Mail on Sunday: "MPs are urging major high street stores to scrap unisex changing rooms following a surge in women suffering traumatic encounters with men"

Yes let's hear them define woman. All of this is absolutely despicable. It should never have reached this stage.

Primark never used the word female. They said provision for women. As far as I know they have been asked hundred of times in twitter what definition of women they are using but this has been met with radio silence.

They have zero interest in legislating to protect women's rights. They have zero interest in protecting women full stop. Sure they put a male paedophile in a women's jail this week.

Having let the genie out of the bottle, they are just going leave this in the hands of the market. The Tory government has fucked women's rights in the UK.

100%

This was always going to happen. The reason that providers decided to go for unisex changing areas is because it's easier to ignore women.
It's really brought home to me how little our needs are given genuine consideration, yet we are constantly expected to yield to others.
I'm so sorry for all the women who have been embarrassed or offended or felt or been threatened by this. It shouldn't have happened in the first place. You've been the collateral damage for a social experiment.

Agreed ReunitedThorns

None of them are going to admit that obeying the demands of the queer theory fanatics has given the predators access - just as women pointed out it would. It's going to be a painfully slow reversal with twisting and turning to try to avoid a pile on from the trans bullies.

Yet again we need to be clear on headlines and reality.

Too many people believe that Primark have scrapped unisex changing rooms. They haven't. There will still be unisex changing rooms with "provisions" for female-only spaces.

Will other high-street stores scrap unisex changing rooms? Unlikely, but they'll probably just provide some token (not enough) female-only changing rooms.

I hadn't posted on it so I didn't see a deletion message and I didn't want to start a thread asking where t had gone. There were about 50 or so posts when I last looked at it.

Oh I'm going to check my internet history and see if there is anything there.

Do you think men and women should have access to separate toilets in public spaces, restaurants, pubs etc? Yes - 88%

Do you think there should also be a gender neutral option? Yes - 38%

I would be interested to know what percentage of the the 38% would agree with the statement "all publicly accessible spaces should have gender neutral toilets in addition to single sex, and if this is not possible for reasons of cost or money they should be forced to shut"? Or whether mst would say "gender neutral is an ideal if there is the money and space, but if they can't be provided then no big problem".

IMHO there should not be gender neutral spaces - people who want single sex spaces don't need them, and people who might benefit them don't want them.

I think the 98% figure was from a Sex Matters survey.

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/why-do-single-sex-services-matter/

Still, before Margarita anyone tries to rubbish that survey, the YouGov tracker on public toilets is quite clear that 88% of people want to retain some or all public toilets as single sex facilities.

It’s whopping 6% that want only gender neutral toilets.

yougov.co.uk/topics/philosophy/trackers/support-for-separate-toilets-for-men-and-women-and-gender-neutral-toilets-in-public-spaces

This

Female only changing rooms will only work if they mean proper females.

Until that happens, then any single sex facilities are more dangerous for females to use.

I predict some epic tantrums and demands from men that the poor sales assistant proves they're not a woman.

Got it. Thanks Boudica

1. A requirement that gender neutral provision be made available in addition to single sex spaces in all public spaces.

2. A clear message to the TQ+ political lobby that female only spaces are essential for the access, equality and inclusion of females, and that these spaces are therefore protected by law. And that sex is a fixed fax, and that other people's beliefs and access to society requires that this is recognised by law regardless to it placing boundaries on male freedoms and choices.

3. Gatekeeping and legal action taken against male TQ+ people who continue to attempt to force entry to female only spaces and to intentionally attempt to remove equality, access and resources from females.

Taking twitter seriously is probably the reason, come to think of it.

This is the root of all sorts of evil.

Anyway, very welcome news. It's shameful that these companies fell for the pressure in the first place. It's also shameful that it takes the bad publicity of that young woman's tik tok video, rather than any genuine concern for women's safety.

But we take what we can get. Here's hoping the likes of M&S and H&M follow Primark's lead. Asap.

Urgh....the state of that M&S response.

No it isn't. The equality Act allows for sex discrimination in certain circumstances, what we need is enforcement.

I could be very cynical and say it could be for the same reason they won't listen to women or research, but react when something goes viral and attracts attention.

Which is that image and snatching the momentary opportunity for personal mileage out of something currently the focus of media attention/polishing personal and party PR matters. And actually caring about people and issues and engaging with them in a responsible way for long term social change doesn't. Soundbite and signalling politics.

Because legislating on an issue like this is quite complex.

Not sure on this one, but there was certainly evidence out there a few years ago when this piece was published that nine out of ten changing riim sexual complaints relate to incidents in unisex facilities.

Chilling isn't it? If only they'd listen to women, right?

Why are MPs urging when they should be legislating?

Primark have backpaddled and are changing their stores.

corporate.primark.com/en/newsroom/corporate-news/important-changes-to-our-fitting-rooms-in-the-uk/n/98cec44a-542f-40b9-8a88-618831aeddc0

The deletion message was that MN didn't permit research in this way and for Nic to contact HQ.

The reports however would have been made by those who find it too uncomfortable to see evidence of harm to females and listen to female voices about it. It is unwanted. It is unhelpful to male freedoms.

It was interesting to see on two pages the commonality of experience for females; the same things coming up over and over. Exposure, groping, cameras through doors.

Thing is, a man would still be able to 'identify' as a woman and use the woman's changing rooms wouldn't they?