Pink Tax

Pink Tax

8" x 5", January 21, 2023, for Project Quilting: "Pink Tint" challenge 14.2

machine stitched 'shirt fronts, hand embroidered price tags, tiny buttons, machine quilted

This is my response to the Project Quilting prompt: Pink:  The Pink Tax - "an adorable name for an insidious practice" - is the concept that some items are more expensive when they are gendered for women, such as shampoo, clothing, laundry services, toys. 

I created the front placket for the two halves, then stitched down the 3 pastel tiny buttons in pink and blue.

I found prices for a man's pink shirt and also a woman's pink shirt on a department store website, then embroidered the different prices on tags, and attached them to the tiny buttons, such as you might find on a real shirt. 

The machine quilting says:  "why is this shirt less than this shirt?  Pink Tax" - done with a variegated pink thread. 

The Pink Tax does not speak to all the items of toiletries and clothing which women purchase and men don't 'need' - that's a whole other problem.  This is a quantitative comparison of like to like products, which are more expensive when female gendered.  There are many shampoos and soaps that are packaged for women, and more expensive.  Blue jeans are more expensive in women's sizes.  But perhaps the most obvious is a dry cleaning or laundry service that charges more for women's shirts over men's shirts.  

Here are a few articles on the Pink Tax for further reasearch: 

7 Weird Examples Of How Women Pay More Than Men For The Same Products | HuffPost 

The Pink Tax: How Women Pay More for Pink | Bankrate

There’s A Pink Tax On Women (forbes.com)

I don't need pink calculators or disposable razors.  You'll find neutral colored items in my shopping cart. 

Peace

Paula 

 

Keep Abortion Legal

 

Keep Abortion Legal

6" square, January 6, 2023, for Project Quilting: The First One challenge

hand embroidered; machine quilted

This small piece is my response to the prompt: The First One, at this time following the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the super conservative Supreme Court.   It's my acknowledgement of my FIRST abortion; yes, I've had more than one.   Abortion was not illegal at the time, and should not be illegal now.  Legal abortion recognizes a woman's right to bodily autonomy.  For too long, we've been shamed into keeping quiet about abortion, about menstruation, about all manner of female bodily functions. 

This small section of quilting shows where the small mass of growing cells may have been attached to the wall of my uterus. 

This image shows the two color embroidery technique I have been developing over the years, where I color block the background, then embroider a line drawing over this shape. 

Keep abortion legal to allow women full bodily autonomy.  The number of abortions I've had is nobody's business but my own.  I've also carried some pregnancies to term.  That number is also nobody's business. 

Here's a good essay by a woman who writes honestly and eloquently about having more than one abortion, she speaks to the societal stigma:  "I've had three abortions"  

Minding my own business, 

Peace, 

Paula