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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Where can I buy a bra?

113 replies

GoldenGorilla · 20/02/2022 06:40

Need new bras but would like to be fitted properly. By a woman. In a changing area that only has women in it.

Are there any actual shops I can go to? Or do I need to buy a hundred bras online and probably return 99 of them?

OP posts:
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GoldenGorilla · 22/02/2022 06:45

Yep.

Literally just want to buy a bra in a situation I feel safe and comfortable in.

But the menz and their maidens don’t want women to have anything.

OP posts:
Godxilla · 21/02/2022 22:11

A simple thread asking for advice regarding single sex changing rooms, has been taken over by the menz. So obvious. So very tedious.

Terfydactyl · 21/02/2022 21:50

No one is denying you that. I'm sure the vast majority of bra fitting and changing rooms are exactly that

Well m and s aren't
John Lewis
Bravissimo
Boux Avenue
La senza
Ann summers
All mixed sex.
I asked them all last year or year previous.
I mean they didnt state they are mixed sex, but they waffled on about gender so same thing.
I suspect OP will have to find a boutique or stand alone shop and ask before visiting.

Doubletoilandtrouble · 21/02/2022 21:13

It is always the women’s fault.

If nothing can be proved, nothing happened and they should stop being silly and overreacting.

If they provide proof, they are the creeps….

DomesticatedZombie · 21/02/2022 19:12

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

Multiple people at the time said the wi-spa incident hadn't happened because no-one had photos of the person (later alleged to be a man called Darren) in the hot-tub with h** cock out.
And also criticised the woman who filmed the encounter with the staff member for filming in the spa. Called her all sorts of names, too.
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 21/02/2022 17:45

Multiple people at the time said the wi-spa incident hadn't happened because no-one had photos of the person (later alleged to be a man called Darren) in the hot-tub with h** cock out.

DomesticatedZombie · 21/02/2022 17:35

@SevenWaystoLeave

"But I will bring a camera. Any inappropriate, leering male will be photographed and the photo added to my letter of complaint. I will also investigate the legality of putting the pictures on social media to warn other women about the store and that specific male"

"Anyone doing this, I will photograph (without them seeing) and report to the police"

Interesting people are insisting women would never try and secretly film people in changing rooms, given we have least two women in this thread threatening to do exactly that. If you encounter a trans woman - or someone you've decided is a trans woman - in a changing room and you take a picture of her then you are the fucking creepy one in that scenario.

This is the precise defence used to threaten the women complaining about the serial sex offender caught in the Wi Spa.
SevenWaystoLeave · 21/02/2022 16:49

Granted it would be fucking hilarious if this story ended with OP being thrown out of M&S and blacklisted from every clothes shop in the area for taking pictures of other women in the changing rooms.

Sorry "But I thought she was trans!" isn't going to be taken as a valid excuse.

Where can I buy a bra?
SevenWaystoLeave · 21/02/2022 16:40

"But I will bring a camera. Any inappropriate, leering male will be photographed and the photo added to my letter of complaint. I will also investigate the legality of putting the pictures on social media to warn other women about the store and that specific male"

"Anyone doing this, I will photograph (without them seeing) and report to the police"

Interesting people are insisting women would never try and secretly film people in changing rooms, given we have least two women in this thread threatening to do exactly that. If you encounter a trans woman - or someone you've decided is a trans woman - in a changing room and you take a picture of her then you are the fucking creepy one in that scenario.

Whitefire · 21/02/2022 16:12

Not as good as they were, just seems 'wrong' to be going from a 44 band to a 38.

DomesticatedZombie · 21/02/2022 15:45

I found M&S were absolutely dreadful for bras, Whitefire. And their measuring service was hopeless, also.

Proudmom05 · 21/02/2022 15:25

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Whitefire · 20/02/2022 23:35

@DomesticatedZombie

OP, have you tried the facebook group 'Boob or Bust'? Good measuring advice on there.
Thank you for recommending this page, I have measured their way and it is vastly different to what I am wearing (M&S Hmm ) The cup to band is the same ratio still, but I've gone from a 44 band to a 38 band.

I have just spent an pretty penny at brastop in the two different possible cup sizes and some different makes, with the plan to send back the ones that aren't right.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 20/02/2022 19:19

And another, this time in York!

extract

A CHARITY shop assistant who covertly filmed customers for his sexual gratification has been jailed.

For months voyeur Christopher Adam Robinson, 35, secretly put his mobile phone in the shop’s changing room where it could film others without them knowing, said Howard Shaw, prosecuting.

But a holidaying family ended his activities when he tried to film them.

They got his phone and handed it to police.

Officers found a catalogued library of voyeuristic films on it.

Robinson had given the videos names indicating what people were doing while they believed they were unobserved.

They also found 40 indecent images of children, said Mr Shaw.

Robinson had a previous conviction for having indecent pictures of children, including one of a 12-month-old baby being abused, for which he was given a community order.

“You only get one chance and you’ve had it,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris told him as he jailed Robinson for eight months at York Crown Court.

Robinson, of Town Street, Old Malton, pleaded guilty to seven charges of voyeurism and one of having indecent images of children.

He was jailed for eight months and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offenders’ register, both for 10 years.

Mr Shaw said the family wanted to try on clothes in the North Yorkshire shop on July 29, 2019.

Robinson said he needed to “set up” the changing room and went briefly into it before letting people use it.

As they tried the clothes on, they spotted the phone half hidden behind curtains and realised they were being filmed.

www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/19497470.voyeur-secretly-filmed-shop-customers-changing-room-jailed/

DomesticatedZombie · 20/02/2022 18:07

Also bearing in mind the vast majority (over 80%) iirc of people with paraphilias are male.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 20/02/2022 18:03

@DomesticatedZombie

Hm. Wonder what the figures are comparing 'female sex offenders' with 'males who identify as women sex offenders'? That would be interesting to look into. If we had the data. But of course, nobody collects that because it might upset people*.

*- never mind the victims! It's the sex offenders' feelings that matter, of course.

Hmm, looks like covert cameras aren't equally likely to be placed by women
Where can I buy a bra?
AlsoNotAGirl · 20/02/2022 17:22

@M0RVEN

I raised this issue with my local branch of Bravissimo and they assured me that they use a separate changing area for any XY customers. Or anyone else who needs more space or privacy, for example.

She also told me that they are always mindful of the safety and welfare of customers and staff.

I tried raising it with Bravissimo corporate customer services and they were very much poor tw and bekind Hmm. I haven’t been back into the shops to ask.

I have reason to know hidden cameras are put in places like this and separately been subject to sustained harassment where the stalker put in a lot of effort. The thought of footage of me in a state of undress on line as facial recognition improves fills me with horror. As soon as female changing rooms are open to males it increases the risk.

QueenSue · 20/02/2022 17:22

We shouldn't worry about safety at all in unisex changing rooms since worrying about safety based on our experiences and the news would be just laughable, am I right ladies?

QueenSue · 20/02/2022 17:17

OMG do you mean the 1% of sex offenders who are female are the ones we should really be worrying about? gosh. All this time. Who knew?
No don't you understand? Since a small minority of female sex offenders also exists, it means that we shouldn't worry about male sex offenders or men putting up spy cams in changing rooms. It's all very logical.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 20/02/2022 17:03

[quote GoldenGorilla]@dizzydizzydizzy Yeah you’re right I can’t really ask for recommendations but be coy about my location! South west England, so London, bath, Bristol are my Normal shopping places!

@ShineTogether - that’s interesting about Victoria’s Secret. Must admit I ruled them out years ago (they insisted their models had bmi of 18.5 which is clinically underweight, so insane) but maybe they’ve changed.

@ValancyRedfern - sadly John Lewis has fallen also.[/quote]
Given your location, have you tried

bellissimalingerie.com/

in Sherborne, Dorset?

I used a branch which now no longer exists, & they were spot on for fitting (R&P trained) & had beautiful stock. No idea about males.

M0RVEN · 20/02/2022 17:00

Similar incidents in Manchester

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/sexual-predator-stalked-trafford-centre-17587831

A 'sexual predator' secretly filmed dozens of women and children without their knowledge while they used changing rooms and toilets.

“William David Smith made secret recordings in a disabled toilet at the Trafford Centre , as well as at Darwen Leisure Centre, sunbed shops in Greater Manchester and neighbouring Lancashire and other leisure centre wet rooms across Lancashire over a four-year period”.

CatherinaJTV · 20/02/2022 16:54

@KimikosNightmare

I don't see the issue with who else is in the vicinity there once you're in your own locked compartment I'm 47 years old, have tried on hundreds (if not thousands) of different items of clothing in changing rooms over the last 35 years and can never once remember being awkward or threatened by others in there (apart from in those awful open plan, communal changing spaces in 1990s Top Shop - yes, I admit they were a bit awkward)

Exactly- although I'm 62. I expect this will be dismissed as a sample of 2.

M&S apparently had one trans woman bra fitter in one London store and that now equates to all bra shops being unsafe for women.

And I've been fitted by a (gay) man before* - he had great advice on how to alter my dress to fit the bra I had chosen. It was a great bra and great advice!

*German store, in the late 1980ies

DomesticatedZombie · 20/02/2022 16:54

Hm. Wonder what the figures are comparing 'female sex offenders' with 'males who identify as women sex offenders'? That would be interesting to look into. If we had the data. But of course, nobody collects that because it might upset people*.

*- never mind the victims! It's the sex offenders' feelings that matter, of course.

DomesticatedZombie · 20/02/2022 16:52

Of course, now the police are recording 'gender' as self declared instead of sex, we can expect to see that proportion rise astronomically.

DomesticatedZombie · 20/02/2022 16:51

@CorrBlimeyGG

Lol. Surely you don't actually believe that there are women who put up hidden cameras to spy on other women trying on bras?

As long as there are (natal) female sex offenders, then there will be women that have the potential to do that.

It's naivety like yours that is why female sex offenders get away with it. It's why children in a nursery were subject to abuse. Because a woman would never do that, would they?

OMG do you mean the 1% of sex offenders who are female are the ones we should really be worrying about? gosh. All this time. Who knew?