Hell hath no fury like a scorned Men’s Rights Activist on the internet.
Just ask Jolie Alony, who owns Thompson Chemists in New York’s Soho neighborhood ― and who has recently been the target of MRA vitriol due to advertising a tongue-in-cheek seven percent “Man Tax” at her store.
Alony told The Huffington Post that she and her colleagues wanted to raise awareness of the “pink tax” and general price discrimination with women’s products. The pink tax has been a contentious issue in recent years, with multiple states ― including New York ― removing sales tax on feminine hygiene products.
The Thompson Chemist crew put the signs up on Monday, which happened to be Columbus Day, a particularly quiet day in New York City. And while there was no issue with the pharmacy’s customers in-person, once the photos began circulating on Imgur and Reddit ― and once the Thompson Chemists Facebook page shared an article from the Gothamist ― offended men began voicing their collective outrage.
Some choice comments included, “sexist fuckers,” and “Selfcentered [sic] and Bad decision making,” on top of typical meninist whining. “If you REALLY wanted women’s products to cost the same as men’s you would PRICE THEM IDENTICALLY,” one commenter wrote. “You ARE a business and YOU have that power. What you’re doing is called sexism, and it’s wrong. ‘Hashtag gender equality?’ Try treating men the same as women.”
Offended men have also rallied on the pharmacy’s Yelp page, leaving one-star ratings and rambling reviews. “Sexism at its ‘finest,’” one user wrote. “They’re trying to capitalize on social media ‘outrage’ by charging men and women different prices.”
And on top of the excessive online responses, Alony told HuffPost that she’s been getting some pretty outrageous phone calls as well.
“The phone rang so I picked it up, and a man said, ‘Is this is the head cunt?’” and proceeded to accuse her sexism and homophobia.
On the plus side, the in-person response was actually quite positive.
“The response here in New York was great,” Alony said. Apparently, the men who came in didn’t have a problem with the signs out front, and one older woman in the neighborhood told Alony that she wished the pink tax would have been done away with before she hit menopause. “I was always paying extra tax.I could have probably bought a small condominium instead,” she said.
But the best part? Men didn’t actually have to pay extra for their products ― she just gave women a seven percent discount. “We just wanted to show people that there’s ‘pink tax,’ and that women just pay more for things,” Alony told HuffPost.
Amazing what two signs and a seven percent discount can do to the male ego.
Related
Before You Go
