A couple of months ago I was in a clothing store. I had no real purpose for being there other than browsing. I saw this flannel that I thought was really cute so I picked it up and was holding it up to my body to show my friend who I was with. I said something along the lines of "Do you think I would look good in this?" and after I said that the saleslady came over to and said in sort of a disgusted tone "You know that's a men's shirt right?"

Excuse me?

I was so shocked when she said that to me. I don't give a damn if it's a men's shirt, I really liked it and gosh darn-it I would buy it. It really got me thinking about things that are assigned a "gender" that don't necessarily need to have one. The flannel that I was looking at was an average blue and red flannel that a guy or a girl could wear.

So fast forward to about two weeks ago when I was at Target with my mom. I was picking up a couple of bathroom items that I needed before I went back to school. I needed deodorant, razors, shaving cream, and lotion. Now if you've ever been shopping before for such things you will have noticed that you can either purchase "Men's" razors or "Women's" razors/ shaving cream/ deodorant etc. However they are never the same price. First off I wasn't aware that men needed their own "man" lotion, because I would think that we all need equal moisture to our bodies and therefore it should be a very gender neutral item. Secondly, why am I as a woman paying more money for the pink razors than a man pays for his blue razors. Some people may argue that men need a different type of razor because they shave their face and women shave their legs, but I have used a man's razor and a female razor and I hate to break it to you but they're the exact same.

Now you may be asking yourself, how does this relate to the flannel shirt that I mentioned at the beginning?

This issue of the occasion that women pay more for the same product then men do is referred to as "the pink tax." This term is the label that has been put on the belief that many "feminized items" are more costly than their masculine counterparts. People who believe in it claim that women pay more for personal products, adult clothing and that girls toys are more expensive than boys toys.

I'm not here to make any argument about who should be wearing what or using what because honestly you use/ wear whatever rocks your boat. I'm just bringing up the conversation of why do very basic things need to be marketed to a certain gender. The bottom line is we all have hair that we want to shave, we all have armpits that need deodorant, and we all have dry skin that needs moisturizing. Whether you identify as a man, women, or you're androgynous or agender we should all be using the same grooming products.