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 to be fair, I think there is a much wider anti-hooters campaign going on in Bristol. Some MNers are involved in that, and thought that the M&S thing was a good alternative angle. It's far from the only thing they're doing though.

Worrying thing is, they've got plans for a more branches of the bloody thing all over the country. Soon it's going to be everywhere.

FWIW I agree that it's narrowminded to limit it to girls. Wasn't around for that discussion - what was the argument?

Trust me, SoupDragon, we're campaigning against Hooters for SO many reasons: including the location (directly beneath residential tower blocks). The M&S link is just one of many depressing strands to the campaign.

I think the argument was pretty much the blinkered view that mumofrachel put forward.

The boys/LGBG argument. Posted too soon.

MumofRachel a thread like this one undermines the true spirit of the real anti-hooters campaign that you describe. It comes across as a scattergun approach...lumping LGBG at M&S with Hooters potentially being on peoples doorsteps, impacting house values, promoting the softer side of the sex industry in plain view of children...all those i understand but M&S and LGBG is too tenuous a link to make people take it seriously!

Well I suppose the main difference is that the boy clothes are generally to do with being powerful e.g. having weaponry, having sexual preferences that are being fulfilled (only date Hooters girls, boob man etc).

However fucked up that is (and for the record: VERY), it's still depicting boys as consumers or as objects of fear.

Whereas the "future porn star" "future hooters girl" "princess" stuff for girls depicts them as sex objects (where boys are made into little objectifiers, how lovely) or passive weeds.

Both crap. I can see the difference but tbh they feed into each other. Let Kids Be Kids fgs.

What I mean is, the true female equivalent of "I only date hooters girls" isn't "Future Hooters girl"

It would be "I only date big boys" or similar.

Otherwise it's just perpetuating the idea that it's fine for boys/men to pick and choose while the girls just have to do their best to meet the exacting physical standards required

It's still sexualising them, albeit from the opposite angle.

ah, but "I only date big boys" would fall foul of the LGBG guidelines.

Yes I agreed with that. It's wrong. But it's pretty sick to be teaching little girls that their playmates expect them to grow great big boobs to be acceptable.

Yeah I knooooow SoupDragon. I'm obviously not being clear enough

1. I think sexualising children is wrong, and wish the campaign were Let Kids be Kids or similar, and applied to stuff for both sexes

2. I can sort of see why they chose to do LGBG because of the pure grossness of "Future Porn Star" and playboy stuff.

3. Although sexualising clothes for both sexes are wrong, I think there's a difference in the way in which they are wrong (as I detailed above)

4. That's it.

The Let Girls Be Girls campaign will have an impact on both boys and girls.

I imagined that the premise of it was to stop the early sexualisation of young girls so that girls didn't see themselves as sexual objects, there to fit into a stereotype for male consumption, and boys didn't grow up with unrealistic expectations of how girls should look and act as well (that being the premise - the reality, sadly, is obviously harder to achieve).

A win-win situation, even if it is focused on merchandise for young girls.

I am presuming that MNHQ must have thought that the LGBG link was worth taking seriously because they have been in contact with M&S about it.

I agree that it isn't desirable to kick a company off a campaign but there's not much point in companies signing up if they aren't going to abide by the principles of the campaign. It's a gimmick otherwise, a token gesture that means nothing if a company isn't going to take it seriously. I think M&S should be held to account for it. Other companies will see that it's a pointless campaign then and won't think twice about ignoring the principles that they've signed up to if M&S are let off the hook.

Ideally, I wouldn't see them kicked off the campaign. I would like to see them reaffirm their commitment to it. However, they are remaining silent and have been very dismissive of the hundreds of people who have written in to them.

As others have said, the M&S angle is only one part of the campaign and it was successful with the Ask Pizza chain in Sheffield with only local bad publicity. They were concerned about being linked with 'Hooters' and they hadn't made any commitments to a national campaign or have a 'gold standard' ethical policy, as far as I know.

TBH I don't think LGBG will do much good for girls either, if little boys are still running around wearing jumpers that say "I only date Hooters girls" or whatever.

But can we keep "Granny Magnet" - I love that one...

I think M&S are vile, utterly utterly vile. I worked in their head office for about 4 weeks, getting on for 30 years ago, and have never bought from them since. I will never give my money to M&S. I will boycott them with enormous pleasure.

You can bet that they joined LGBG for the publicity, and for no other reason.

I think that projecting adult values onto children is unhealthy regardless of the specific values being projected.

Rather than a concern for protecting the innocence of childhood, the LGBG campaign is at risk of appearing to be a social engineering tool for militant feminists.

The link between LGBG campaign and Hooters is tenuous at best JessinAvalon. I think this is what posters are trying to put across.

If there is more than one angle of attack in Bristol, it certainly hasnt been clearly posted (and repeatedly bumped) on MN.

Are MNHQ openly supporting the Hooters campaign now? I know the newspaper articles have been framed to this effect, but I assumed that was just 'journalistic licence'.

ccpccp - I think that's because the MNers who are involved thought it best to focus on the M&S issue because of MN's involvement with them. Doubtless if MN had connections to Bristol City Council or Hooters itself they would have started threads about that.

"LGBG campaign is at risk of appearing to be a social engineering tool for militant feminists" ahahahahahha. back to the DM comments section with you

Jux, i think you're already boycotting them...so it wont make much of a difference to them now...

"If there is more than one angle of attack in Bristol, it certainly hasnt been clearly posted (and repeatedly bumped) on MN."

There are several angles of attack in Bristol but the M&S/Hooters/LGBG angle was the reason why I posted it on MN. Initially, I kept the post to the feminism thread but it was suggested to me that it would get more notice if it was posted on the AIBU section too (as I have already stated).

I have asked anyone who lives in or near Bristol or who is interested generally and who wants to get involved to get in touch with me and I'm pleased that we have garnered some good support on other threads.

I really don't see how the two (M&S's decision and the LGBG campaign) are disconnected.

As I said above:
^...there's not much point in companies signing up if they aren't going to abide by the principles of the campaign. It's a gimmick otherwise, a token gesture that means nothing if a company isn't going to take it seriously. I think M&S should be held to account for it.

Other companies will see that it's a pointless campaign then and won't think twice about ignoring the principles that they've signed up to if M&S are let off the hook.^

I thought it was exactly the kind of thing that Mumsnetters would be interested in hence it was brought to attention of members of MN. Obviously there are some people who don't feel that they are connected and there are others who do who have been prepared to let M&S know what they think. There were enough people who see the connection for it to have come to the attention of journalists and that's great.

Clearly not everyone agrees. Like I said, "Ideally, I wouldn't see them kicked off the campaign. I would like to see them reaffirm their commitment to it."

coraltoes, of course, but THEY don't know who I am, do they?

Mwah ha ha ha ha

Heracles lol!! Was thinking about how uptight and prudish many of you are being and then wondered how i'd like a Hooters in my home town. I wouldn't! An Iceland's bad enough! Commoners! ;)