Please join boycott Marks and Spencer facebook group

[JessinAvalon]

Dear all
A boycott Marks and Spencer facebook group has been set up to protest against their decision to sub-lease a building to Hooters in Bristol.

Boycott Marks and Spencer group

Please join it and the spread the word.

The big orange Hooters sign has gone up in Bristol.

We are about to be subjected to things like this...

Hooters girls pimping to the max

Hooters sponsors youth football tournament in Nottingham

Family friendly? I think not!

Well, Hooters is marketed as something you take the children too - a family place. I'm just wondering if by linking it to adult lingerie you're suggesting that children should also have things like that marketed at them?

They are on full view, displayed in the store where a poor impressionable child might see them.

As I said before, anyone with half a braincell can tell that Hooters is not TGIFridys.

and what about discriminatory hiring practices at odds with UK employment law? Do you have any thoughts on that?

Sorry MumofRachel - that doesnt hold true to much of what has been said on the feminist section thread (whos location should give you a hint where its roots lie)

The LGBG was about sexualisation of very young kids. Thus is is an issue for all parents.

The Hooters issue is a feminist one. The 'its not a family restaurant' line is smoke and mirrors.

You want to support thowing away all that has been achieved with the help of M&S and the LGBG campaign then go ahead. Pangs of sore losers to me though.

(waits for someone to post a howling outraged rant showing the evil hooters novelty babygrows)

Campaign against Hooters all you like. I'm not pro-Hooters at all. As i said, I've been in one, it was nothingy. Good buffalo wings, apparently.

IMO, pointing the finger of blame and responsibility at M&S is rather ridiculous.
That's what i'm arguing against.

Women fought for their right to CHOOSE, and to live how they wish...not for other women to dictate to them what is right and wrong, and how they ought to display their own bodies. Whilst i choose not to earn my keep by showing my jugs, I would never deny someone else that choice. Women dictating to women is no better than being dictated to by men.

I also struggle to see how M&S have done anything wrong here. They leased a property, likely through an agent, agent found a lessee, deal done. M&S sell food, clothes, and frumpy pants...they are not Greenpeace.

do you know what, the items on the US hooters merchandise site aren't anywhere near as bad as some of the a tuff with crappy slogans on that you can buy elsewhere on the high street/ easy Internet stores. Given where they place themselves in the market with their vests and hot pants, this is rather remarkable.

the most sexualising ones are for boys IMO so where does this fit in with you trying to link this with LGBG?

Yawn coraltoes. It's my CHOICE to boycott M&S over this. It's my CHOICE where I do or don't spend money. It's my CHOICE to write letters to M&S.

So this thread has finally kicked off then!! There's a surprise. Jess just to let you know I joined the group too.

oh really SoupDragon, like what?

so early sexualisation of boys has nothing to do with letting girls be girls?

Surely it's all related.

And I'm not sure how we're LGBG by taking them to a restaurant where the unique selling point is that the waiting on staff are all pretty young women with big breasts. And men aren't ALLOWED to apply to be waiting on staff.

I think it is highly relevant to the campaign myself - M&S will be profitting from this while benefitting from the family friendly image and free advertising of being part of the LGBG campaign.

M&S advertises itself on its 125-year history of good, honest, family retailing.

Hooters is a 27-year-old business that advertises itself on having sexy, skimpily dressed girls waitressing and dancing (cheerleader routines, then) for its customers.

M&S is not responsible for Hooters per se, but it is responsible for sub-letting them its former store in Bristol. It didn't have to.

This is why I think M&S is not a suitable partner for LGBG. Of course, this is clearly just my opinion and I'm in the minority here on this thread. Still, as Coraltoes says, women have the right to CHOOSE, (as do men), and I am choosing to boycott M&S because of this decision. It's up to me. And it's up to you if you don't want to.

no it isn't related given that MN decided to focus on only one gender.

1. You do realise you don't HAVE to take your child into a Hooters don't you?
2. The staff are ADULTS making their own choice.

JessinAvalon Tue 28-Sep-10 11:24:57 wrote:

"You obviously do not have to join the Facebook group work at or visit Hooters if you do not want to! Freedom of choice and all that."

I've edited that quote a bit for you

'course you don't have to shop at M&S either, but you shouldn't be surprised if some people think you're being unreasonable - especially when you post your campaign propaganda on the 'Am I being unresonable?' board.

SoupDragon -

You do realise that you don't have to buy your daughter a Playboy pencil case don't you? (And yet this is what LGBG is working against)

The playboy bunnies are adults making their own choices too.

If you say LGBG is a pile of rubbish, fair enough. But if you say that challenging e.g. Smiths over playboy stuff is fine, but challenging Hooters over its kid stuff isn't, that seems inconsistent.

SoupDragon: The reason Mumsnet doesn't have (to my knowledge) a Let Boys Be Boys campaign, or even a Let Kids Be Kids campaign, is that boys' clothing stores don't tend to manufacture tight t-shirt saying "future porn star' or similar for male toddlers.

It's 2010 are there really still people out there who think that only ugly women are feminists; that feminism is a dirty word; that it's in some way empowering to earn a living flashing your tits or that these things really don't matter? How depressing.

Is anyone closely involved with this? If it's possibly a planning issue I know a brilliant consultant who does pro bono work and who (despite being a man) is a fantastic feminist and would love to take this on.

MumofRachel - 'This is why I think M&S is not a suitable partner for LGBG'

M&S are one of the biggest retailers in the country. You are making a mistake - cutting off your nose to spite your face.

MumofRachel - 'I am choosing to boycott M&S because of this decision. It's up to me'

You are also choosing to be an active member in a campaign against M&S, and pushing those views on AIBU.

no they just want them to kill each other, all action hero's, guns and I am a little monster ones.
I always found the easy way with stuff I don't like/approve of, I just don't buy it......is easy

DialMforMother: that sounds fantastic. Can you post a message on the Boycott M&S Facebook group, and someone will be in touch with you? No point discussing it here as I don't think it will be appreciated - or appropriate! Thanks.

I deleted Facebook a while ago unfortunately! Send me a message?

Elephantandmisasmas, well done you. Fighting it for your own principles is fine, fighting it on behalf of feminism baffles me. Feminism isn't just about not showing off a bit of boob. Of course we all have the right to choose what we protest about but do not take the plight of the workers as your own, for THEY are the ones who chose their jobs. It isn't some illicit sex trafficking...it is a licensed bar.

Nobody is saying it is wrong to challenge Hooters, I believe it is very wrong to challenge M&S over the actions of a totally different and independant company!

If a parent chooses to shop for children's clothes at Hooters and sees a saucy slogan t-shirt their outrage should surely be less than finding a saucy t-shirt in the actual aisles of M&S...but then i'm not anti the t-shirts...they exist cos idiots buy them. I'm anti idiotic parents.

"SoupDragon: The reason Mumsnet doesn't have (to my knowledge) a Let Boys Be Boys campaign, or even a Let Kids Be Kids campaign, is that boys' clothing stores don't tend to manufacture tight t-shirt saying "future porn star' or similar for male toddlers."

oh, how blinkered you are.
And, from your name, a mother to a girl, no boys...?

Where did i say that LGBG is rubbish? I've never said it was rubbish, just that trying to link M&Ss involvement with it into their leasing premises to Hooters is ridiculous. I do think it was rather narrow minded to loot it to girls though and I think i said this at the time.

As for clothing, looking at the Hooters merchandise site, we have "I'm a boob man", which I doubt is to do with breastfeeding, "I only date hooters girls", "chick magnet"... Oddly enough, there's not a single "future hooters girl" slogan there. On the high street, you have guns, camouflage, low slung pant showing jeans (some even have fake pants)... Still want to argue boys are allowed to be boys or is it OK for them to be sold adult clothing?

You should be campaigning against the location of Hooters, not clouding the issues with blaming M&S and bleating on about LGBG in this instance. focus on the primary problem, not silly side issues which simply dilute the impact.

... Narrow minded to limit it to girls