Peruse the aisles of any drugstore in the United States, and you may notice the “pink tax.” From soap to shower gel, women’s products cost an average of 7% more than men’s products. When we’re talking about personal care, the price hike rises to 13%. You can save by buying a masculine or genderless iteration, but manufacturers are confident you’ll waste a few bucks just for the color pink or the label “for women.”
More and more people, however, are choosing to opt out of this dichotomy. Not only does a growing offering of genderless products allow consumers to save money and enjoy products interchangeably, but it’s also a convenient way for businesses to steer away from the tumultuous politics of gender identity. Always, for example, recently decided to remove the Venus, or female, logo from its period products.
“Today, when brands launch a gendered product, there’s a potential downside of not seeming inclusive,” explained Craig Elbert, CEO of supplements subscription service Care/of. “It feels like there is a conscious choice that brands now need to make.”
Gender doesn’t factor much into consumers’ choices, anyway, at least for young people. Razor brand Bic, which is experimenting with a new line of genderless grooming products, found in a survey that 69% of consumers under the age of 34 “said they wanted companies to create more unisex personal care and beauty products,” according to the Wall Street Journal. And according to another survey, almost one-third of consumers aged 24 and younger said they had used some gender-neutral beauty product.
Whether younger consumers are tired of paying extra for pink packaging or they’re committed to supporting brands that endorse nonbinary products, expect to see more genderless merchandise on store shelves. This isn’t a new phenomenon — as the Wall Street Journal points out, brands have been toying with genderless marketing at least since the ’80s — but thanks to the gender-neutral trend, it is coming back in style.
