Tionna- The Pink Tax

This podcast called "The Horny Book" is hosted by Tiana Allen, who created it to provide a space for women to discuss important topics related to womanhood. The first topic discussed is the "pink tax," which refers to the practice of charging higher prices for products targeted at women. This includes items like sponges and scooters. The podcast also mentions the "tampon tax," which is a tax on menstrual products that makes them unaffordable for some women. The podcast encourages listeners to raise awareness, reach out to companies and legislators, and demand a ban on these unfair taxes. It also suggests participating in youth groups or donating products to help women in need. The podcast concludes with the message that an educated and confident woman is powerful. Welcome to The Horny Book, a podcast where women alike come together and comfortably discuss our issues while learning about ourselves along the way. This is your host, Tiana Allen. I decided to make this podcast because I wanted women to be able to come into an area where we find out things that are important about our womanhood and also get together and share things. The first topic of discussion on The Horny Book would be the pink tax. I found out about the pink tax while shopping with a friend. She pointed out that the scrub mommies costed way more than the scrub daddies. And by way more, I mean probably $2 more. I was initially confused about this, wondering why a pink sponge was costing more than a regular sponge. And that's when she introduced me to the topic of the pink tax. So, I decided to research it so we could talk about it here today. The pink tax is a practice of gender-based pricing that happens in brands that only change the cosmetic use for traditional products to appeal to women. We'll commonly see an example of this when shopping for your children. Let's say that you have a boy and a girl and you decided to get them scooters. That pink unicorn scooter will cost twice as much as a regular female scooter. While you and I may now be finding out about this misogynistic marketing technique, the practice has been around for 20 years. It started with female consumers realizing that their pink-followed warm vanilla hazelnut smelly shampoo costed $2 more than a man's 5-in-1 body wash. So, you might be thinking, it's not that big of a deal, right? You're getting what you pay for. Maybe it's the production costs that led to this. I thought this might be the case until I did a little research. Initially, you'll find many articles that explain that in instances like dry-cleaning, a woman's bill will be way more than a man's simply due to labor. Women's clothing come in various textures or styles, which all call for different techniques to ensure the best quality, while a man's clothing may be the same throughout and quicker to get through. Now, while the previous statements may be true, this unfortunately isn't the case with personal care products and miscellaneous things. However, many research articles have shown that women are the most common shopper for things like razors and shampoo, even pain relievers. As a greedy tactic, the brands like to take advantage of a woman in their pocket. They make the same thing, but for women, and price it twice as much. There's another serious tax we should talk about as well. It's called the tampon tax. What is the tampon tax, you may ask? Well, it's a tax on a woman's menstrual products. There's normally a sales tax of 5 or 7% added to the product, on top of state taxes. This makes the affordability of menstrual products near impossible to afford for less fortunate women. As of January 15, 2024, 21 states participate in this, Alabama being one of them. The tampon tax exists because, to many states, menstrual products are seen as a luxury item. So, with all this information you may be asking, what do we do? To bring more awareness to the misogyny embedded in our everyday products, speak up and reach out. Fundraising to help women in need to get products is a beautiful place to start, but let's also bring awareness to the issue by reaching out to companies and your legislators, and demanding a ban of pink tax and tampon tax. New York recently banned them, as well as New Jersey, with California following behind. Protesting, bringing awareness, and demanding respect is always the best solution in these cases. Something I have done in the past to help with this cause is participate in youth groups. The youth group I was in before I came into college held a fundraising bank. Basically, we all got together and we brought period products, personal hygiene products, and more, that we handed out to women in need or women that are in period poverty. Our group partnered with Brooke and Brianna Finette, the co-founders of Women in Training, and we got together and made packages for the women in need, and we went down to the food bank and we handed them out. I strongly encourage women to come together and we help each other out. If you ever have any extra products or if you notice that there's somebody that's in need, don't hesitate to help them. Let's also get the pink tax banned. Let's get the tampon tax banned. It's unethical if we think about it, and we shouldn't have to struggle like this just because our body functions differently than a man. Well, this is the end of my podcast. Thank you for tuning in, and remember, an educated and confident woman is the most powerful woman you can be. See you soon.