Razor Sharp + Pink Taxed

I recently bought a vintage razor at the Alameda Faire. It’s brass and it makes me smile.  It reminds me of old movies and Gene Kelly (I have no idea why!)  

It was not expensive and I’m not sure why it took me so long to switch. Before the current era of my zero plastic safety razor I had an orange plastic razor from Preserve. It was made out of recycled yoghurt containers and the handle was reusable so all you switched out and threw away was the blade heads. It also used to make me smile, but not as much. 

Before that I had a bag of pink disposable razors. Those did not make me smile at all. That was even before I learned about the pink tax.   the pink tax is just what it sounds like - a tax on things that are pink. Except it’s not actually a tax, pink things just cost more. Meaning the exact same razors are cheaper in blue. I did not believe this could be true until I started to look for it. Turns out it is true. Most obviously on disposable razors, but on other things too. 

I’m not sure what source legitimizes it the most… there’s this NPR segment (Planet Money Episode) or the study they refer to from NYC (From Cradle to Cane: The Cost of Being a Female Consumer) or this report from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress (!!!) which actually led to several bills proposing a repeal of the pink tax… or the website pink.tax which is super un-biased (sigh). Interestingly the US Government Accountability Office studied the issue and found non-disposable razors were one of the few things that men occasionally pay more for (read the highlights here) They aren’t going to do anything about it though, because no one really complains.

When you think about it though, it’s just insane that women make less and pay more for things, in order to have them come in some terrible Barbie’s Dream House pink. And don’t even get me started on running shoes…

But if you look at it another way, this is yet another example of something I did because it’s good for the planet, that turns out to be good for so many other reasons too - aesthetically superior and non-gendered just to name two!