Razor

Pink razors for legs, armpits and bikini lines. Blue razors for beards, chest hair or an outgrown moustache. Same product, different colour, different price.

Most razors targeted at women are more expensive than men’s. And that goes for many other products too. A 2015 study by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs analysing the prices of 794 products, found that “women’s products” cost more than “men’s products” 42% of the time. Men’s products were more expensive than women’s in only 18% of the cases.

The price disparity was found across five industries (from clothing to toys) and was found to be highest in personal care products with a difference in price of 13% on average. This price difference is also referred to as the pink tax or gender tax.

Apart from these troubling financial aspects of personal care products, their marketing often perpetuates trans-exclusionary thinking. Most brands ignore the fact that not all men have facial hair or that women may have chest hair. But brands do not only wrongly assume that people of a certain gender grow hair in certain places. They also assume that gender determines where people want to remove their body hair. However, regardless of gender, everyone is free to wax their legs or shave their pubes – or not.