Reply from the Body Shop re JKR... just so dreadful...

Thank you! Love supporting small businesses

Michelle: "I'm going to have to start making my own soap"., try this company, a startup that could do with support, run by a very nice lady!
www.facebook.com/soapatural/

Gah. So ridiculous. Never buying from the again.

But the full quote is "The Body Shop’s position on menstruation in relation to trans and non-binary people is that we stand with ALL menstruators."

• In relation to trans and non-binary people.

Or just get mad I guess.

Have I just been referred to as a menstruator???

Um - as an English teacher, I know that reading comprehension can be very challenging, but this seems a fairly clear statement on the Body Shop's part?

How are you reading that sentence, CloudyVanilla, if not as saying that men menstruate?

That is what my mum would call an apology for an apology. I will never buy from them again.

I don’t understand why we can’t continue to use the words man/male and woman/female as scientific terms. They don’t have to have any impact on how we look, dress or behave, or what we call ourselves. I don’t know why trans men and non binary people would be offended by the phrase “Women have periods” - they know if it applies to them. They haven’t forgotten that they have female bodies, regardless of what they might have had done to them. They can’t pretend or demand that other people pretend that they have always been men otherwise why did they think they needed to transition?!

As for women who don’t get periods... Yes of course they’re still women! That’s like blind people getting offended by the phrase “Humans can see” or amputees getting offended by the phrase “Humans have two arms or two legs”. Unless you are one of those people who needs to be offended by everything, you know that it means IN GENERAL.

Clearly these people don’t have any actual problems if this is the kind of thing they’re getting upset about. The human race is fucking doomed.

@CloudyVanilla
They literally are saying that men have periods:
People have periods – women, men and non-binary people.

Ah OP I too am in academia and it does feel like I'm the only person who doesn't buy the wordy but meaningless critical theory essays. I personally am not willing to risk my career by expressing my views just yet, but have endless admiration for those who do. I used to say it's a good job that I'm a woman so that I can challenge the feminist stance since men aren't allowed to. In the last few years women aren't allowed to either. Hopefully there's more of us who think like this, and even more hopefully we will one day see the end of silencing through threat of sacking.

But they're clearly not saying people with penises menstruate which is what everyone else posting is getting incensed and snarky about

They are saying that. They’re saying transmen menstruate. Their belief is transmen are men and transwomen are women. So they are indeed saying men menstruate.

I shall never darken the Body Shop's door again

Quite frankly I can get a kg of coconut oil from the supermarket for £2.50 and that takes care of all my beauty needs. I don't need their fucking shit!

I must have missed this biology lesson at school!
For God's sake. The worlds going/ gone mad.
We're all going to hell in a handcart.

They're not saying men menstruate.

StAndrewsschool, I sent my email to the CEO using this email address:

[email protected]

Be prepared for a mass-produced bog-off email though.

I've just emailed him again. I might have been a bit brusque this time.

They are morons

I honestly now think this 'debate' is completely over.

There will be a time when many young trans people have changed their mind and start to speak out but sadly I feel we'll all be in our box until that point.

It's horrifying but unless you are JK Rowling or similarly financially independent, speaking out is becoming harder and harder.

I don't get it. Surely they are saying that (trans) men menstruate, and non binary (women) menstruate.

I'm sure they're not saying that actual men menstruate. Just that people who menstruate who don't identify as women have their support.

They refer to women as "menstruators" even in what is supposed to be an apology to a woman offended by their treatment of JK Rowling. Who was attacked by them and others for - you guessed it! - criticizing the word "menstruators" as dehumanizing to women and girls! How tone deaf can you get?

And of course they refer to "gender-based violence", perpetuating the insulting idea that our oppression is something women opt into and could just identify out of if we chose.

And this little gem: "We stand by our position on the rights of trans and non-binary people" with crickets on the rights of women. Just in case their misogyny wasn't beaming out loud and clear already

This is dreadful.

They don't give a shit about women and girls.

I hope all those men who buy their Always san pro spend well in the Body Shop also because they are going to need to make up for all us lost menstruators.

I’ve received exactly the same response to my email!

I'd really like to see them have to add an asterisk with "* only the cunty ones" whenever this kind of rubbish is published.

And did they really, explicitly, exclude the rights of women when discussing menstruation?

No word on why they think only men need shaving kits, I suppose?