Angelina Duaa Hashir

Why do women pay more for the same everyday products? In this episode of Unladylike, we unpack the economics and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/the-safety-trap-unladylike" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">social pressures</a>&nbsp;behind the pink tax &mdash; the gender-based price disparity that quietly adds up over a lifetime. From razors and deodorants to haircuts and toys, research across the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, and India shows that products marketed to women consistently cost more than identical alternatives for men. Even when taxes are removed, the price gap remains. This isn&rsquo;t about color or preference. It&rsquo;s about pressure. Companies don&rsquo;t price based on pink packaging, they price based on how necessary a product feels. For women, that &ldquo;need&rdquo; is shaped by expectations around appearance, professionalism, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/witches-the-originally-canceled" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">respectability</a>. When women buy into it, it&rsquo;s framed as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pretty-little-tradwives" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">choice</a>. When they don&rsquo;t, it&rsquo;s judged as careless, unprofessional, or &ldquo;letting yourself go.&rdquo; Unladylike: The Pink Tax exposes how self-care became a gender surcharge &mdash; and why choice, in a market built on social pressure, is never fully free.

Unladylike

In this episode of Unladylike, we unpack the economics and social pressures behind the pink tax — the gender-based price disparity that quietly adds up over a lifetime.

The Pink Tax: Unladylike 

The episode also explores why so many women dream of leaving restrictive environments &mdash; not only for education or income, but for autonomy, mobility, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pretty-little-tradwives" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">dignity</a>&nbsp;&mdash; and highlights what actually makes women safer: functional systems, safe public transport, responsive policing, real consequences, and long-term cultural change. Across societies, women are taught that safety comes with conditions: curfews, dress codes, restricted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/the-fairest-of-them-all" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">mobility,</a>&nbsp;constant vigilance. After every high-profile assault, the response is familiar &mdash; limit women&rsquo;s movement, not expand accountability.&nbsp;In the Safety Trap, Unladylike examines what the data actually shows. Global and South Asian research confirms that restricting women does not reduce violence. Instead, it reduces reporting, limits opportunity, and shifts responsibility away from institutions and onto women&rsquo;s bodies.&nbsp;Drawing on evidence from the World Health Organization, UN Women, the World Bank, and regional studies from South Asia, this episode dismantles the myth that control equals protection. It shows why most violence comes from people women already know &mdash; and why curfews and confinement fail to address the real risk.&nbsp;Unladylike &mdash; The Safety Trap asks a simple question:&nbsp;If women have followed the rules and violence hasn&rsquo;t stopped, who were those rules really protecting?

The episode reveals that restricting women doesn’t prevent violence; true safety requires systemic change, accountability, and cultural shifts, not curfews or confinement, which shift responsibility from institutions to women.

The Safety Trap | UNLADYLIKE

This episode of Unladylike examines how colorism became one of the most deeply normalized forms of discrimination worldwide. It traces back the colonial roots of lighter skin bias, the rise of skin lightening products marketed as pathways to success, and the billion-dollar industries that profited by turning melanin into a defect. Drawing on global research and public health data, it shows how colourism continues to shape mental health, beauty standards, social mobility, and media representation today. From toxic products and disease mongering to the psychological costs of internalised bias, The Fairest of Them All reveals how a colonial standard survived political change and independence by simply adapting its language. The episode also highlights how these ideas are now being questioned, challenged, and unlearned by women reclaiming their skin and refusing to apologize for it. This is not a story about beauty. It is a story about power and how it is finally being unlearned.

From toxic products and disease mongering to the psychological costs of internalised bias, The Fairest of Them All reveals how a colonial standard survived political change and independence by simply adapting its language; episode highlights how these ideas are now being questioned, challenged, and unlearned by women reclaiming their skin and refusing to apologize for it.



The fairest of them all

&nbsp;Across history, women&rsquo;s bodies have been treated as fragile, dangerous, or in need of supervision. Keeping Up With the Uterus traces how these ideas evolve, from outdated medical theories to modern moral panics around vaccines, medication, and reproductive health. This episode shows that widespread fears about women&rsquo;s reproduction are rarely supported by evidence. Research consistently finds no scientific basis for claims linking routine medicines, vaccines, clothing, or physical activity to infertility or moral decline.&nbsp;Instead, studies on health misinformation show how false claims spread rapidly through social networks, shaping public opinion and influencing policy. The episode also examines human-rights and medical research documenting the consequences of reproductive restrictions. This includes delayed or denied healthcare, criminalization of pregnancy loss, and increased health risks when access to care is limited.&nbsp; By placing today&rsquo;s debates alongside their historical roots, Unladylike reveals how &ldquo;concern&rdquo; for women&rsquo;s health is repeatedly used to justify control rather than evidence-based care.

Keeping up with the uterus

The &ldquo;perfect wife&rdquo; didn&rsquo;t disappear with the 1950s. She adapted, rebranded, and logged into TikTok. This episode of Unladylike dives into how a postwar fantasy evolved into a glossy digital persona. The image that once sold soap now sells lifestyle coaching, domestic aesthetics, affiliate links, and a highly profitable version of submission. We examine the creators pushing this narrative, the businesses benefiting from it, and the tension between tradwife imagery and what women actually want for their lives. So the next time a tradwife you follow urges you to depend on your man, stop and ask: does she?

The “perfect wife” didn’t stay in the 1950s. She adapted, rebranded, and built a TikTok persona that sells soft lighting, sourdough… and submission.

Pretty little tradwives

The real witch hunts weren&rsquo;t about cauldrons or curses, they were about control. In early modern Europe, 3 out of 4 people executed for witchcraft were women: widows, midwives, healers, and women who dared to read, question, or live without a husband.&nbsp;Their &ldquo;crime&rdquo; was independence, and patriarchy used superstition as a weapon. Entire villages were wiped out, trials filled with paranoia, and scholars like Jean Bodin even claimed women were spiritually weak and vulnerable to evil, a convenient excuse to police female autonomy.&nbsp;And the truth is, the witch hunt never stopped. Today, women are still punished for saying no, for demanding rights, for existing outside male approval.&nbsp;Mahsa Amini, Sana Yousaf, Marielle Franco, Anna Politkovskaya &mdash; different centuries, same fear of women who refuse to be quiet. The labels have changed. The violence hasn&rsquo;t. If reading, questioning, healing or simply being independent made you a &ldquo;witch,&rdquo; would you have survived the hunt?

Uncovering the truth behind witch hunts: a fight for control over women’s autonomy, from the past to the present. Independence was their ‘crime.’ Will we survive today?

Articles tagged with "UNLADYLIKE"

The Pink Tax: Unladylike

The Safety Trap | UNLADYLIKE

The fairest of them all

Keeping up with the uterus

Pretty little tradwives

Witches: The originally canceled