Waterstones come out as GC and fire TRA for social media post

In a sippy cup with a fucking rainbow unicorn on it.

Weird to see advice on "juice snacks" in the middle of an incitement to criminal damage.

Yes, this is a very disturbed individual.

Look at the way this all escalates... there is now a man on twitter inciting people to go along and smash up Waterstones windows - someone with a history of doing this 'allegedly'... our world has gone mad. Once upon a time an employer would be sacked for something such as this and quite rightly. Now the world and his dog get involved publicly and dickheads start inciting violence against bookshops. Waterstones were some of the only shops unscathed during the riots in London in 2011

An employee is entitled to her own views about gender - of course.
She should not be sacked for her beliefs.

This one is an influencer on social media - so her attempts to manipulate her audence (with tears for herself and her point of view) shouldn't be all that surprising.

However, breaking her employer's rules - being rude to her employer's client do sound like sacking offences.

I don't really want to celebrate someone's downfall (even if self-inflicted and even if her response is unattractively whiney)

However, I can celebrate Waterstone's protection of an actual author and her work. (She too is entitled to her own opinion and should not be silenced or banned for it.)

Well, I’m not sure that “women looking out for women” is a complete definition of feminism.

Am I reading the same thread?

Ultimately Waterstones have decided this person was in breach of contract and bringing the company into disrepute and potentially harming their sales / business.

Imagine this was about any other subject and the suggestion was that you shut out others and then talked about destroying property?

How is it, we always get this tone policing and how 'women have double standards' when a) that's not a reflection of the thread b) no one gives a shit about the comments regarding vandalism of property and ruining the careers of others in an industry which should be focused on encouraging free speech.

Why is it always women who are wrong and somehow have to be held to higher standards than anyone else??!

The biggest enemy of knowledge sharing is the very concept of shutting down of ideas. It's crucial to publishing and book selling.

Yes maybe they should have been given a warning or talked to. But we also don't know whether this has previously happened before - it could well have done in the past.

Ultimately Waterstones needs to be focused on selling books. Not promoting the political ideas over and above another.

Is it appropriate to take your politics to work and to impose them on others? Employers should really be being neutral and having zero tolerance for those who who don't respect differences of opinion and instead encourage the harassment of another. It's not that hard.

Certainly not in Brighton!

No different to the bright red military font machine gun and cross hairs imagery for 'Andy I'm Dead Hard McNab' books titled Executive Death Zone or Ultimate Trigger Point or similar..

Every room in my house has at least 2 full bookshelves, and I still agree with this. There is nothing inherently sacred about a book as an object. It's the contents that count. There's nothing wrong with getting rid of a book because you think it's bad, there's everything wrong with preventing others from obtaining information or perspectives simply because you don't like the consequences of it.

https://x.com/WstonesHelp/status/1810657183920427208

WaterstonesHelp Twitter account has spoken:

We have received some messages about an employee who has been dismissed. This was on the grounds of contravening Waterstones policies and has nothing to do with transgender rights.

You can be fired instantly for gross misconduct, which this very clearly is. It was also breach of contract, which can also lead to instant dismissal.

womens popular fiction (aka chick lit) with its swirly font writing, bold colours and montage graphics is a bit nauseating

Horses for courses. It probably signifies to a certain readership that this book is in their wheelhouse, and you probably look for different visual clues.The bright colours seem superficial, and maybe that's a clue as to what lies inside the cover.

Ach, Rufus, you’re so sweet - how could anyone be miffed with someone behaving so adorably 😍

For many bookshops though it's all about asperational living, the coffee table book has become an asscesory for a room like a cushion, rug or scented candle. You are right about the tweeness though, the effort that goes into book covers, especially womens popular fiction (aka chick lit) with its swirly font writing, bold colours and montage graphics is a bit nauseating. I am an avid reader, mostly travel writing, history and politics. I will confess that I am quite proud of my bookshelf and I have actually read about 95% of its content and still use them for reference. I guess it is a feature of the room of sorts, if only accidental..

I agree with this. The tweeness booksellers aspire aspire to can be a little nauseating. Books are great, I have lots of them, but so is a dairy milk. If Tilly and others treated bookselling as a regular retail assistant job instead of some special sparkly ascended plane none of this would have happened.

Vox is a really good book though imo!

Hope you won

People don't get sacked this quickly and don't get sacked when on sick leave or holiday without a lot of previous issues meaning this is the last straw.

I was fired* within about 5 minutes of telling my boss I was pregnant. People who are fired where I used to work are literally escorted out and spend their notice period on gardening leave (assuming not fired on the spot for gross misconduct where no notice is required)

*illegally (am not in UK. Spent pregnancy in and out of court)

Presumably she was making money as an influencer, rather than employed by Waterstones to do it? People don't spend all that time courting tens of thousands of followers for nothing.

I have several friends who have to avoid people as they are immunosuppressed and can’t trust people to not be ill around them and Dh was saying to be more trusting. So the knowingly travelling with Covid to another country irritated me. I actually screenshotted her tweet as I sent it to Dh to show people don’t care anymore. But maybe she just decided she thought she had Covid then felt better. Who knows.

I may not have been entirely serious.

This. I've been trying to sit on my hands about this bit, but no one who has tested positive for Covid should be travelling anywhere. According to Tilly GC views = bad, but exposing others to an infection that could kill them if they are vulnerable or leave them disabled by long Covid = absolutely fine. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I really disagree with the fetishisation of books though. There are a lot of shite books in the world and if i'm honest Vox sounds like one of them. I always think the handwringing about 'no bookshelves in the house' or binning hardbacks is performative liberalism/aspirational haute-bourgeoisie-ing.

The reason book-burning is seen as so significant is because it's powerfully symbolic of the destruction of the human right to free speech.

It's the words, not the books as aesthetic or sacred objects, that are so important.

Vive la vie dust-free!

Thought I got rid of screenshot. But found it.