10 Total Scams That Women Have Been Conditioned to Think Are Normal

There are entire industries marketed directly to women, and while not all of them are total scams, quite a few of them are. Have you ever noticed that women’s razors are more expensive than the ones men buy? Or that women carry most of the weight when it comes to things like birth control, family management and housework?

There are plenty of scams that us ladies have bought into without realising that they are total bullshit. Here are just ten of them.

1. The insane mark-up on anything to do with a wedding

All you need to do is mention the word “wedding” and a special mark-up is added to the quote. Hire a function room for an event? Sure, it’s $800. Oh, it’s for a wedding? Sorry, my mistake. It’s actually $1500.

While it’s understandable that there is a higher expectation of perfection for a wedding function over, say, a plumber’s convention, the price hikes are usually unreasonable. From cakes, flowers, gowns, hair, makeup, wedding stuff costs more and we just tend to accept that as a fact.

2. Women’s magazines selling us nothing but gossip and lies since forever

It doesn’t matter if the glossies are telling us about Meghan Markle’s secret lover or revealing the latest beer and lettuce diet that is sweeping Hollywood, the garbage printed on the weekly is not helpful for anyone. There is nothing wrong with buying and enjoying these magazines as long as you understand that you are paying for airbrushed models to prod your insecurities with unattainable beauty standards for the purpose of selling you things you neither want nor need. Oh, and I totally made up that bit about Meghan Markle and the beer and lettuce diet. See, anyone can do it!

3. Anything that claims to clean your vagina and make it smell like flowers

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your vagina is self-cleaning and no amount of douche products will make it any cleaner. In fact, they will only do more harm than good. Vulva havers only need to use warm water with a little mild soap to delicately clean their lady gardens and that is it. Everything else is nonsense designed to make you feel bad about yourself and what you might smell like down there.

Saying it again for the folks in the back: Your vagina is self-cleaning and not supposed to smell like strawberries.

4. Multi-level marketing companies

MLMs prey on women who don’t have a lot of options to make money from their own homes while raising children. They know that women are social beings that want to support each other in their new ventures, that’s why they often disguise the sales event as a party. So we all go along to support our friend and look interested in cleaning products or underwear or kitchen containers or whatever. Then we have to buy something, anything, so as not to be that one shitty friend who didn’t place an order. The MLM people are counting on this social pressure. And good luck getting out of there without booking a hostess party of your own.

You don’t see men putting up with this shit.

5. GOOP Products (ie, any product sold by Gwyneth Paltrow)

Jade eggs, vagina scented candles, all the expensive lotions, potions and powders… we don’t actually need any of it. Sure, it might be pretty and smell nice. But you can get pretty, nice-smelling things without the celebrity tax attached. And just what does this $1000 USD higher dose “magic” infrared mat do anyway? Let’s see. *clicks link*

“This mat is designed with far infrared heat, pulsed electromagnetic fields, and layers of amethyst and tourmaline.”

Ahh, it makes you sweaty and relieves you of a thousand bucks. Got it.

6. The idea that we need to get our bodies back after pregnancy

Our bodies didn’t wander off somewhere and we don’t need to try and get them back. We DIYed a whole other human! Our bodies are awesome just as they are, and no amount of cellulite cream and snake oil will change that. Be healthy, be happy, eat properly and enjoy your body as it is. And don’t let anyone make you feel bad about what you look like after giving birth.

7. The Pink Tax

If it’s pink, it costs more than the other “regular” products. Women’s razors, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, deodorant, haircuts, clothing, even mortgages and car insurance cost more for basically the exact same product designed for men. And we can do nothing but put up with it or buy the men’s version. It’s bullshit, I tell ya! And don’t get me started on the price of menstruation products that we require.

8. The total lack of functional pockets forcing us to purchase handbags

You can’t tell me that this wasn’t some big conspiracy to make us all buy handbags back in the day. We’ve been begging for functional pockets in our clothing for decades, but still, nada. This should be one of the easiest scams to overcome but here we are, still complaining of fake or tiny useless pockets in this supposedly enlightened day and age. It’s a rip-off.

9. The expectation that we need to be hairless from the eyebrows down

Happily, a lot of us can safely ignore this complete scam because we are involved with lovely men who adore us no matter what we look like. But there is a huge expectation to shave, wax, pluck and remove each and every hair that dares to grow below our eyebrows. Many of us prefer the hair-free look, which is totally okay and completely up to each of us to decide on our level of hair removal. But the expectation that we remove the very hair that has grown naturally on our bodies for millennia is a con.

10. The gender pay gap

Finally, we get to the crux of the issue. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australia’s current national gender pay gap is 13.4%. It is slowly coming down but it’s still far too high. As of November 2020, a woman’s average weekly full-time wage was almost $250 a week less than the average wage of their male counterparts. And don’t get me started on the difference in pay in professional sports.

We’re sick of these shady deals and now that we are aware of them, we can act accordingly! If you enjoy some of these things, please don’t let my words rob you of that pleasure. But please, be aware that these things are not targeted at men the same way they are marketed at us.

Source: Pixabay