Misinformation correction: M&S Staff

M&S’ revenue in 24/25 was up 6.1% compared to 23/24. Is it possible that they’ve looked at the bottom line and determined that the great transphobe boycott is actually not having any damaging impacts on the business.

M&S’ revenue in 24/25 was up 6.1% compared to 23/24. Is it possible that they’ve looked at the bottom line and determined that the great transphobe boycott is actually not having any damaging impacts on the business.

Sure. She was just referring to some mythical ‘cross-dresser’ who was offering bra fittings to teenagers who doesn’t actually exist.

I mean I get that you folk think JKR can do no wrong but pretending that her statements weren’t very clearly signally that this particular employee’s impugned actions included offering a bra fitting is nonsense.

Anyone remember James Makings? Worked for the NSPCC? He was 'misbehaving' big time (do have a Google) at work and when called out on it a lot of people wrote in to say what big meanies his detractors were - move on, nothing to see here, folks. Just a bloke at work. All the people lauding the lingerie speaker are reminding me of this. I wonder if Bee stuck up for Makings, too.

Well Molly has the effect of absolutely no one wanting to be remotely associated with Molly except for Maggie Chapman (who has recently lost her first place on the list for the Greens)...

So I'm not that surprised at the sudden tumbleweeds appearing.

Huh.
I thought we'd have the, "and even if it did, it wasn't that bad" update by now.

😂😂

Yep.

Nipple Clamp Molly should be the face of M&S next seasons lingerie campaign.

I mean all publicity is good publicity right?

I’m sure the more strategic, less obviously woman hating TRAs will be happy for “Sophie Molly” and the contents of his social media be all over the press.

God, that's so bad it's funny.

This is am EXCELLENT point.

Ffs M&S

And I should be clear, it's not even just pandering to cross dressing men. Many, perhaps most, cross dressing men are capable of observing rules if told firmly that these are the rules and you have to follow them.

They're choosing to pander to the Sophie Molly types who actively want to dismantle safeguarding, which seems to me completely insane for a business that relies on a bond of trust with its overwhelmingly female customer base.

You'd think wouldn't you?

Sadly M&S seem to now be taking the 'it'll all just blow over' attitude despite their terrible year.

And all the political narratives of the time, because they think 'right think' is a bigger money spinner.

Ironically Molly is full omnicause and was already boycotting M&S because of Gaza if you look on social media. And probably isn't alone in that.

You'd have to think that eventually M&S senior management will look at the bottom line and ask, how do we get our customer base back? They've had slumps before and have recovered by getting back to basics.

At this point someone might break down the figures and explain that the core customer base of M&S is middle aged women. In particular it relies heavily on mums, who are mostly very sensitive to safeguarding issues.

Cross dressing men are a segment of the customer base, but they're a small segment. If M&S senior management think that pandering to a small segment of the customer base while alienating the majority is good business practice, they might like to spend an hour or two reading up on what happened to The Body Shop.

Exactly.

And we are supposed to ignore this, go 'oh well that's ok then as long as there's no transphobia and the male is ok. Well done M&S you are so right one'.

As fucking if.

This is why accusations of transphobia have become meaningless. No one gives a fuck anymore because we understand safeguarding children is more important than the hurty feelings of an adult male and his allies who don't want to acknowledge boundaries with children.

Great rollicking scolders nitpicking grammar and saying jkr said something she didn't and we can all see she didn't, just look like what they are; either dangerous idiots who unwittingly enable creeps or actual creeps who want greater access to children.

We can't come to any other alternative conclusion.

M&S's decision to appease this group especially when it's individuals like Sophie Molly who have sent emails and had dire replies from a clueless M&S customer service department is astonishing. The have displayed terrible judgement and a total lack of aware that Molly might use them for propaganda all over social media in the middle of a social media and mainstream media storm. That's an incredible PR management fail.

The effect is to look like they have aligned themselves with Molly's particularly dreadful social media content, and in direct odds the much publicised retweet by Molly below by JKR. Whoops.

It makes it look like M&S have managed to at best to unwittingly taken Molly's concern more seriously rather than mothers. At worse it actively says fuck you to safeguarding concerns. This is a PR disaster show.

Given this is post Rotherham and increased awareness that 14 year old girls are vulnerable and deserve safeguarding rather than being told they are 'responsible for their own actions' this is a spectacular level of own goaling.

And they still don't seem to get it.

This is not just a PR disaster (just after the company has lost an estimated £300million due to the internet outage and is desperate to rebuild trust with it's main customer base) it's an M&S PR disaster.

They could not have got it much more wrong if they'd tried.

They are her best publicists. Though I have learned that they may not be accurate in what they say.

She didn't. You are the one who has repeatedly lied.

JKR wrote "Cross-dressing men who offer to fit bras on teenage girls belong in a police interview room." a statement that anyone who knows anything about safeguarding would support.

I did look some time ago and couldn't find it. May have a another trawl through later today but I do have a vague memory of it having been deleted. I was on the thread so it definitely existed.

I have to wander around m and s to search for a member of staff when I go there - amazed there was anyone ‘offering to help’

If I've learnt one thing from arguing with the TRAs it's that they never miss an opportunity to bring JKR into it.

And JK Rowling isn't on this thread, so arguing about what she did or didn't say or what she meant by what she did say seems pointless.

Any chance you could find the post/thread?!

Many years ago there was a poster who came onto a thread to boast about being a trans identified male bra fitter. He seemed to be completely unaware that women might object - while I don't think he named the store he did name the Marble Arch location?
Didn't seem to occur to him that women might not want to be touched by him but it did speak to the complete capture of a once respected British legacy brand by transgenderism. And of course to the tone deaf arrogance of the men in this sacred caste who are completely unaware / uncaring about the rights of women and girls. (as showcased on this thread).

Repeatedly claiming that JK Rowling claimed that the employee was offering to do a bra fitting is the lie. She did nothing of the sort.

I think it's more that many many males think safeguarding rules shouldn't apply to them, and some of them have invented a magic formula intended to ensure that.

And the mean horrible women are still having the audacity to say no.