Commentary

For my commentary stage, I have chosen to review this blog post.

I found your blog five to be very informative. Being a woman as well, I was aware of the price increase on certain products just because they are being marketed towards women. However, I was not aware there was an actual term for it. Women in my life, including myself, often have the conversation about how retail gouges women for their money by doing things like making clothing thinner and lighter than men’s so we have to buy layers, or making pants with small or sometimes no pockets so we have to buy purses and bags. The “luxury tax” on menstrual products has always been appalling and laughable.

I would disagree with your opening sentence stating, “this issue is not the most significant controversy…” As you went on to say, it “affects all women every day.” Women make up 50%+ of the population. This is simply indicative of all the ways women are treated unfairly and disadvantaged by our patriarchal society. There will always be other significant controversies but that doesn’t have to diminish this one.

I loved that you took this opportunity to also point out the pay gap between genders. It truly doesn’t make sense that we should have to pay higher prices on top of needing more products simply because of gender. As well, I appreciated that you offered solutions to this problem and pointed out that we shouldn’t necessarily give in and start buying the less expensive men’s option. Additionally, it was nice to see that you included the struggles of women in third world countries regarding access to menstrual hygiene products.

The only other comments I would offer is that I would consider giving your blog post a title besides “Blog Five”. It would have been helpful to have an idea of what the blog post was going to be about. I almost didn’t click on it for this reason but I’m glad I did. I might also suggest some links or in-text citation regarding where you got some of the statistics and information from. From a reader’s point of view, it would have been cool to click on “#Axthepinktax” and be taken to the calculator you mentioned.

All in all, I enjoyed your post. It was informative and relevant. It was also to the point but with plenty of information to back up what you were saying and point readers in the right direction if they wanted to investigate this topic themselves.