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Summary Of X A Pink Tax By Lois Gould

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The ‘pink tax’ is a phenomenon of higher pricing of products marketed to women, despite being identical to those marketed to men. Lois Gould's "X: A Fabulous Child's Story" serves as a precursor to the ‘pink tax’ concept, as it examines how gendered marketing and commercialization limit individual expression by promoting harmful gender stereotypes. Gould uses symbolism to highlight the connection between the performativity of gender and its commercialization, suggesting that society’s perception of the gender binary is commodified and largely cultivated by capitalist interests. Immediately, the Xperiment's exorbitant cost is used as a symbol to demonstrate the profound integration of gender roles in society. Gould notes the irony in how expensive the project is: “23 billion dollars and 72 cents, which might seem …show more content…

This is because gender is so deeply ingrained in society that additional measures are necessary to control all variables that could influence X’s gender identity. The scientists carefully created an Official Instruction Manual for Baby X’s parents, which guides them to “[b]uy plenty of everything”, both girls’ and boys’ clothes and toys (2). In this way, gender is commodified for profit, with targeted marketing aiming to convince parents to purchase different toys and clothing for their children based on gender (BBC Newsround). Gould further shows how society’s perception of gender is linked with capitalist interests with the symbol of X’s and the other children’s clothing. With X’s influence, “Susie [...] suddenly refused to wear pink dresses to school any more. She insisted on wearing red-and-white checked overalls-just like X’s” (5). Throughout the story, X’s overalls symbolize nonconformity to the gender, as they are not girl or boy-coded like the Other Children's pink or blue clothes, which Susie’s change

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