Latest / We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism / Ep. 16: It's Tough to Be A ... Woman

Transcript

Ep. 16: It's Tough to Be A ... Woman · We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism

• 0:00
  Welcome to the We Are More podcast.
• 0:13
  My name is Alyssa.
• 0:15
  And my name is Bri.
• 0:16
  We are two sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism.
• 0:20
  We believe that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach His
• 0:25
  word.
• 0:26
  And apparently that's controversial.
• 0:28
  Get comfy.
• 0:34
  Hello my name is Brianna.
• 0:36
  Is it?
• 0:37
  They haven't figured that out by now.
• 0:40
  Hello.
• 0:41
  If there's anybody out there who is, you know, a podcast creator and they know more about
• 0:48
  technology than we know.
• 0:50
  Please help us.
• 0:51
  There's too many chords here and we're confused.
• 0:55
  We're going to call today on this episode that we're not going to name because we've
• 0:59
  learned that lesson.
• 1:00
  I thought we did name it.
• 1:01
  Oh, we're not numbering.
• 1:02
  We're not numbering it.
• 1:03
  We named it though and it's a good name.
• 1:05
  It is a good name.
• 1:08
  It's a good name if you're an old Disney addict and also you might be related to us.
• 1:17
  So we're going to call today, it's tough to be a bug.
• 1:20
  I mean, I mean, woman.
• 1:22
  And if you don't get that reference, it's from Disney.
• 1:27
  Of course it is.
• 1:28
  A Bugs Life.
• 1:29
  And that guy, I forget his name, but he sings, he was like, was a bug, little bug, hardly
• 1:37
  there.
• 1:38
  You were going to find an opportunity to sing that song today.
• 1:41
  And this is it.
• 1:42
  In Disney, if you go to Animal Kingdom, it's actually not going to be there for very long.
• 1:47
  They're, they're re theming, I guess.
• 1:50
  I actually didn't know that, but it needs to be rethemed.
• 1:54
  So in the tree of life inside the big tree, there's a performance and it's called, it's
• 1:58
  tough to be a bug.
• 2:01
  And it scarred me as a child.
• 2:02
  It scarred my daughter also.
• 2:03
  Honestly, last time we were there, I hadn't gone into it's tough to be a bug in a while.
• 2:10
  And I did last time.
• 2:12
  That did scar me too.
• 2:13
  There's like a stink bug and there's little ants or bugs that crawl onto your butt.
• 2:18
  And there's big old spiders.
• 2:21
  You'd think as an adult, that wouldn't be as effective because it's just like little
• 2:25
  air pockets that are blowing up under your seat and kind of at the bottom by your feet
• 2:31
  or whatever, but it's still terrifying.
• 2:33
  It's horrible.
• 2:34
  And if you don't like bugs, get out of there.
• 2:38
  Just get out.
• 2:39
  If you don't like bugs, maybe going to a performance called it's tough to be a bug was not your
• 2:44
  best life choice.
• 2:45
  I do like the movie though.
• 2:46
  I like the movie a bug's life.
• 2:48
  Cause they collect like seeds and berries and there's something pleasant about that.
• 2:53
  It scared me as a child because they've got the grasshoppers and they're straight up evil.
• 2:59
  They're scary and mean.
• 3:00
  And then doesn't like the one gets eaten by a bird at the end, right?
• 3:04
  Well, it deserves it cause it was mean.
• 3:06
  But yeah, it's really scarring.
• 3:10
  Old Disney was scary and scarring.
• 3:14
  So today instead of a bug, we're talking about womanhood.
• 3:20
  It's hard being a woman.
• 3:23
  And like you'd think 2024, okay, we probably should have figured some stuff out.
• 3:28
  I get back in the day, you know, you had to go to the desert to bleed.
• 3:33
  Sorry.
• 3:34
  Maybe we need a warning before we, we're going to be talking about womanhood.
• 3:38
  So if you're uncomfortable with that, maybe stop listening.
• 3:42
  If you haven't figured out the topic of the entire podcast, now is the moment.
• 3:47
  It's the thought of, you know, tampons and feminine hygiene makes you uncomfortable.
• 3:57
  The exits are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,
• 4:01
  here.
• 4:02
  Dad, just go ahead and log off right now.
• 4:03
  Just skip this one.
• 4:05
  Sorry dad.
• 4:06
  Hey, a new meme.
• 4:09
  A new one.
• 4:10
  Sorry dad.
• 4:11
  Tampons.
• 4:12
  One time I scared Brandon, but he was gone and he, we were pulling pranks on each other.
• 4:22
  He turned my whole dresser upside down.
• 4:23
  Yada, yada, yada.
• 4:24
  I strung pads and tampons like streamers so that when he opened his door, they just went
• 4:29
  pow.
• 4:30
  I'm sure he loved that.
• 4:33
  I think he did.
• 4:34
  We grew up in, our dad in particular is very sensitive when it comes to talking about periods
• 4:42
  and any of the feminine hygiene stuff.
• 4:44
  He just can't.
• 4:45
  He just can't.
• 4:46
  And he has two daughters and a wife.
• 4:49
  Like a tampon commercial comes on the TV.
• 4:51
  Okay.
• 4:52
  And I'm not talking about the modern ones where they actually use like red liquid.
• 4:56
  Like when they were using blue Kool-Aid.
• 4:58
  Okay.
• 4:59
  And it would come on and he'd go, oh, and either pause it if we had DVR at the time.
• 5:08
  Or he would literally run out of the room.
• 5:12
  So this is going to be a rough one for dad.
• 5:13
  You need to grow up.
• 5:16
  This is happening and you can't stop it.
• 5:20
  So we read an article or I read an article, we talked about it, that was essentially,
• 5:25
  does it cost more to be a woman?
• 5:29
  Just from a financial standpoint, does it cost more money to be a woman?
• 5:35
  And we'll dive into each individual topic, but the conclusion, so we could just skip
• 5:40
  to the end, is that-
• 5:42
  Yes.
• 5:43
  Yes.
• 5:44
  But not just because of pads and tampons.
• 5:47
  No, for many reasons.
• 5:50
  It costs on average $300,000 more throughout your lifetime to be a woman.
• 5:58
  A woman.
• 6:00
  Just to be a woman.
• 6:01
  Just to be without a ween.
• 6:07
  And I think when people think of that, a huge stereotype on women is, well, you guys just
• 6:13
  spend way too much on clothes and on trips and on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 6:18
  But we're not talking about optional items here.
• 6:22
  We're talking about necessary things for living as a woman.
• 6:29
  Yes.
• 6:31
  And as I was reading the article, just the thing that popped out to me from that first
• 6:35
  initial 300 grand, what could you buy for $300,000?
• 6:43
  For $300,000, you could send yourself to college.
• 6:47
  You could buy a house.
• 6:48
  You could buy a boat.
• 6:50
  You could, depending on where you are, buy multiple houses.
• 6:52
  You could go on luxury vacations multiple times.
• 6:55
  Literally for your whole life.
• 6:56
  You could go to Disney so many times.
• 6:59
  How many times could we go to Disney?
• 7:01
  If every time we go to Disney-
• 7:02
  Twice!
• 7:03
  Cost us $5,000.
• 7:04
  I'm like, hold on, Brianna!
• 7:07
  Calculator time.
• 7:08
  Alright, Bri, talk while I calculate.
• 7:12
  Well, what else could you buy for $300,000?
• 7:15
  I'd tell you what, 300,000 items at the dollar store.
• 7:21
  No, because it's $1.25 now.
• 7:23
  If you stole them though.
• 7:24
  If you stole them though.
• 7:26
  So if for an average family of four- now this might horrify you if you've not been to Disney,
• 7:33
  but for an average family of four, like for my family, it costs around $5,000 to go to
• 7:43
  Disney with airfare and whatever.
• 7:44
  I don't want any of y'all to judge that.
• 7:47
  It is necessary, okay?
• 7:49
  Get over it.
• 7:50
  Do you want to experience magic in your life?
• 7:52
  That costs money, okay?
• 7:53
  I don't know what to tell you.
• 7:55
  Stop judging us!
• 7:57
  Gosh, dang it!
• 7:59
  I'm sorry, headphone users.
• 8:05
  So anyway, if it costs $5,000 for a family of four to go to Disney, based on that amount
• 8:10
  of money, your family of four could go to Disney 60 times.
• 8:14
  And not enough.
• 8:17
  It's just not enough.
• 8:19
  I mean, you know, can you put a price on wonder and joy?
• 8:23
  I don't think you can.
• 8:24
  I don't think you can.
• 8:28
  So those are some of the things that you could buy for $300,000.
• 8:31
  Casually.
• 8:32
  Casually.
• 8:33
  But then I was also wondering, how much earlier can you retire?
• 8:39
  Could you stop working, say, three years earlier based on the ability to invest that money?
• 8:46
  Just in general, say you don't have to commit to working 40 hours a week.
• 8:50
  You could have good work-life balance.
• 8:51
  Right.
• 8:52
  Well, and that was the other question I had is like, how much more does a woman have to
• 8:56
  make to live comfortably as a woman, to have the same lifestyle as a man?
• 9:01
  Let's say as a single woman, you need to make X amount of dollars to be able to pay for
• 9:06
  all of this extra crap.
• 9:09
  And a man doesn't have to make that much.
• 9:11
  Now again, statistically, there's a wage gap.
• 9:14
  And so men are making more anyway.
• 9:18
  And so we're even further away from an easier lifestyle.
• 9:24
  They say that's because men will apply for jobs if they are like 62% qualified for that
• 9:30
  job.
• 9:31
  But a woman will only apply for that job if she's like 85% qualified for that job.
• 9:36
  Well, I think that ties in because we'll talk about this a little bit later too, but women
• 9:41
  are taught to be meek and mild, to not ruffle feathers, to not rock the boat.
• 9:49
  I don't want to make that person uncomfortable.
• 9:50
  Exactly.
• 9:51
  If I don't feel that I'm qualified for a job, I may not apply for it because I don't want
• 9:56
  that person to judge me or to feel like they have to hire me or to whatever.
• 10:03
  So we're going to come back to that.
• 10:04
  We'll circle back to that.
• 10:05
  We'll circle back.
• 10:07
  So the article goes through quite a few different pieces of that $300,000 amount.
• 10:12
  Just in case you don't believe us, there's lots of stats.
• 10:14
  Don't believe me?
• 10:15
  Ask the dishes.
• 10:17
  Disney has really filtered into the last three episodes, guys.
• 10:20
  We're going in 42 days.
• 10:22
  We're very excited.
• 10:23
  Honestly, they can sing, they can dance.
• 10:27
  After all, this is France.
• 10:29
  So one of the first things that she talks about in this article, and if you want to
• 10:33
  look it up, it's on hermoney.com.
• 10:37
  It's called Why It Costs $300,000 More to Be a Woman Than It Does to Be a Man.
• 10:41
  So you can look that article up.
• 10:42
  She's got some wonderful sources in here.
• 10:44
  Wonderful.
• 10:45
  The first thing she brings up is just a singular example of a singular item, and it's shampoo.
• 10:53
  Shampoo.
• 10:54
  In French, it's shampoo-y.
• 10:58
  Thank you for that information.
• 11:02
  So she says that shampoo for women is 48% more expensive than it is for men.
• 11:09
  That doesn't mean it's better.
• 11:10
  It really doesn't.
• 11:12
  And that's just a singular problem.
• 11:13
  We're not even taking into account the fact that stereotypically women are buying shampoo,
• 11:18
  conditioner, a hair mask, 7,000 other things, and men are not necessarily doing that.
• 11:24
  So just strictly shampoo.
• 11:25
  So that means that if a man was to spend $6 for a bottle of shampoo, a woman would spend
• 11:30
  $9.
• 11:31
  I don't know about you, but it's a lot less than I'm spending on shampoo.
• 11:34
  I know.
• 11:35
  Shampoo's stupid.
• 11:36
  It's expensive.
• 11:37
  But I don't have to buy as much because curly hair is dry.
• 11:39
  So that doesn't sound like a crazy amount right off the bat.
• 11:44
  Six to nine dollars, okay, three dollar difference, whatever.
• 11:47
  But over a lifetime, and I think she considers a lifetime from when you become, not that
• 11:54
  this is your whole lifetime, but she's counting from when you are 18.
• 11:58
  So you're going to start buying your own products.
• 12:01
  And people might start earlier than that, but 18 on average.
• 12:05
  And then she goes up to, I believe, 78, which is the average lifespan of a woman in the
• 12:10
  United States.
• 12:11
  So that's $1,260 more in our lifetimes on shampoo.
• 12:17
  And that doesn't seem like, oh, like a crazy amount for a whole lifetime worth of shampoo.
• 12:23
  But that's, like you said, that's one product.
• 12:26
  And you know, for certain, there's lots of other products we're using.
• 12:31
  Well, let me tell you about them, Bree.
• 12:33
  Oh, Alyssa, I would just love you too.
• 12:36
  Shoot, dang.
• 12:38
  So the next one we'll go into is period products.
• 12:42
  Oh, warning.
• 12:44
  Bree, oh, do our transition music.
• 12:49
  I'm always ready for a transition.
• 12:55
  So period products, according to the National Organization for Women, most women spend about
• 13:02
  $20 a month on period products.
• 13:04
  Easily.
• 13:05
  Yeah.
• 13:06
  I don't know if that rings true for everyone, but for Bree and I, we were talking about the
• 13:10
  different products that we have to buy.
• 13:12
  And it's not just one thing.
• 13:13
  No, because if you didn't know out there, there's a lot of different products.
• 13:18
  It's not just a tampon.
• 13:20
  There are days where you want to use tampons.
• 13:22
  There are times where you just want to use a pad.
• 13:24
  There are times when you want to use those little menstrual discs because that's more
• 13:27
  comfortable.
• 13:28
  Some people don't want that, but some people do.
• 13:30
  And also you got to think of mitol and Tylenol and new underwear because gosh dang it, you
• 13:36
  bled through it again.
• 13:39
  A couple other things too, I'm sure.
• 13:42
  So this is, this number, this $20 a month, I think is just period products though.
• 13:49
  So your box of tampons for the month or whatever.
• 13:52
  Your harpoons, your lagoons and your whatnots.
• 13:56
  But obviously there are so many other costs.
• 13:59
  And that's, I mean, forget even things like birth control, stuff like that.
• 14:05
  So many just feminine care products.
• 14:08
  Well, I would say what the average price for a box of tampons now is like $8.
• 14:17
  That's on the cheap side actually.
• 14:19
  Yeah.
• 14:20
  And that's just one product.
• 14:21
  So then if you're also getting pads and say that's $8, which I think they're even, if
• 14:25
  you get the nicer ones, they're more than that.
• 14:27
  Yeah, if you want one set, don't contain arsenic and lead.
• 14:32
  We'll get into it, Bree.
• 14:35
  We'll get into it.
• 14:36
  Then you do need to spend a bit more.
• 14:40
  So over a lifetime, moving on.
• 14:46
  Over a lifetime, that $20 a month.
• 14:48
  So that again, she counts from age 18.
• 14:51
  Obviously this one doesn't go until 78, but I think she counts it from like age 18 till
• 14:55
  50.
• 14:56
  So that's like age 50ish.
• 14:57
  That's $18,000.
• 15:00
  Just because we bleed.
• 15:04
  And this is not, if you want to make this argument of, well, women just spend more in
• 15:08
  general, this is non-negotiable.
• 15:12
  We don't get to decide whether we use period products.
• 15:15
  Because let me tell you, if I show up to work bleeding through my pants, I think someone's
• 15:20
  going to say something.
• 15:22
  Maybe they just want us to go back to the desert, bleed in the sand.
• 15:27
  There was an episode of Naked and Afraid we watched not too long ago.
• 15:31
  I don't know if you watched it with us.
• 15:33
  I do not watch Naked and Afraid.
• 15:36
  It is quite a show.
• 15:37
  I didn't realize it was still going.
• 15:39
  But this woman, she was on her period while they were filming.
• 15:43
  And I don't know why more women are not on their periods during this show, because a
• 15:48
  lot of them are there for a full month.
• 15:51
  But it definitely addressed the fact that she was just bleeding all day.
• 15:57
  And wow, what an experience.
• 16:00
  A little offshoot there.
• 16:03
  All right.
• 16:04
  Alyssa's eyes just glazed over and she looked into the distance like she was terrified.
• 16:08
  I was terrified.
• 16:10
  I just can't imagine that.
• 16:12
  Can you imagine the mosquitoes having a field day?
• 16:16
  Stop.
• 16:18
  But another thing that I was reading about, because this was, this is a really big topic
• 16:24
  and this could obviously be something that we go into deeper later, but this is just
• 16:28
  part of what we're talking about today.
• 16:29
  A huge part of having to spend this $18,000 throughout our lifetimes is that a lot of
• 16:37
  women can't.
• 16:39
  And so that's called period poverty, which is something that's uncomfy and that people
• 16:44
  don't like to talk about.
• 16:46
  But you get someone who is already impoverished, who's already struggling, and then you take
• 16:52
  inflation into account.
• 16:54
  You take how expensive housing is into account.
• 17:00
  And do you think they are sitting on an extra $20 a month to buy proper, safe, healthy period
• 17:08
  products?
• 17:09
  So instead, they are trying to use less.
• 17:14
  So they're maybe using their tampons for too long.
• 17:18
  Which can lead to toxic shock syndrome, which can kill you.
• 17:23
  They are overusing a pad, which means embarrassing leakage, which means the potential for infection.
• 17:33
  The list goes on and on and you can say, we'll give them something reusable.
• 17:37
  The reusable thing might only cost $40 or $50.
• 17:42
  But that's the hard thing about being in poverty is if you can't afford the $5 box of cheap
• 17:51
  tampons, you certainly can't afford the initial cost, even though it would save you money
• 17:55
  long term, of a $40 or $50 reusable disc or cup or any of those things.
• 18:02
  Additionally, for homeless shelters, things like that, these are not necessarily items
• 18:08
  that are thought about and donated.
• 18:11
  There's just a huge lack there.
• 18:15
  So just having a period is incredibly difficult.
• 18:20
  And it's an expense you don't have a choice.
• 18:26
  And forget about the emotional things going on.
• 18:28
  There's so much more that you could talk about, but we are 20 minutes in.
• 18:33
  So move on.
• 18:35
  Well, shoot.
• 18:37
  So the next thing that she talks about, I'm going a little bit out of order, but one of
• 18:40
  the other things she talks about is home ownership.
• 18:43
  A single woman is likely to spend 2% more on her home than a single man.
• 18:52
  And then she is likely to sell it for 2% less than a single man.
• 18:56
  2% you don't think is huge until you realize how much is the price of a home.
• 19:04
  It's a lot.
• 19:05
  The average price of a home in the US is what, like $375,000?
• 19:09
  $375,000.
• 19:10
  I'm really knowledgeable, thank you.
• 19:13
  So that means that 2% more is $7,500.
• 19:17
  And think about when you buy a new home, all of the expenses that come with it.
• 19:22
  Maybe you need a new couch, maybe you need a new bed, maybe the house needs some renovations.
• 19:27
  $7,500 goes a long way.
• 19:30
  So then the question becomes why?
• 19:32
  Why is that the case?
• 19:34
  And she says it's a failure to negotiate.
• 19:37
  And so as Bri and I were talking about that, we said, well, why are women less likely to
• 19:41
  negotiate?
• 19:42
  And this ties back into why there's a wage gap.
• 19:47
  Women are taught, particularly to tie this back into our whole aesthetic, Christian women
• 19:53
  especially, religious women especially, not to say that this isn't all women, but from
• 19:59
  our little corner of the woods over here, are taught be meek and mild, be unassuming,
• 20:07
  don't be an inconvenience.
• 20:10
  And the way that that plays out here is a wage gap.
• 20:15
  Is a gap in how much you're going to pay for your home.
• 20:19
  Or even if you do try to negotiate, they don't always take you seriously.
• 20:24
  In my experience with buying many, many cars, bought a lot of cars, they just don't want
• 20:31
  to hear it from someone that they think is weak or weaker than them, or someone that
• 20:38
  they don't feel they can even respect.
• 20:42
  That's my feelings on it is they're not even going to give you the time of day.
• 20:48
  Well, I think oftentimes in these situations, women are seen as less knowledgeable.
• 20:54
  I remember when we were looking for our house, and I did like our realtor a lot, don't get
• 21:01
  me wrong, but he would turn to Nathan to talk about this and that and the other thing about
• 21:06
  the house.
• 21:07
  And in my past, I was a real estate assistant and so I took a lot of the classes to become
• 21:13
  an agent.
• 21:14
  And so I had a lot of knowledge.
• 21:17
  And eventually he got to a point where he would talk to me too.
• 21:21
  But it took a lot for him to talk to me.
• 21:26
  Because I was seen as less knowledgeable just because I'm a woman.
• 21:30
  I mean, he didn't know us at all, so that had to be the only reason.
• 21:35
  So then she talked about clothes.
• 21:38
  Now women get crap for clothes all the time.
• 21:40
  I have a lot of clothes.
• 21:42
  I enjoy purchasing clothes.
• 21:43
  I'm looking around my room right now.
• 21:46
  I'm thinking I need to burn everything.
• 21:52
  So this number for clothing within that $300,000, so we're still working within that.
• 21:58
  All she calculated for is shirts.
• 22:01
  She was like, I'm not even going to go into formal dresses or wedding clothes or maternity
• 22:07
  clothes or any of that stuff.
• 22:08
  So we're just talking about shirts.
• 22:11
  And she calculated out only as if a woman bought a new shirt every two months.
• 22:18
  Now women pay on average $5 more per shirt than a man would.
• 22:25
  So over a lifetime, that's a $1,500 difference.
• 22:29
  Just in shirts and not to an excess.
• 22:33
  We're not talking about a woman that loves to go shopping a ton or a man that loves to
• 22:38
  go shopping a ton.
• 22:39
  We're just talking if every two months reasonably you're replacing one shirt because good heavens
• 22:46
  you've probably worn through them.
• 22:48
  Or you've spilled countless times on your white clothing.
• 22:54
  And stained it irreversibly.
• 22:59
  So that's how clothing calculates into that number.
• 23:01
  And I think if you did start to calculate out maternity clothes, like the millions of
• 23:06
  other things that women have to buy.
• 23:08
  I'm going to start on maternity clothes.
• 23:09
  I haven't even had a baby.
• 23:10
  I just think it's so frustrating that you go to try to buy maternity clothes and they
• 23:15
  cost so much money.
• 23:16
  It's insane.
• 23:17
  Oh my gosh, just because there's a little extra fabric in your bump.
• 23:21
  And sometimes there's not even extra fabric.
• 23:23
  Sometimes it's just that it's ruched on the side.
• 23:25
  Like a top is just ruched.
• 23:26
  Or it's just branded as maternity.
• 23:28
  Or it's slightly bigger in size.
• 23:30
  So then she talks about the pink tacks.
• 23:34
  Anytime I go to Victoria's Secret, I get just hit with a ton of tacks.
• 23:39
  No, just kidding.
• 23:41
  Rihanna.
• 23:42
  So this is the concept that anything pink, not necessarily pink, but made for women,
• 23:48
  costs more.
• 23:50
  And there's an estimate, let me look back at where she found this estimate.
• 23:54
  Things like razors for women.
• 23:56
  Really, there's no difference between men and women's razors, but they're pink.
• 24:03
  And so they cost more.
• 24:04
  So I looked it up on Amazon to find examples of it.
• 24:08
  And Gillette has...
• 24:09
  I was going to say that.
• 24:10
  Yeah.
• 24:11
  Disposable pink razors.
• 24:13
  And they were 1997.
• 24:14
  And I looked up the same razors.
• 24:16
  Now these are cheap, disposable, whatever razors.
• 24:19
  For men, 14.97.
• 24:21
  I was thinking about pens.
• 24:23
  Oh, okay.
• 24:24
  Yeah.
• 24:25
  Like, Bic has pens for her.
• 24:28
  And they're like pink and purple.
• 24:30
  And they cost way more than just a regular set of pens.
• 24:33
  So a study in...
• 24:36
  It was conducted by the state of California in 1994.
• 24:38
  So it was a long time ago.
• 24:39
  This has been going on for a while.
• 24:41
  It wasn't that long ago.
• 24:43
  And shut up.
• 24:44
  Long ago.
• 24:45
  When the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
• 24:48
  So long ago.
• 24:49
  They have to dust off the pages.
• 24:55
  So they estimated that the pink tax costs women an extra $1,350 a year.
• 25:03
  So in today's money, that would be $2,200.
• 25:05
  Yeah.
• 25:06
  And I believe it.
• 25:07
  Now, I would almost estimate that to be more, but that was what the study said.
• 25:13
  So in approximately 60 years, so from age 18 to age 78.
• 25:18
  Now some people would say that's a long time.
• 25:24
  Maybe not 30 years.
• 25:25
  But others might say that 30 years was a long time.
• 25:29
  And then she killed her sister.
• 25:33
  She murdered her dead.
• 25:35
  And the police had to come and haul her away.
• 25:38
  This is going to get flagged.
• 25:39
  Brianna ran into the forest, which she's never seen again.
• 25:42
  And she had her period there.
• 25:46
  And she bled and then a bear ate her.
• 25:50
  And she said, dang, I'm glad it wasn't a man.
• 25:52
  Wow.
• 25:53
  And then she died too.
• 25:54
  The story has layers.
• 25:55
  Sneak and cut this out.
• 25:56
  No, I'm keeping this part in.
• 25:57
  So over a lifetime, that $2,200 equates to $132,000 more spent than men.
• 26:13
  So I'm going to speed through the next couple, even though they are really, really important.
• 26:18
  So the next one is beauty products.
• 26:20
  Beauty products.
• 26:21
  And I think this one's huge.
• 26:22
  So she says that there's a study done by the online retailer Skin Store.
• 26:30
  And it showed that women in the US, on average, spend $300,000 in beauty products over the
• 26:35
  course of their lifetime.
• 26:37
  Now she didn't take into account all of that 300 grand.
• 26:39
  She said, let's assume that you're real thrifty and you don't spend a lot on beauty products.
• 26:44
  Still, you're probably going to spend 100 grand on beauty products.
• 26:49
  So that's what jumps into that $300,000 number.
• 26:52
  Because we need to be young and beautiful.
• 26:54
  So that, yeah, I'm sure that this number in particular gets criticized.
• 26:58
  Well, you don't need to spend that much.
• 27:00
  Women are too over-makeuped anyway.
• 27:03
  Blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:05
  And yet, we talked about this in the last episode.
• 27:09
  You show men a picture of a girl with no makeup on, and they're like, oh, she looks terrible.
• 27:17
  You show them a picture of a girl with natural makeup on, and it's like, oh, see, that's
• 27:21
  what I want.
• 27:22
  A natural woman.
• 27:23
  Do you know how much it costs to look like a natural woman?
• 27:27
  Or say, heaven forbid, you go to work and you didn't do your makeup like you usually
• 27:32
  do and people are like, are you okay?
• 27:34
  You look exhausted.
• 27:35
  Do you need to go home and rest?
• 27:37
  Yeah, so there's this huge pressure to purchase all of these things.
• 27:41
  This is just my freaking face.
• 27:43
  I am sorry.
• 27:44
  I am exhausted.
• 27:46
  You exhaust me.
• 27:47
  Get out of my face.
• 27:49
  You're very emotional this episode.
• 27:51
  Maybe I'm on my period.
• 27:52
  Do you know?
• 27:53
  I don't know.
• 27:55
  But I think also, again, from this Christian standpoint, women are told that they have
• 28:00
  to look a certain way to please their husbands.
• 28:03
  We're supposed to look youthful and put together, and our hair has to be done just so, and our
• 28:11
  makeup has to be done just so.
• 28:13
  Otherwise, his eyes may wander, and it will be your fault.
• 28:18
  And that costs money.
• 28:20
  I'm looking at a $30 lip mask right next to me.
• 28:23
  It does cost money.
• 28:25
  You're talking about even for the simplest self-care routine, right?
• 28:31
  A cleanser, a moisturizer, just to keep the wrinkles at bay, because if you look too old
• 28:37
  too soon, it's liable to just leave and run off and find a younger woman.
• 28:43
  And then for makeup, you're talking foundation, powder, eyeshadow, eyebrows, lip color, and
• 28:52
  that's at the very simplest.
• 28:54
  I've got at least 30 additional products in my bag.
• 28:57
  For your hair, you're talking about shampoo, conditioner.
• 29:01
  Hairspray at bare minimum.
• 29:04
  And then blow dryer, a straightener, a curling iron, all of which need to be replaced fairly
• 29:11
  regularly.
• 29:12
  It's just so hard because I really think this is probably the most contested part of the
• 29:17
  whole article of just like, you don't need to spend that, you don't need to whatever.
• 29:22
  But based on what we are told by the media, by men, by other women, by our churches, by
• 29:31
  ourselves, we do.
• 29:35
  This is not optional.
• 29:36
  And maybe you're not buying the top of the line of everything, even if you're buying
• 29:43
  drugstore brand makeup, that still costs a lot.
• 29:46
  Men, do you know that a bottle of foundation that lasts you, what, if you're lucky, two
• 29:51
  months?
• 29:52
  Oh, very lucky.
• 29:53
  From the drugstore can cost $12, $13, $15?
• 29:58
  And that's just one thing.
• 29:59
  And that's potentially the cheapest end of things.
• 30:02
  When you start to go into the cheapest end, and again, you're starting to look at really
• 30:06
  toxic, scary ingredients.
• 30:08
  Yeah.
• 30:09
  Bre, tell me more about toxic, scary ingredients.
• 30:12
  Ladies and gentlemen, I've been waiting for this moment because guess why?
• 30:18
  I've been on TikTok again, and I discovered that there is lead and arsenic and other kinds
• 30:24
  of metals and chemicals chilling out in our harpoon tampons.
• 30:29
  People don't know what harpoons are.
• 30:31
  They're chilling out in our tampons.
• 30:33
  There you go.
• 30:35
  And I was like, no way.
• 30:36
  This is crazy.
• 30:37
  This is TikTok.
• 30:38
  It can't be real.
• 30:39
  No, there are studies on it.
• 30:41
  University of Berkeley?
• 30:43
  Yep.
• 30:44
  Is that what?
• 30:45
  University of Berkeley?
• 30:46
  Yeah, they did a study on it and they found traces of all these different metals in the
• 30:49
  tampons.
• 30:50
  Like why?
• 30:51
  Probably honestly, because it's cheaper for the, for Kotex and whoever else to make things
• 30:58
  that way.
• 30:59
  But you think about that going into that part of your body where the skin and whatever down
• 31:05
  there absorbs so much more.
• 31:08
  It's leading to dementia.
• 31:09
  It's leading to cancer.
• 31:11
  It's leading to all kinds of different diseases.
• 31:13
  And we don't know that it's happening to us.
• 31:17
  How many tampons do you go through in a period?
• 31:19
  You don't use them, so you don't know.
• 31:21
  But I'll tell you a lot.
• 31:24
  Well and that's the scary thing is this is just a regular thing that you're, it reminds
• 31:28
  me of back in the Victorian era where they would put lead makeup on.
• 31:34
  And then like their skin was literally falling off their face, but they would just keep putting
• 31:37
  more lead makeup on.
• 31:38
  Because they didn't know what else to do.
• 31:39
  Or their teeth were falling out.
• 31:40
  Yeah.
• 31:41
  Yeah.
• 31:42
  Because what else are you supposed to do?
• 31:44
  That's what you have.
• 31:45
  That's what you have access to.
• 31:46
  And you think that's just one product.
• 31:49
  Think about all of the other stuff that we use on a day to day basis.
• 31:53
  We have, I'm getting a little crunchy now, but like I don't know what's in my, I do use
• 31:58
  a drugstore brand foundation.
• 31:59
  I don't know what's in there.
• 32:00
  Yeah.
• 32:01
  I don't know what's in there.
• 32:02
  And I put it on my face every day and now I have a giant pimple on my face right now.
• 32:06
  And probably it's that.
• 32:08
  Probably it's that.
• 32:10
  I think that leads great into her last point.
• 32:13
  And that's healthcare.
• 32:14
  Ooh la la.
• 32:15
  Look at us transitioning into topics.
• 32:22
  So women spend significantly more on healthcare in their lifetimes.
• 32:28
  Because we care.
• 32:31
  Well, not necessarily.
• 32:32
  Not necessarily.
• 32:33
  We haven't been to a doctor in a while.
• 32:34
  Part of it is certainly seeking medical attention.
• 32:39
  But in the numbers that she talked about, this was like men and women seeking out healthcare
• 32:45
  equally.
• 32:46
  However, there was a study that said women aged 19 to 34 in 2015 spent a little over
• 32:56
  $3,400 on healthcare costs per year.
• 32:59
  So that's doctor's visits, medications, surgeries, anything you need in your life, right?
• 33:07
  Between ages 19 to 34.
• 33:09
  Compared to that, men only spent a little under $1,900 on their healthcare per year.
• 33:16
  If you take those actual numbers, I kind of rounded them.
• 33:19
  But that's a difference of $1,511 in one year.
• 33:24
  If you take those years and you kind of like push them out, assume that that holds true
• 33:29
  throughout your lifetime, that is $75,550 over the course of 50 years.
• 33:36
  I'm not sitting on that kind of cash, honey.
• 33:39
  I mean, you're not, but it's because you require more healthcare.
• 33:44
  And why is that?
• 33:45
  There is the gap coming in.
• 33:47
  If they're both seeking healthcare at the same level, what's going on?
• 33:52
  So they said it's largely due to female wellness visits, like gynecology appointments, which
• 33:58
  we need regularly because we have more systems down there that can get screwed up.
• 34:03
  We're complicated.
• 34:04
  We are complicated in there.
• 34:06
  And then the fact that women are the ones that give birth.
• 34:10
  That's huge to me.
• 34:12
  Yeah, it is.
• 34:13
  It's not fair.
• 34:14
  Well, she said that in the United States, and this article came out in 2022, and I'm
• 34:20
  not sure what year she got these numbers from because I think it's significantly higher
• 34:26
  at this point.
• 34:28
  But she says that women who give birth can expect in the United States without insurance
• 34:32
  to pay $13,000 for a simple vaginal delivery.
• 34:37
  Easily, I would say.
• 34:38
  Yeah, for sure.
• 34:39
  And that obviously depends on where you are.
• 34:42
  And it's going to go up based on what you require.
• 34:45
  If you get an epidural, skyrocketing the price.
• 34:49
  Yeah.
• 34:50
  Do you have any complications at all?
• 34:52
  Do you need to have a C-section?
• 34:53
  Then you're talking about triple the cost.
• 34:55
  Are you having one baby or are you multiple?
• 34:58
  Right.
• 34:59
  And with insurance, you can expect to spend $7,000.
• 35:03
  And that's just one kid one time.
• 35:07
  So those numbers, they're going to add up.
• 35:11
  And you may have a spouse that helps pay for those things.
• 35:16
  You may not.
• 35:18
  You may not have someone able to pay for those things or willing to pay for those things.
• 35:22
  You may not have a partner at all.
• 35:24
  At the end of the day, literally no one in the country is expecting men to pay for part
• 35:32
  of the cost of birth.
• 35:36
  The father is never being asked to pay.
• 35:40
  So if you're not married and on the same insurance plan, it's all on her.
• 35:48
  On the same insurance plan and have combined incomes.
• 35:51
  Right.
• 35:52
  So those are just a lot of the ways it's more expensive to be a girl.
• 35:56
  It's tough out there, ladies.
• 36:00
  And I think it's really important.
• 36:01
  We were watching a YouTube video earlier and it was like, men guess how expensive it is
• 36:07
  to be a woman or something like that.
• 36:10
  They kept giving these guys all these feminine products.
• 36:13
  So they gave them a tampon and-
• 36:15
  Shapewear.
• 36:16
  Yeah, all kinds of different things.
• 36:17
  A bra.
• 36:18
  And they were like, well, what do you think this would cost?
• 36:21
  How much do you think a woman would pay for this throughout her lifetime?
• 36:25
  Whatever.
• 36:26
  And it was, now I don't necessarily expect men to know what a tampon costs.
• 36:32
  I do.
• 36:33
  It's not something that they regularly have to buy.
• 36:36
  So okay, you might not know what it costs.
• 36:39
  But just to realize how in the dark these men were, in my mind, at least if you've ever
• 36:44
  had a partner who is a woman, that you would have some concept of that.
• 36:50
  But no, they did not.
• 36:53
  It was sad.
• 36:55
  But I hope that that opens their eyes.
• 36:58
  And we hope that this opens your eyes too if you aren't experiencing having to purchase
• 37:03
  these things.
• 37:05
  We think that we're in 2024 and things are all hunky dory.
• 37:08
  I think really, we've just hidden the inequality better.
• 37:13
  Yeah.
• 37:15
  Did you know Scotland?
• 37:17
  Scotland!
• 37:18
  Back in 2022, Scotland was the first country in the world to make period products free
• 37:24
  for women.
• 37:26
  Now I understand that there's tax implications.
• 37:31
  There's things like that when you make something free.
• 37:34
  I do hear that.
• 37:35
  And it's a very political thing.
• 37:38
  Because recently, within the last couple of years at least, Michigan was trying to take
• 37:44
  tax off of period products, like sales tax.
• 37:49
  And I remember hearing these arguments from these male politicians of like, if you take
• 37:54
  the tax off, who knows how many tampons they'll buy?
• 37:58
  I'll just buy so many!
• 38:01
  I'm gonna build a house out of tampons and then I'm gonna sell them on the black market!
• 38:09
  It's just so absurd.
• 38:11
  But it's tough on women.
• 38:13
  Do you remember when they sent a woman to space?
• 38:17
  Yes.
• 38:18
  There was a comedian that made a song about it.
• 38:22
  She was on her period, so they were sending her with tampons and they sent her a hundred
• 38:26
  tampons.
• 38:27
  For one period.
• 38:29
  Will that be enough?
• 38:31
  They didn't know!
• 38:32
  And these are scientists, okay?
• 38:34
  These are smart people, in theory.
• 38:37
  Will that be enough?
• 38:38
  How many do you go through?
• 38:40
  You're just popping them in and out like tic tacs?
• 38:43
  Just every ten minutes, like, meh.
• 38:45
  Every ten minutes I have a timer on my phone that says, time to change it!
• 38:49
  Alright, well, on that note, on that really exciting, fun note.
• 38:55
  One hundred tampons!
• 38:56
  That's a good song.
• 38:58
  Thank you guys for holding out this long.
• 39:00
  We appreciate you.
• 39:02
  Comment, questions, concerns?
• 39:04
  Have you noticed any of this?
• 39:06
  What's the silliest thing you've seen branded specifically towards women?
• 39:11
  I would love to know that.
• 39:13
  Branded?
• 39:14
  I thought you said Brandon.
• 39:15
  I was very confused.
• 39:17
  We wanted to- well, I guess I didn't ask you.
• 39:20
  I wanted to say thank you guys too because we just hit a pretty cool milestone.
• 39:26
  We hit 800 downloads overall.
• 39:28
  Hooray!
• 39:29
  And we're seeing you guys engage with us over on tic tac and Instagram.
• 39:36
  And we just appreciate that people are out there wanting to hear us goof off and talk
• 39:41
  about serious things sometimes and have fun.
• 39:45
  Join your welcome.
• 39:48
  We celebrated with Cosmos.
• 39:49
  We did.
• 39:50
  It was a great time.
• 39:51
  And Alyssa threw up.
• 39:52
  I did throw up.
• 39:53
  But I think it was not the Cosmos.
• 39:54
  Alright, we love you guys.
• 39:55
  Goodbye!
• 39:56
  I'm sorry!
• 39:57
  Bye!
• 39:58
  Bye!