Surprise! Women's Products Cost More Than Men's

In case you were wondering, the gender gap is REAL. The "Pink Tax" is real. It's pervasive, and sometimes dangerously subtle, affecting even the most innocuous things in your every day life, so that most of the time, you're completely oblivious to the entrenched inequalities that surround you. BuzzFeed decided to investigate gender inequalities and how they affect the difference in price between the same products marketed to men and women. And the results will have you absolutely seething, because as it turns out women's products are more expensive than men's, even where that product is essentially the exact same thing.

Stick a pink tag on something, and its price rises significantly. Why is this? Possibly because most consumer advertising is geared at women, but on a more profound level, it's because women are made to feel, by society at large, that we really truly NEED these products. So we shop recklessly and often, in a way in which men do not feel pressured to do. Which is a great opportunity for retailers and brands to bump up the price margin, and make a few extra bucks off the women they're tricking into feeling inferior. Check out some of the ridiculous price differences on THE EXACT SAME PRODUCTS below:

1. Deodorant: $1.97 more expensive for women

2. Shaving cream: $.50 more expensive for women

3. Plain white t-shirts: $5 more expensive for women (and the video points out that men's tees use MORE fabric than women's as well)

4. Soap: $.50 less for women (YAS! one win for women's products!)

5. Jeans: $3 more expensive for women

6. Face lotion: $8.01 more expensive for women

That's a $17.98 price difference on that shopping list. It's a tale as old as time, where the powerful will disenfranchise the already weaker cohort for their own malignant profits. But we're onto it now. Next time you're shopping for deodorant, buy the odorless dude's one, save yourself a couple of bucks, and feel satisfied that you're sticking it to the man. Hopefully this kind of knowledge will spread, and we as consumers will be able to reach a point where were able to lobby for equality in even this seemingly small, but pervasive and effecting us almost daily, corner of our lives. Watch the full video below:

Images: YouTube(6)