Stop Making These Ordinary Products Gendered

And stop wasting women’s time and money

Photo by Helen Barth on Unsplash

I’m tired of looking for an ordinary product only to find that what I assumed to be a simple task has been complicated by the gendering of said product. I’m certain this demarcation of consumer goods is becoming more pronounced with each year.

It’s a dirty little alliance where capitalism and patriarchy are doing each other’s bidding. Capitalism reaches its tentacles into people’s inner workings, creating needs where there were none. Patriarchy gets its rigid and limiting gender role binary reinforced every time a pink razor is purchased.

I’m not just going off on some intellectual flight of fancy here. I’m damn sick of having my time and money wasted in what amounts to a tax on being female.

And it’s sneaky. In most cases the equivalent products aren’t side-by-side but segregated into men’s and women’s sections. They have to do this, otherwise women would see how much more than men they pay for the same product in different flavours and packaging. The game would be over.

Here’s some of the products that have ground my gears in recent times.

Deodorant

I’m pretty active, whether I’m actually exercising or just running around in a flap trying to get…