Tag Archives: Shopping

Women Are Charged More For Almost Everything, Suggests New Investigation

At the hands of the patriarchy, women already have a tough time. Not only are women passed over for jobs (despite being more than qualified) and paid less for doing the same work as men, but women are also subject to ridiculous standards, dehumanised and verbally abused just because of their gender.

But that’s not all, as we can now add ‘women are charged more for almost every product’ to that troublingly long list.

That information comes from The Times which recently investigated, analysing “hundreds of products”.

For example, a pack of razors from supermarket chain Tesco costs £1 for 5 razors when they are pink and labelled ‘for women’, but it costs £1 for 10 razors when they are blue and labelled ‘for men’.

A women’s pair of Levi’s 501 jeans also costs (on average) 46% more than a men’s pair, despite having the same length and waist size.

Even worse, is at Argos, where the pink version of a child’s toy scooter cost £5 more than the blue version.

While the retailer released a statement to BBC Newsbeat explaining that the pricing was an “error”, vowing to change the price, given that just one of the products The Times analysed (underwear) cost more for men than for women, many will struggle to believe that Argos didn’t price those products as such because of gender bias.

Some would argue that sexism isn’t the only issue here as it’s also problematic products that are blue and pink are gendered as male and female and we should be working to dismantle such limited, binary thinking.

However, for now it should be considered a win that the investigation has gotten attention from those in power.

Conservative MP Maria Miller, who heads up the women and equalities committee says that…

… it is unacceptable that women face higher costs for the same products just because they are targeted at women. Retailers have got to explain why they do this. At a time when we should be moving towards a more de-gendered society, retailers are out of step with public opinion.”

It’s yet to be seen how the government will tackle this issue (it’s certainly not the first time it’s been brought up) but we’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

So, What is the Fitting Room Policy for Transgenders in Major Retail Store?

Having a salesperson refuses to serve you, or asks you for your license is bad enough, but being denied access to a fitting room because you don’t look the norm is rather sh*tty and pretty de-humanising, especially if its due to your gender not being the norm.

After transgender woman Kylie Jack was refused access to a female dressing room at a local retailers, Styleite decide to find out what were high street retailer (H&M, Urban Outfitters, Zara, Victoria’s Secret, Forever 21, and American Apparel) official policy on fitting room access for different gender identities (be it for transgender, butch females or studs).

See below for their responses.

H&M

Transgender people are the same as everyone else, you can take your things to the women’s area or the men’s. All of the fitting rooms are unisex, like there will be a fitting room on the men’s floor, but anyone can change. There’s a women’s fitting room by the women’s clothing, but anyone can try on clothes there.”

Urban Outfitters

If you’re transgender, it doesn’t matter. Anyone can go into either of the fitting rooms, like we have a men’s floor fitting room, but people use whichever one they want. That’s our official policy, anyone can try on in the men’s or women’s areas, anyone.”

Zara

No, if you want to go to try some clothes, you are not able to do that. If a man wants to go, no we don’t allow that. It’s because that’s our policy, we don’t allow men to try some clothes, and vice versa for women.” If the ‘man’ identifies as a woman? [After a hold….] “You can talk to the manager. if you have any issue or concern, you can go to the customer service department.”

American Apparel

If you’re transgneder, there’s absolutely no problem, you can change. A man or a woman can go to the fitting rooms, they wouldn’t have to be concerned. We’re not one of those stores. You can be perfectly comfortable if you choose to try anything on. We would help you.”

Forever21

In most stores, there aren’t women’s or men’s fitting rooms, the fitting rooms are for both men and women. If someone’s transgender, yeah that’s totally fine, yeah it’s totally… there’s no preference. If someone wants to try on clothes you can try them on. There’s no discrimination against anybody.”

Victoria’s Secret

Well because sometimes, women feel uncomfortable, it would have to be more on the side to make sure other women aren’t there feeling uncomfortable, but we could allow it [a transgender woman or man changing.] It really depends on the management and how people feel, but it should be fine, you would just have to ask the manager.”