The Pink Tax Myth: Women Prefer to Pay More In Order to Flaunt Social Status and Sexual Value.

        Now that the ludicrous claim by feminists that there is a discriminatory gender wage gap has been  debunked,  they are claiming now that women suffer heavier taxes than men for the "exact same services and products". We can read such a claim right here by feminist Elizabeth Plank:

"Thought the wage gap was the biggest strain on your lady wallet? There's another reason being a woman drains your bank account, and it's got nothing to do with the fact that we make 77 cents to the dollar.

It's called the pink tax, and if you're a woman whose daily priorities include a moderate amount of grooming and personal hygiene, over the course of your lifetime it could cost you roughly $100,000...
Companies also charge more because they know that female consumers will buy these products, due in no small part to savvy marketing teaching consumers that certain products are just for women or men, but not both. As a result, women may not consider purchasing a product targeted towards men as an option, even if it costs less."

It's called the pink tax, and if you're a woman whose daily priorities include a moderate amount of grooming and personal hygiene, over the course of your lifetime it could cost you roughly $100,000...

Companies also charge more because they know that female consumers will buy these products, due in no small part to savvy marketing teaching consumers that certain products are just for women or men, but not both. As a result, women may not consider purchasing a product targeted towards men as an option, even if it costs less."

But with some investigation, we actually find out that women are not getting ripped off as feminists would like us to believe, but the fact of the matter is, female products and services are more complex than men's:

"They may do the same job and be made of the same materials. But the fact that a man’s shirt is a called, well, a shirt, and the woman’s version a blouse, will hit you straight in the pocket. 

According to a study published in the journal Gender Issues, dry-cleaning women’s shirts costs twice as much as men’s, on average.It means that if a male and female had one set of collars and cuffs dry-cleaned every month for ten years, it would cost a man £162, while a woman would fork out around £310. 

A study has shown that the dry-cleaning costs of women's shirts is twice as much as men's shirts, on average (picture posed by model)However, Martyn Lewis of the Textile Services Association, which represents dry-cleaners, claims there are good reasons for the price divide. He says: ‘It’s not that we see women customers coming and think, “Right, we’ll charge you a fiver more”.‘The reason is that the man’s garment comes in a standard shape so it can be placed on the shirt-finishing machine (a dummy onto which a shirt is fitted during pressing).‘A lady’s blouse is more shaped — for obvious reasons — and therefore it needs ironing by hand.‘We charge according to the garment, not the customer.’ 

EVEN RAZORS ARE MORE EXPENSIVE 

Beware pink packaging when you’re shopping for personal-care products. It’s often a sign there’ll be a higher price tag.For example, one razor in a four-pack of Gillette Simply Venus 2 disposables for women cost 56p each — 13 pence more than those in the ten-pack of the male version, Gillette Blue II, on boots.com.Gillette spokesman James Williams claims the price difference is there for a reason: men’s and women’s razors have different blades, heads and pivots to perform separate jobs. 

One razor in a four-pack of Gillette Simply Venus 2 disposables for women costs 56p — 13 pence more than those in the ten-pack of the male version, Gillette Blue II‘The hair women are shaving on their bodies — legs, underarms, bikini line — is very different to those men shave on their face and neck; they are different lengths and have different coarseness and density. 

‘Women are also typically shaving a much larger area than men and nearly every body part she shaves has curvature — either convex or concave — like the front and back of knees, ankles, back of the legs, bikini line and underarm, and is often more difficult to reach.’


PERFUME’S A PAIN ON THE PURSE 

Do you always like to smell your best? If so, you’ll be forking out more cash than a man for that, too.A 50ml bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Eau de Toilette spray for women, which comes in a curvy bottle, will set you back £49 at Tesco. A 75ml bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Eau de Toilette for men, in the shape of a manly torso, is priced considerably less at £38. Per 100ml, that works out as almost twice as expensive. 

Perfume expert Peter Sherlock told the Mail: ‘The reason perfumes for women cost more is due to the cost of extracting the scent from flowers.
A 50ml bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Eau de Toilette for women costs £49 at Tesco. A 75ml bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Eau de Toilette for men is considerably less at just £38 

‘On the whole, female fragrances contain a much bigger concentration of floral notes, for example the jasmine and rose in Chanel No. 5 —and so they cost more to make. Men’s fragrances tend to be more wood or citrus based and these are substantially cheaper ingredients.’ 

There is also the fact that famous females are more likely to be used to sell scent for women — considerably boosting the marketing spend, says retail analyst Chris Field, who adds that women customers are also more likely to pay for products which they view as ‘reassuringly expensive’.


GARAGES DRIVE A HARDER BARGAIN 

The moment a woman steps onto a garage forecourt, mechanics seem to get pound signs in their eyes.According to one study, a repair job that costs a man about £180 will cost a woman £200. 

Susan Abbs, one of the UK’s few female garage-owners, says: ‘Women pay more because the moment they step into a repair garage they are in a male-dominated environment and out of their comfort zone. 

Susan Abbs, one of the UK’s few female garage-owners, says women are in a male-dominated environment at a garage and therefore out of their comfort zone, leading them to be charged more (picture posed by models)‘If a woman calls a plumber out, he’s coming into her space. In a garage, she is right in the middle of the lion’s den. 

‘Few women — and actually, few men — understand how a car works. But a woman is less likely to ask questions for fear of sounding silly.‘They also rely on their cars more for school runs, ferrying children about and getting to work. Therefore they are often more anxious to get the problem sorted — whatever it costs.’ 

Susan, who set up the Pullman Garage in South London over 30 years ago, says male staff at the bigger car repair chains tend to work on commission. ‘So if they make a woman insecure and worried enough to have all four tyres replaced instead of the two that really need doing, they are more likely to hit targets,’ she says.


HIGHER COST OF HAIRCUTS 

You may have a gamine pixie style shorter than your husband’s. Yet hairdressers will still charge you considerably more for a cut, just because you’re female.At national salon chain Toni & Guy, for example, men’s hair services are £10 less across the board. 

At HOB salons, the price gap is even wider. A cut and finish is £50 for female customers, £18 more than the male price.
Retail expert Nick Swan, founder of vouchercodespro.co.uk says women are willing to pay more for ‘necessary luxuries’. 

‘Men see a haircut as a more of a chore and only get it because they need to and are not willing to pay too much,’ he says. ‘There’s also the fact many women don’t trust cheap haircuts and stick with the salon they know do a good job.‘It means that salons can charge over the odds because they know their female clients will keep coming back.’ 

To get some gender equality for your hair, look for a salon that charges by the hour, not by what sex you are. Lucy Cogan, celebrity hair stylist, of the Chapel, North London, says times are changing as men become more image conscious.‘These days, it can take as much time to do gents’ as women’s hair because modern men want more intricate and stylish haircuts,’ she explains. ‘It’s no longer just a short back and sides so an hourly rate is much fairer.’


BEWARE PRETTY PACKAGING 

One may come looking macho in a silver or black can and the other may be decorated with girly flowers and swirly patterns — but there’s likely to be little difference between your partner’s deodorant and yours as far as the active ingredients are concerned. 

That’s not always reflected in the price, however.One expert study by the University of Florida in the U.S. found that on average a woman’s anti-perspirant costs around 15p per ounce more than a man’s — and the only difference is the scent. 

As an example of this, Nivea Stress Protect Anti-Perspirant Deodorant — which comes in a feminine white and blue can — costs £1.43 per 100ml. The man’s version of Nivea Stress Protect — in a manly black and blue can — costs £1.32 per 100ml, both on boots.com. Simonne Gnessen, co-author of Sheconomics, points out, however, that women enjoy paying more for some products. She says: ‘A woman’s sense of self is more closely tied to shopping. We associate high price with quality. It’s the “because I am worth it” effect. 

‘The marketeers have discovered they can get away with charging more for some female products because women actually feel better about paying more.’


OVERPAYING FOR UNDERWEAR 

If you compare briefs for a man and woman, there’s not much difference in price for everyday underwear. But when you consider the amount charged for bras, it quickly becomes clear how expensive it is to be female. 

Considering that the average British woman has six bras she wears regularly, and most are priced between £16 to £30 at the nation’s biggest underwear seller, Marks & Spencer, that works out at a cost of £138 year. This adds up to a lifetime total of nearly £10,000 from puberty and the first trainer bras, to the end of a woman’s life.Indeed, according to Office for National Statistics data, women spend twice as much as men on underwear every year because they also have to buy tights.And coming in at around £10 a pair, tights are more expensive than socks — and need to be replaced more owing to the fact they ladder more easily.


THE PRICE OF PROTECTION 

This is one cost a man never has to deal with.

Sanitary protection is not something that men will ever have to buy for themselves, but it is estimated that women will spend around £1,430 on sanitary products in their lifetime 

Considering that a woman will have up to 500 periods over a lifetime, it’s also an outgoing that can really stack up. According to industry estimates, most women will need at least 11,000 separate items of sanitary protection during her fertile years.As sanitary towels and tampons both cost an average of 13p each, this adds up to an outlay of £1,430 between the start of her periods and the onset of the menopause."

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2959383/Why-expensive-woman-called-pink-tax-women-pay-men-dry-cleaning-razors.html#ixzz3YqRRaqYh

         Now that we got the fact how women's services and products can be easily explained because of the marketing and how more detailed they are, and not due to sexism, let's investigate what psychologists say about women liking expensive products.

 By reading two studies on market factors on women, we can see how women correlate more expensive products with higher sexual value, social status, partner's social status; which they use to signal to other women to back off:

Source: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/11/22/0956797613502732.abstract

Source: http://web.natur.cuni.cz/~houdek3/papers/Wang%20et%20al%202014.pdf

Also, women tend to pay more for other services like health care for the fact they tend to use it more than men, but men pay more for auto insurance despite women getting in more car accidents in higher rates, because men tend to get into more fatal accidents. Time Business reports on those findings:

"The main explanation given for the health insurance gender discrepancy is a simple one: Women tend to use health care services a lot more than men. For a variety of reasons, women are more likely to go the doctor—or even have a doctor—than men, and insurance companies say they should pay for the privilege. Is this justification enough to charge exorbitantly higher premiums to women? It is from the insurance company’s perspective. Speaking of which … 

Men pay more for auto insurance. 

A CBS News post cites a new study from the insurance-shopping site CoverHound indicating that, on average, men pay roughly $15,000 over their lifetimes for car insurance. Again, some extreme extremes are highlighted: 

For instance, an 18-year-old male living in Nevada would pay an average of $6,268 a year to insure his sedan if he had the misfortune to grow up there. That’s 51% higher than what his twin sister would pay (assuming they have the same grades and driving records), who would fork out just $4,152 to insure an identical car, according to a CoverHound analysis.

This is all assuming that neither 18-year-old was incorporated in his or her family’s insurance policy, which is a much more cost-effective option than going it alone. In any event, insurance companies justify higher rates for young men because the numbers (and the assumptions) say that guys drive more aggressively and get into more accidents than young women.

There are exceptions to the 'guys pay more' rule: In a few states, women in the 35- to 50-year-old demographic—who are more likely to have kids distracting them in the car—pay higher car insurance premiums than men of the same age. 

As an AOL News story from last fall points out, many of the justifications for charging men more for auto insurance are based on outdated stereotypes. Men have historically gotten into more accidents than women at least partly because they drive more—about 60% of all miles driven in the U.S. But the driving gap is closing: Women account for roughly half of all American drivers today, up from 43% in the 1960s. And yet, even as the numbers show, women are more likely to get into car accidents, there seems to be one big reason why men must pay more: 

According to a study by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, women were involved in more 5.7 crashes per million miles driven, while male drivers had 5.1 crashes over the same distance. But even though they get into fewer crashes, the Johns Hopkins study said men are three times more likely to die in a car crash. 

So we can finally put to rest yet another ridiculous feminist myth, that despite being thoroughly debunked, will probably be spewed frequently by the media, White House and academics- just like their beloved gender wage gap- but we'll be here challenging their claims.