender pay gap, women are effectively working for free until the new year. This has come three days earlier than it did last year as the gap has widened. Not only does a woman in the UK earn 80p for every £1 earned by a man, but women in self-employment earn on average 40% less than self-employed men. According to the Office for National Statistics, 60% of those in low pay are women, and 54% of workers on zero-hours contracts are women. The fact that we also have to pay more for the same products and we are conditioned to purchase an awful lot more of them in order to live up to what society deems attractive and presentable, adds insult to injury.
Just imagine a “woman tax” rebate. All of those little things that you are expected to do – tweezing your monobrow, tinting your eyelashes, maintaining your weave, shaving your legs, concealing your blackheads, bleaching your moustache, managing camel toe – were all tax-deductible expenses. You’d be getting one big windfall, possibly a deposit on a house. And let’s not forget tights, which seem to have a built-in obsolescence of about 25 minutes. If men wore tights they would be made of spider’s silk as strong as steel and would not end up taking on the appearance of flaccid condoms as they make their way towards your ankles just because you need to walk to the bus stop. “You can go to space in these tights!” the adverts would say.
We need to follow the lead of the French and keep drawing attention to this “woman tax”. But women also need to stop buying into this con and realise that we can purchase men’s razors and deodorant too. You can get a fringe and never have to pluck your eyebrows again, and only apply foundation to half your face. There are woman tax-avoidance measures and we should use them. Because, let’s face it, we need the money.
