Taxes are a sensitive topic for many Americans, whether you believe that we’re not being taxed enough or far too much. Taxing billionaires, the wage gap, gender politics, all of it has come together in a video that has gone viral on Tiktok, where one woman claims that women in America shouldn’t have to pay taxes, at all.
Women’s Rights Are Being Stripped Away
A Tiktokker known to her following as FlexyLexxxy has made a video with a bold claim: women in America shouldn’t be paying taxes, at all. Her reasoning is simple: in her eyes, women are having more and more of their rights stripped away by the day. With less rights, she believes, should come less financial responsibility to the government.
The woman, who is known by her friends and family as Alexa Jay, started the conversation with her video that aired in October of 2023. She was projecting what she would do if she were ever to be elected as president, and made the claim that she would remove the requirement for women to pay taxes.
Doubling Down
While this is obviously a somewhat absurd statement, Alexa doubles down in her video. She claims that she’s entirely serious, that she isn’t trying to be funny or joking, and that she doesn’t believe that women should have to pay taxes.
Her reasoning behind her extraordinary statement is one that is loosely based in history. She states that she doesn’t believe that anyone should have to pay taxes if they don’t have rights, which is a loose interpretation of the famous Founding Fathers reasoning, “no taxation without representation.”
Political Evidence for an Extreme Statement
Alexa’s reasoning can be further understood by looking at recent events in American politics. According to her, women’s rights are slowly being eroded away. The most obvious example of this is, of course, the Supreme Court Dobb’s decision that reverted the decision of abortion legality to the states.
While it’s not necessarily fair to claim that the Supreme Court is entirely at fault for the inequality between men and women, it is a fact that nearly fifty years of political motivation was dedicated towards removing a right that was granted to women by the supreme court: the right to abortion. Federal taxes pay the Supreme Court’s salaries, so it’s a small step to claim that women’s taxes are actively funding the erosion of women’s rights.
Cheers From the Tiktok Audience!
The statement, of course, took off on Tiktok, a platform that thrives off of controversial statements. At the time of this writing, the video has been viewed more than 500,000 times and many of the comments are from women who wholeheartedly agree with Alexa’s statement.
Some commenters on the video took their agreement a step further, though, and provided some evidence to the statement that “women have suffered enough.” According to a recent NPR report, modern women are still spending more than double the amount of time on housework compared to their husbands, and almost two hours more per week tending to caregiving.
Historic Inequality
This claim back ups a historic inequality between the genders, a particularly insidious one leftover from the twentieth century. For instance, prior to 1974 when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed, women weren’t allowed to open a bank account or hold a credit card in her name without the approval of her husband.
Women have also historically been paid less than men, a fact that commenters on Alexa’s video were also quick to point out. In addition to being asked to provide more invisible labor in regards to housekeeping and childrearing, a 2023 Pew Research Center study reveals that the pay gap between men and women remains at $0.81 to every dollar a man makes.
Wage Inequality Has Remained the Same
This number has remained steady over the last few years, though that may be the only silver lining to the wage gap. If the only hope of men and women’s pay is that the inequality remains as it has been rather than getting worse, that’s a fairly bleak future for corporate America.
But gender inequality is not only seen in how much women are paid versus men. It can also be seen in the way that women’s products are taxed at a higher amount than men’s products. Colloquially known as the “pink tax,” it’s a phenomenon that can be seen in actual data.
The “Pink Tax”
A report released by the Progressive Policy Institute reveals that the “pink tax” is a burden that is faced by women all around the world. The study in question reveals that the average tariff on women’s underwear sits around 15.5%, compared to men’s underwear which only faces a tariff of 11.5%.
This means that women are paying a tax rate 4% higher on imports than men are, and it’s a pattern that’s seen throughout industries. Women’s razors have also been shown to be priced higher than men’s, and women’s haircuts can end up being significantly more expensive than men’s.
Ultimately, Unrealistic
The inequality that faces women both socially, politically, and financially cannot be understated. However, taxes are an unfortunate part of life. More than that, taxes and money are one of the ways that individuals can affect real change in our political system.
Stating that women shouldn’t have to pay taxes is a nice clickbait headline, but ultimately unrealistic. Every American citizen needs to pay their taxes, and there are more effective ways to drive the conversation around gender inequality and political motivation.
