Unfortunately kids can be particularly cruel about teasing their classmates who buy the wrong colours or a girl toy for a boy. And adults do not help that attitude. So while we definitely need products in a wide variety of colours (and sometimes also different sizes for different sized hands) and a wide variety of scents we do need to move away from gendering everything and make it more acceptable in society to get stuff in the colour, style and scent you like rather than in what your biological gender says you should get according to society.

My favorite color was blue. I immigrated to America at six years old and I vividly remember feeling ashamed and confused when I’d be directed away from my favorite colors and toward things that were “for me” because of my gender, which culturally dictated pink for girls. I felt like something was wrong with me and I didn’t understand why these obvious things weren’t obvious (nor comfortable) for me. So let’s maybe lay off the entire idea of assigning products and colors and scents according to genitalia.

I had to put together 3 gift baskets as kids’ colouring contest prizes for work recently. It’s honestly SO HARD because everything is so gendered. Every kids’ product I went to pick out was either pink and sparkly or blue/orange/black and very clearly meant for boys. All 3 gift baskets were a mix of toys & candy of both genders but I hope none of the kids or parents were disappointed with what they got. Idk why kids stuff is so heavily divided by gender stereotypes, it’s much easier when I have to make gender neutral adult gift baskets because there’s waaaay more options. Like imagine an adult’s coffee set gift basket, or a bbq gift basket, or a candy & movie night gift basket - so much easier to put together than a kids toy gift basket when you don’t know the gender of the kid or how their parents will react to little Timmy getting a set of sparkly fruit-scented gel pens.

Actually I'm surprised that so many are horrified to learn of the pink tax. Probably I'm being cynical, but I always thought it was a well known issue. In some countries there are even different taxes on women's products and men's products. In Italy for example razors are taxed as necessary items (4%) instead period products are luxury items (22%).