No matter the age, living in this modern world as a girl is hard. There is a stigma around the gender in both our community and the government. Without considering sexism in others’ political views, I can’t help but look at this economically. I can go to the store right now and find some random thing that is more gender specific than necessary and the female counterpart costs more. The Pink Tax is prevalent everywhere and is a phenomenon that constitutes when female products are more expensive than those of males.

Let’s say I’m going to a concert this weekend and need something to protect my ears. As I walk through the aisles at Walgreens, I find women’s earplugs. They’re pink because, as a girl, the only color I enjoy is pink. The regular ones are a couple inches to the left, but even if they’re 24 percent cheaper, they’re not pink and that’s obviously way too masculine for me.

The Pink Tax isn’t just directed to older women, it discriminates against anything that’s meant to be gender specific to girls in general. There are several children’s products with spiked prices, just because they’re pink.

It’s only when we’re older that we really feel the weight of those couple extra dollars. Women and men have created multinational organizations to completely eradicate the Pink Tax. This continuously relevant issue shouldn’t only be a sign to stop shooting up women’s prices just for the sake of doing it, but instead a sign of hope for both men and women to be equal.

Nevertheless, there’s no need to bash the men of these industries for letting such a thing happen; it can be the women as well. Making the boxes pink or purple is a marketing tactic that a lot of girls, me included, have bought into. They do these things to get money and that’s how this changes from us seeing it morally to economically. Ethics don’t mean money, and if they have to get a few women riled up to continue making the kinds of sales they do…trust me, they will.