Marks and Spencer have fallen, part III; we’re gonna need a bigger boat

Just spoke to my mum and she wanted to know if my boycott extended to receiving gifts for myself and my children at Christmas from M&S. I said of course! Every little helps!

I’m dreaming of a different Christmas
It’s not the one I used to know
Where the pennies jingled and women mingled
In Markies - twas the place to go.

I’m dreaming of a Tesco Christmas
It is the only choice tonight
May their cubicles and curtains shut tight
And may all their gussets be sewn right.

Someone’s dreaming of a markies Christmas
It ain’t the one he used to know
Now the stores bow meekly and the floors feel treacly
And the girls have nowhere safe to go

He’s dreaming of a markies Christmas
With every pair of drawers he wears
He is loving the indignant stares
He has won and he owns no markies shares.

We used to be dreaming of a markies Christmas
It was the choice of womenfolk
Now their dreams lie shattered and broke
Just because markies caved and went all woke.

God this is so disgusting. That’s an excellent point akire. If I was ever to buy underwear from them again, which I am most certainly not, I would have to mentally apply a pervert adjustment to the star rating.

Thongs in Next also have a lot of reviews by men. Also some in Debenhams. Doubt they’ve even bought them, probably just like to review them. But I guess M&S is their favourite as they don’t just need to use their Male name, but can also state their Male gender.

Creepiness aside... why would you allow reviews on mens bodies when they not designed for? Like me giving 2 stars to a single duvet because it didn’t fit my double bed. It’s skews the average rating as comparing totally different things. That’s reason surely to not allow them as a review.

Checking in

I honestly feel a bit sick. I’ve just looked up thongs on M&S online, and all the lacy ones have loads of reviews by men. I also looked up First Bras, that young girls might look at, and saw a review there by a man. Makes me wonder if these men like to read the reviews of young girl knickers etc as it turns them on.

I can't believe I'm having to think about this stuff. What on earth are you doing M&S? I just want to buy some good value pants and nice food.

Forgive me if it's already been mentioned but as regards food (and ? possibly other products) isn't M&S taking over the contract at Ocado (from Waitrose) next year?

Sorry, I read the previous two threads, but must have missed that.

Timelady
That was also posted on the second thread. But good to read it again for those, who won’t have time to digest every post.

Just unsubscribed from their email and told them why. Not that they give a shiny shit.

Ditto in this document too

corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/plan-a-our-approach/mns-people-principles.pdf

Treating everyone equally regardless of age, gender, gender reassignment, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, hours of work, nationality, religion or belief, marital or civil partner status, disfigurement, political opinions or sexual orientation. We treat all colleagues with dignity and respect and expect colleagues to treat each other and our customers in the same way.

Just looking at the M&S Equality Policy

corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/policy-documents/equal-opportunities.pdf

and guess what....the protected characteristic sex is missing, replaced, surprise surprise, by gender.

Age  Religion or belief  Ethnic or national origin  Marital or civil partner status  Hours of work  Sexual orientation  Race  Gender  Disability  Colour  Gender reassignment  Nationality  Pregnancy/maternity

Time for some more emails; they can't get away with that.

I'm in charge of all the spending in our house, on food, clothes, etc. I'm VERY discerning as to what stores I support and whilst I'm most definitely not a big spender at M & S (probably less than £100 a year, so hey ho they won't even notice), that'll be taken right down to £0 from now on. In fact, I'm bloody boycotting the lot of them, all clothing stores. We can just wear what we have, and I'll repair as I need to, or make new things as we require them.

I'm more of an ill-considered cock-up rather than conspiracy believer. But the creepy reviews are horrifying. How on earth can M&S justify letting them stand? Do they think it would be 'kink shaming' to delete them?

I can't believe I'm having to think about this stuff. What on earth are you doing M&S? I just want to buy some good value pants and nice food.

I am incandescent with rage about this. Thank you all so much for all your efforts. My little contribution - I left a leaflet in the fitting room of my local store on the weekend and have fired off an angry email just now:

I am writing to tell you that I am appalled at the contempt you have shown for the safety and comfort of women and girls, by changing your fitting room policy to allow men to access women’s fitting rooms. If you think about it for more than a minute you will realise that the only man who will likely feel “comfortable” in a fitting room reserved for women and girls, is a pervert. You are compromising the safety and dignity of your biggest customer group. If you actually want to provide changing rooms for the vanishingly small number of men who genuinely believe they are in the wrong body, then do so. But please remember that there are men out there who actually get a sexual kick out of being in women’s private spaces and wearing women’s clothes. Why should I expose my daughters to the risk of meeting one of these men? And what about devout women, whose religions prevent them from sharing such spaces with men? You have sorely lost your way here in an effort to prove how woke you are,. I will not spend a single pound with M&S until this policy is reversed.

In our household everything is joint owned. I, too, am the decision maker for most purchases and also agree that we should focus on one retailer.

I have tried to peak M&S a few people over recent days. It seems some of the women I know are not militant enough, unfortunately. I did manage to persuade one friend and another friend already knew about it and is boycotting.

On another front, did anyone see that labour activists have launched a declaration on women’s sex based rights?

@criticalcondition Thanks for the correction. I'm still with the conspiracy theory though. As a board of directors they must consider risks to their business. Sex vs gender must have come up on their risk radar. If they sought balanced advice (not just Stonewall) the data is there on what happens in mixed sex changing rooms and toilets. The creepy reviews are what tipped me over the edge from 'they are garden variety idiots who were poorly advised' to 'someone on the inside wants this to happen'.

Are they going to seriously look someone in the face and tell them that their faith, disability or rape is 'small minded' and something they must get over? For whose benefit? Because it isn't theirs.

I know. I could hardly believe it when the (male) manager uttered this word.

'small-minded'.

Are they going to seriously look someone in the face and tell them that their faith, disability or rape is 'small minded' and something they must get over? For whose benefit? Because it isn't theirs.

And in answer to how they knew a man was not trying to enter the fitting room for the purpose of indulging a sexual fetish or voyeurism...'We trust them'.

Really. Do they really. Well good luck with that. That answer is likely to cost them a lot in compensation. As my manager used to say: lets stop for a moment and think how this might look on the front page of the Daily Mail?

I had a wander round the M&S lingerie dept this afternoon about 3pm and it was pretty well deserted. I was the only one in the fitting room (just doing a recce).

I reckon it's about 50:50 on the sewn/not sewn gussets in M&S, but in Asda, I only found one pair of knickers with an unsewn version, so it's clearly nothing to do with cost. In the Asda case, I suspect it was left unsewn because the stitching would be visible on the sheer lace.

I also went into my local store to see how this is implemented on the ground. Had a conversation with various members of staff of differing levels of seniority at the entrance to the lingerie fitting room.

It was very interesting that some staff dropped their voices in discussing the policy so they couldn't be heard by customers in the cubicles. I did not lower my voice and made a point of repeating what they were whispering saying.

Nothing new. Pretty much the same depressing experience as Jean Hatchet. All concerns about the impact on women who would feel uncomfortable or distressed were brushed aside with a suggestion that anyone who felt this way was 'small-minded'.

And in answer to how they knew a man was not trying to enter the fitting room for the purpose of indulging a sexual fetish or voyeurism...

'We trust them'.

It's worth doing. The conversation was very calm. Nobody got upset. There were other staff hovering around listening and customers still going in and out. Any assistant or customer who might not know or have given it much thought heard exactly what is going on and the reasons why this policy is not a 'good thing'.

The christmas best seller (for the customer they clearly care most about) will be penis beakers
Chuffing crying with laughing.

This thread is not showing up in my watch list etc, could I have hidden it by accident, and if so, how to reveal it again ? I only found it through a link on another thread.