Wrote today and got my fob off response within about four hours. They obviously put a lot of thought into it. Here it is with mine below:
Dear Ms ...
Thank you for emailing Steve Rowe about our fitting room policy. I work in our Executive team and Steve has asked that I reply to you on his behalf.
I am so sorry to read how unhappy you are with our fitting room policy and I am grateful to you for sharing your concerns with Steve and our team.
Under the Equalities Act 2010, we take our responsibility to create a place where everyone - customer and colleagues - feels included, and can be themselves, seriously. Our customers are free to choose the Fitting Room they identify with and feel comfortable in, with respect to other customers' privacy.
We take the safety of our customer and colleagues extremely seriously and with regard to some of the points you made in your email, I assure you that if any customer was to act inappropriately or cause intentional offence, the necessary action would be taken.
I really do hope this won't deter you from shopping at M&S, and on behalf of Steve, many thanks for getting in touch.
Kind regards
Name removed
Executive Team
Your M&S Customer
My email:
Subject: Changing room policy
Dear Marks and Spencer,
I am writing to you to express my concern and disappointment about your apparent policy regarding your changing rooms. I understand that you have said the customers may use the changing room which they prefer regardless of what actual sex they are.
You may feel that is this is lovely and inclusive but it is the very opposite and you are actually excluding many customers who would be very unhappy, intimidated and even traumatised to find a male body sharing changing areas with them (and of course many people are, as yet, unaware of your policy).
You may claim that your changing areas have privacy but many do not and a voyeur could very easily look over and under a curtain or door. There have been instances of males leaving hidden cameras in similar facilities and incidents of voyeurism leapt for Target in America when they introduced similar policies. I believe you have a duty of care to your customers here.
Also, of course, women like to exit the cubicles to use larger mirrors or show their companions the clothes they are trying – again a male in this area is unexpected and unwelcome.
You may say you are not allowing males in the female areas (or vice versa) as some men claim to be women but do you realise that the vast majority of trans identifying males (transwomen) actually retain their full male anatomy and so are men to most people. This may well be upsetting and ‘triggering’ for some people but it is the truth and the needs of a small vocal minority should not trump established needs of female bodied people. This is not trans exclusionary but, you would think, obvious protection of females.
It is a complex topic and there are many reasons why a person may become trans – one of them however is called autogynophlia which is very much about fetish and humiliating actual women. The other problem is that with this policy, any person with a dodgy intent, could walk in and claim to be the opposite sex and you would be leaving yourselves open to claims of transphobia if you then tried to eject them but are leaving women open to predatory behaviour if you allow self identification.
To be brief, as this is a complex topic, we must retain sex segregated spaces for reasons of safety and dignity. You will find that the Equality Act of 2010 allows this and sex is a protected characteristic whereas the rather woolly sounding gender is not. I quote:
Separate-sex and single-sex services
110.The Equality Act 2010 allows for the provision of separate-sex113 and single-sex services114 where this is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim” (a form of words intended to require the application of an objective standard of justification). The Act also effectively permits service providers not to allow a trans person to access separate-sex or single-sex services—on a case-by-case basis, where exclusion is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”
I would argue that safeguarding female bodied customers is a legitimate aim. I don’t think anybody is expecting staff to be checking customers’ bodies over but a person presenting to you as a man or a woman should be shown the appropriate facilities – and quite simply if a person ‘passes’ as their chosen gender and is acting perfectly normally and legally, then nobody will notice and all will be well – this has operated for many years as a ‘courtesy’ system.
For those who are obviously the other sex or who are being belligerent about their ‘rights’ , one solution would be to have a third changing area for those who feel unable to use either the male or female facilities.
I hope you can see how important it is to protect your customers and ensure they feel comfortable in your stores (especially female bodied ones as they are much more at risk here).
I look forward to hearing your plans but sadly cannot longer shop in your store until this is resolved,
Kind regards
MARKSANDSPENCER.COM
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