M&S Colchester claim mixed changing is ‘completely safe’ for women.

Really? You're unaware of M&S's financial struggles over recent years?

No they clearly aren't. This is hardly rocket science.

There are many reasons why women would continue to shop there, but the dismissal of their concerns to pander to men is a pretty disgraceful move.

As they are one of the biggest retailers they must be delivering what many women actually want.

They have no interest in delivering what their female customers actually want.

This is the heart of the issue.

If a man took a pair of trousers into the changing room in the lingerie department would you think it odd?

Just because you havent seen it doesn't mean its has never been a problem for others. Surely you get that?

And ultimately it's the principle of the thing. This is one of the biggest women's retailers in the country. They have no interest in delivering what their female customers actually want. They are ridiculing and demeaning those who question them. It's just so deeply depressing that women are being treated like this in 2026.

Honestly, what a fuss.

I’ve worked in retail, I’ve worked large changing rooms. I am not a supporter of trans women.

However, during the 6 years I worked in a large department store, on both men’s and women’s fitting rooms everyday, I never once encountered a problem.

What I find is that we all get riled about this online, often whipped up by the media, but in real life we don’t really care that much. I saw TW all the time at work and they gave me no more issues to deal with than the average man or woman.

I’ve never seen an incident with a man/ woman in a changing room. The doors are full length and private, and there’s a staff member at the front.

Honestly, with all the issues I had to deal with, this isn’t up there in my shortlist.

Do you have to get fully undressed to try on a pair of shorts?

Why do you even need the privacy of a fitting room if you are keeping your knickers on?

He didn’t ignore the law. They had unisex changing rooms. The law says that where single sex changing facilities are provided, access can lawfully be restricted on the basis of biological sex. It does not say businesses are required to provide single sex changing rooms in the first place.

And he didn’t rape anyone. Trying to justify filming and publicly posting him based on a hypothetical crime is absurd. The only situation where I could even partly understand her reaction is if he had allowed a male into a women only changing area while she was using it. That didn’t happen. She was in no danger, so there was no justification for filming him and putting him online.

So vote with your feet and don’t shop there. It doesn’t need any more than that. If people have repeatedly made it clear how they feel via the right channels and they have no interest in changing (because under the law they aren’t compelled to provide single sex changing rooms) turn shop somewhere that aligns with your views.

there is nothing you can say that will make me think filming an employee with no control over the situation and plastering him online as a sacrificial lamb is the right course of action.

i don’t care if someone’s loud or quiet - I care that they direct it at the right person. And this wasn’t it.

would you have been ok if it was a man taking up the cause by following a woman around at her place of work filming her?

Being pretty clear about it would be saying "these statistics are about changing rooms in swimming pools and they show..."

You didn't do anything like this, so anyone not sufficiently interested to click on the link may have formed the incorrect impression you had shown crime statistics about department stores.

And I doubt most people with "bad intentions" wants to be caught, men or women, whether they commit opportunistic theft, acts of voyeurism, or worse.

Therapy might help improve his outlook.

So, women, do you understand?

You don't have to shop there. Just stay at home.

Don't be noisy. Certainly don't "holler" at people even if they are walking away from you. Just stay nice and quiet.

@MyLuckyHelper Many women have raised this concern with M&S (and other stores). They have written to managers and head office. They have stood (quite quietly, you'll be pleased to know) outside M&S, collecting comments and opinions on whether women want signposted, single-sex changing rooms. And what has M&S (and others) done? Ignored their concerns about safety, dignity, privacy, etc. So yes, perhaps we do need to raise our voices now. Hopefully the consequence of those five million views will be for more women to realise how little M&S care about their female customers.

You still haven't specified what "law" actually states that shops must provide sex-segregated changing rooms for customers...

Why do you keep blathering on about “the law”. The store, and the manager, aren’t breaking any law. Just stop.

And if you didn’t have the foresight to see that complaining about trans women in women’s spaces would ultimately lead to more and more mixed sex spaces, that’s on the community complaining.
It was obvious, and the consequence is now women are no longer exposed only to the utter minute number of trans women who happen to be sexual predators, but to all men where vast numbers are sexual predators. Thanks for that 👍🏻 good job.

This just makes you look silly and people won't listen to your cause.

Next you'll be telling me that the "Whistle blower" can murder someone...

Whistle blower 🤣

@thedramaQueen men who are putting women and children at risk by not following the law often find it unpleasant when they are caught out.

Stop blaming the whistle blower.

I'm not disputing any of that.

What I find disgusting is how this retail worker has been treated online by people. Filming someone like that and sharing online is not on. Film to share with the manager or the police is one thing...but the way this was upload on to social media is shameful.

There are a million ways a complaint could have been made.

If you can't see what is wrong with that there is no point in discussing this with any further. You will turn people off the cause by using tactics like this. It is shameful.

Not in this particular store they aren’t, perhaps in other stores they are. If it is the case and there’s no single sex space for this women to use, she doesn’t have to like it, nor does she have to shop there - I completely agree she shouldn’t have to use a mixed sex space if she doesn’t want to (although we are talking about individual lockable cubicles not shared rooms with/without curtains.

But as I’ve said a fair few times now that doesn’t give the person that filmed this man the right to do what she did.

As she was in no danger (she wasn’t being forced to use the changing room), she should have left the store and made a complaint to head office if she felt she wanted to.

Following an employee (who has no ability to change things whether he wants to or not) around the store hollering at him and then filming the tail end of the interaction and posting it for people to cast judgement on him was never the answer and is completely unacceptable. I would be furious if someone did this to me in the course of my working day because they didn’t like the work policies I was forced to implement.

@thedramaQueen because women and girls are 9 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in mixed sex spaces, managers are expected to follow the law.

And if he was this dismissive of his female customer's legal rights, it doesn't inspire confidence that he listens to any of his female staff's safety concerns either.

Oh yes she is...

No, she is not the one embarrassing herself. Bless you.

Oh so because some women and little girls have mental health crisis that means we are justified in bring on mental health crisis to anyone. Yeah you're embarrassing yourself here..."Two wrongs don't make a right"

And what about all the women and little girls who have a mental health crisis because they are raped, assaulted or filmed in mixed sex spaces?
They’re not men, so seem to be regarded as collateral damage in
the interests of men getting what they want.