There was a news story from Britain this
week which got a fair amount of attention.
An MP who chairs a committee tasked with protecting
women’s rights has complained that some shops charge more for products aimed at
women than equivalent ones for men.
She cited an example of one
supermarket which sells disposable razors in two colours – pink and
blue. They are identical in every way
apart from the colour. But the pink ones
in the women’s toiletry section are double the price of the blue ones in the
men’s toiletry section.
The MP said, “This research is astonishing.” All of the commentators I heard talking about
it agreed it was shocking and unacceptable.
I did too, but for a different reason.
Do MPs in Britain really have so much
time on their hands? I mean, if you
find that men and women are doing the same job but women are getting paid less,
then I expect the MP to investigate why that is happening, punish the companies
responsible, and propose ways to stop the same thing from happening in the
future. If women are not being selected
for top jobs in some industries, even though the same number of capable
candidates are applying, then I expect the MP to investigate and try to improve
the situation.
But razor blades? I don’t think that the women’s liberation
movement is going to stand or fall over this issue.
And if you want to investigate the sneaky
ways companies make money in an unfair way from razors, I would rather the MP
asked the manufacturers why they keep changing the size of their razor
blades. I try to protect the environment
and I don’t like unnecessary wastage so, when I started shaving, I bought a
good quality razor instead of disposable ones.
Then when the razor blades lost their sharp edge, I would buy new blades
to fit into the body of the razor. This
sounds simple enough. But the company
would change the size of the blades very slightly every few months so that I
had to buy a new razor anyway. This got
so frustrating that I gave up and started using disposable ones.
That is a crime I expect my MP to sort
out! The pink/blue price difference is
just an inconvenience. After all, there
is nothing stopping women from saving 50 pence by walking into the men’s
toiletry section and shaving their legs with a blue razor.
Or from shopping in a different
supermarket.
Or from walking around with hairy legs.
Vocabulary:
an MP – a Member of Parliament; a politician
in Britain who has been elected to sit in the House of Commons
to chair something – to lead or head
something like a meeting or committee
to be tasked with doing something – to be
given responsibility for doing something
equivalent – similar versions of the same
thing in another area, field etc.
to cite – to quote ; refer to
disposable – designed to be used and then
quickly thrown away
to have time on one’s hands – to have a
lack of things to do; to have an excess of free time
the women’s liberation movement – a
political campaign to promote women’s rights
sneaky – cunning
to sort something out – to fix, solve or
deal with something such as a problem or mess
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