Charlotte Alderdice: Um and I think also, particularly with the whole, oh women buy so much stuff, there is ha ha, being a woman myself, I can tell you it’s quite difficult not to, because you go to- you go to a clothing shop If you compare the thickness of a woman’s t-shirt to a man’s t-shirt the woman’s is very very thin, not great quality. It’s going to wear down very quickly. You have to keep going and buying more because they’re not good enough last you a long time. Pockets: so annoying! (Ha ha) We don’t have pockets. A woman’s pockets on her jeans are like a few centimetres which encourages you to buy a bag so you have extra room.

José Cruz: Right. I’ll give you another one, uh while we’re on that topic. Have you ever gone shopping for razor blades?

Charlotte: Ha! Women’s are more expensive than men’s. Exa- yes, that’s exact same thing.

José: Oh what the hell is that? Are your hairs different?

Charlotte: No but you pay extra to get that nice pink colour.

José: And uh uh, I’m sure that there’s like specific shaving creams and and uh af- after- uh skin treatments for shaving, and of course a woman’s is going to be 15% more expensive. And I’m thinking, what the hell? Do women actually buy that stuff and think, yeah, it’s worth it.

Charlotte: Oh no. I know plenty of women who just go to the men’s section. Straight up. And also buys men’s clothes. I mean I buy men’s clothes quite a lot.

José: Well, I think if it’s a particular fashion, if you need a particular- you know for that particular blouse it has to be a particular body hug. Yes, it’s got to be (Yeah) fitted to a woman’s form. (Definitely) but t-shirts? What kind of a woman once they’ve figured out what you’ve figured out goes on and keeps buying women’s t-shirts?

Charlotte: I mean, I guess ones that, particularly like um, if you are of a specific shape, that like men’s cut just doesn’t suit you. (Yeah yeah OK) Or another things is is careers. A lot of them are quite particular about how a woman looks particularly customer service jobs, so um. Uh I’m using an example of, recently I went into a phone repair shop. And there was a guy…

José: A what repair shop?

Charlotte: Phone repair. (Uh huh) So my my mobile was broken. (Right) Um and there was a guy working at the desk and you know like, average guy he had kind of like long hair. He was wearing a t-shirt, like looked kind of tired, you know like (Mm hmm) he just rolled out of bed. I don’t blame him, It was like morning, whatever. If a woman was dressed like that, if she had her hair messy, you know face a bit greasy, just baggy t-shirt on, I think her superiors might, you know they would have given her a bit of a funny look. Ha ha.

José: And I I would have to agree with you. I would have to agree with you that she would have been, “Honey, put a comb through your hair. (Yeah ) Why don’t you smile more?” That kind of thing, you know.

Charlotte: Yeah exactly. And that in itself encourages you to buy more washing products, buy you know- have have more variety of clothing to wear, you know like a different outfit for each day- to buy makeup. So you know, if you are really tired or covered in spots one morning you you can cover it up. Whereas a man, you know like, people- people don’t care as much. Um I mean obviously you’re still going to get people who are like, “OK, you’re a bit of a slob,” but it’s- there’s not as much stigma. Um and I don’t know if this is particularly in certain cultures. I don’t know if it is different in other cultures. I I don’t have much experience of outside of the UK myself.

José: Mm hmm. (Um it) Uh, I think you’re describing pretty much the entire Western situation. (Yeah) Although, probably the- the more East you go in Europe, so towards Russia and towards um um, the Eastern European countries, of course- oh well not of course. I’ve never been there, but I would imagine, with pretty good certainty you’re going to get older fashioned ideas. (Mm) And the more you run towards the West, the more you’re going to get going to get you know more more um, progressive ideas.