By Asyia Iftikhar

Copyright metro

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ITV viewers have shared their disappointment at Ben Shephard’s comments during a discussion about gender equality on This Morning.

Commentator Ashley James joined co-presenters Ben and Cat Deeley to talk about whether women should pay less tax than men on the ITV daytime chat show.

As Ashley argued, there are still several fields where women are at a disadvantage to mean when it comes to their financial situation, including the pink tax.

‘[This] means that products marketed to women cost more than they do for men. And you can see this, and the studies about it. Whether it’s razors, deodorant, even more so if the packaging is pink.

‘But men’s deodorant costs less than women’s deodorant,’ she explained as Cat shared her agreement.

Ben then said: ‘Can women use men’s deodorant because my wife uses mine, so why don’t they just buy men’s?’

Ashley James was helming the discussion around gender equality when Ben shared his thoughts on the pink tax (Picture: ITV)

‘Well lots of people do, but lots of people don’t know about the pink tax,’ Ashley responded, as she continued her point.

The 50-year-old presenter’s comments left a bad taste in some people’s mouths, as they pointed out that he had missed the point Ashley was trying to make.

‘Can’t women just use men’s deodorant, my wife does”, Ben babes you’re missing the point completely, the point is they shouldn’t be different prices????’ Elizabeth Ajao shared.

‘And a typical male response, if women don’t like it, they should settle with what’s been made for men, or what men like. Doubt he’d say the same to men to use women’s products,’ mstad9810 echoed.

Ben asked why women can’t buy men’s deodorant (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

‘Ben: “why don’t women buy men deodorants?” Seriously?? That is the best he can come up with?,’ Marlene Rios shared.

‘Very telling for man Ben to say ‘well why don’t they just buy men’s deodorant?’ translated: ‘if you don’t like it, then settle for what we want’ Thomas Aspinall said.

Zara Saffy pointed out what else was wrong with this argument, adding: ‘I don’t buy men’s deodorant because it smells like a man wants to smell. Let’s make men’s deodorant smell like women’s and see how many men use it?’

Alex Steadman wrote that they ‘wanted ot change the entire system instead’ while Francesca explained that women ‘shouldn’t have to’.

There are plenty of studies to show the price difference between men’s and women’s toiletries (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

‘Very disappointed in [Ben Shephard’s] comment. Why should we have to use products targeted and men? Why can’t products that are targeted at women be taxed fairly/equally,’ Janine Marie concluded.

People in the comments acknowledged it was a ‘layered conversation’ and praised Ashley for laying out the issues in such a ‘spot on’ way.

The Co-operative Bank released research in October 2024, which found that on average, across seven commonly purchased toiletry products, women paid nearly 40% more for their lower-cost essentials.

More specifically for deodorant, there was a 34% markup, with men’s costing 73p compared to the women’s at 98p.

This is not the first time the NTA award-winning show has run into public backlash in recent weeks.

At the end of last month, Rylan Clark made some controversial comments on immigration, ultimately saying that you can be ‘pro immigration and against illegal routes’.

His words, however, prompted over 500 Ofcom complaints, with online critics accusing him of spreading misinformation about the treatment of asylum seekers after they enter the UK.

Metro has reached out to Ben Shephard’s representative for comment.

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