Men in lingerie shops

I get your point op, obviously you don't want men banned as such for the many reasons listed by pps, and no matter how body confident you are and how open you are with your dc, teenage girls are going to be embarrassed buying bras, especially their first one. By this age most girls will have been leered at, had sexual stuff shouted at them in the street, and in many cases been groped by men who look very similar to the men sitting benignly in the women's underwear dept. I used to work in a lingerie section in a department store, and can assure you that we regularly had problems with men hanging around unnecessarily or passing by frequently to try and catch a glimpse of embarrassed young girls with bras/knickers in their hands. I don't have a solution unfortunately, but i understand where you are coming from.

I totally understand OP. My dds would have been the same at that age

Blimey, the excuses that some women will give so that their men can be present in women's space. Pathetic!

This drives me nuts. Maybe I’m just weird but when I shop for underwear, I like to do it without having to dodge around men. I find it weird. The women that stand there and make their husbands stand in other women’s way drive me nuts. It’s not considerate. But I’m probably in the minority. Just last week I left MS as I was trying to but shape-wear. A man was standing where I wanted to go to, I floated around hoping he might buzz off. Nope. I just left without.
So for you OP. I agree whole heartedly!
Men grow some balls and stop acting like fruit flies around your women when buying personal or intimate items! There I said it.

Q the abuse from MN!

I very much doubt any man is interested in knowing your bra size.

Really? Have you ever met a man?

YANBU, OP. I would not like this and I'm an adult woman. As a teenage girl I would have been mortified. There's no reason for them to be there, and it's intimidating to lots of women and girls (although obvs not the cool ones on this thread who can't even imagine a man being lechy over a teenage girl's breasts, ffs.)

You're not being unreasonable. There's absolutely no reason why they need to be sitting directly outside the changing rooms and it's high time that shops moved the seating area elsewhere - and made changing rooms for women only.

I know you will have posters telling you that it's fine for men to be there but it isn't, it really isn't. Women first. Men not needed loitering around where they are changing clothes.

instead of having them waiting/taking up seats in an underwear shop asking loud questions about bras as one of the kids was

Oh my god, a child asking a loud question about a bra?! Won’t someone think of the children!

Having seating a bit further away and in such a manner that conversations about sizing and fit can be out of other people's hearing seems reasonable to me. Too many women have the wrong size bra and if the possibility of pervy men or just being innocently overheard puts them off, a minor change to the store layout seems reasonable.

I suggest OP you approach the store in a constructive way, on the lines of wanting to help their business.

The last time I bought bras in Bravissimo, I took my husband with me because I wanted his opinion on which looked better.

The only people in the waiting room were men and the magazines available reflected typical male and female interests, so it can’t be that unusual for them to be there.

You're changing your tune a bit now @Woolywolf, because people haven't agreed with you it's now the fact men have dared to be in your way:

It annoyed me a bit that the people who had booked a fitting (it’s about a 20 minute wait when it’s busy and they take about 20 mins) had to stand and wait whilst the sofas which are designed to be for people who are waiting for a fitting we’re taken up by people (men and kids) who were not waiting for the service/didn’t really need to be there.
But I guess if they got there first they are allowed to sit there. I imagine the staff probably weren’t thrilled as they normally tell you the wait will be 10-20 mins and tell you to take a seat, and the idea of standing and waiting for that length of time probably turns some customers away. But not much they can do about it

You are assuming that the staff would be annoyed as that would make you feel better....for all you know the staff couldn't give a toss! It's the nature of the beast....those that get there first get the seating, and thus it has always been (apparently unless they are men, they should clearly just piss off incase their mere presence doth offend)

Bravissimo let men sit on the sofas, not into the fitting room. I do remember there being a lot of uproar that Bravissimo do fittings on transgender customers.
If your daughter felt uncomfortable it was a good time to give an indication of that to an assistant. Realistically not much they can do to stop your daughter looking like she was buying bras in a bra shop.

Don't be so ridiculous, they're literally in a different room and if it's fitting them they changing rooms are supervised!

You don't know they were men. They may well have been women themselves in which case all is fine.

YABU and overreacting, and also being paranoid about one of the men “looking too hard”.

They were probably bored shitless and been told whoever they were with would only be a minute
They're allowed there as much as anyone

HNRTT but were any of the men wearing cassocks and suddenly disappear?

I don't see the problem, they were waiting for their partners

Lol, yes yabu.

I guess it's just not on some women's radar that not every daughter has a mother. Let's hope you don't have a DS and linger around and make anyone's young sons uncomfortable (yes I know it's different) nor have a adult female relative entirely dependent on care from a man.

I am pretty sure ataff would quickly clock into a ranom single guy just plopping himself on a waiting room sofa to perv...