What is a "Pink Tax"?

Question

At the request of a Stack Exchange employee (Catija) I answered the question of

"How would you describe your site in 2-3 lines?"

by stating the following:

"Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair - Where anyone, be it professional mechanic or the homegrown do it yourselfer, can find information regarding the inner workings of Motor Vehicles. This includes subjects related to the maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and their accessories, internal combustion engines, even in applications other than automotive so long as the question is related to engine or engine accessories. And above all, there's no Pink Tax allowed."

This returned the question of:

"What is a Pink Tax?"

Catija also asked me if there was a Meta post on this, to which I answered I really didn't know. Catija did a casual search to discover it only being mentioned in one post, which happened to be the answers to Mod Nomination Questions posted by our very own Bob Cross. He answered the question as:

"... if you haven't heard of it before, is a silly name for grossly sexist behavior often associated with motor vehicles."

I furthered answered Catija by stating:

"When a mechanic charges more just because it's a woman. In our case, it would be looking down on a person for asking a question, just because they are a woman. It happens quite regularly in the "real world" ... homie don't play that here."

Because of the question and the need to ensure everyone knows what is being talked about, I've created this Meta post to hopefully help everyone who is here or who may come here, that treating someone differently due to their sex, age, orientation, or what have you, is not tolerated here. The "Pink Tax" is a real thing in the real world. We don't need it to be a thing here. Please ensure you treat everyone with kindness and respect. They've come here seeking knowledge. If you're here to harass others, for whatever reason, please move on: we don't need you here.

NOTE: As an aside ... TBH, I don't see this type of activity on this site. For the most part, people are treated fairly, though there are some instances which need to taken care of. I implore everyone here, if you do see this type of activity, to please let me or one of the other Mods know so we can deal with it. I would appreciate it and know Bob and Nick would as well. Thank you!

Answer 1

I really like the site summary!

I also agree that the pink tax, in my original attempt to define it, is a fairly well managed issue here. I think the continuing challenge, though, is for us all to try to live by what I’ve always thought of as Code Camp rules (here’s a reasonable example of what I’m talking about). Fundamentally, what they try to remind us is that this is a situation where some of us have much more knowledge about a specific topic than the person asking the question (this the question obviously!). I like having some simple rules on hand so I can avoid unintentionally reading as someone who’s unwelcoming in a variety of avoidable ways.

Plus, getting back to the original point, they reduce the chance that a new visitor will think that they have to pay us a pink tax just to get a straight answer!