to be surprised by single sex changing rooms in M&S!

[MrsMaturin]

There is a new M&S near us. It's pretty huge with ladieswear downstairs with a changing room and then menswear and childrens upstairs also with a changing room.
This week I took dd2 (13) to look for a school skirt which she had to try one because school are v fussy about length. We found two and headed over to the changing rooms on that floor. When we got there the man wouldn't let us in saying it was men only. I pointed out that the children's department was also on that floor with no separate facility but he was implacable. AIBU in finding this really odd? The changing rooms are all made up of cubicles and I've never been told they are single sex. If I had been shopping with my son would I be told to wait outside, unable to see how the garments looked on him? This is a minor issue of course but his officious exclusion of us really made me cross plus the ladies changing rooms were miles away. If we'd wanted the staff there to fetch us something else it would have taken them quite some time.
Or am I being weird and you would expect changing rooms to be single sex only in a major clothing shop/department store?

Olga, not all of us can afford the prices in lingerie only shops. I suspect the majority of bras are bought in department stores or unisex shops.

Places like ASDA for example have a lingerie section, but one women's changing room for everything.

I know most MNers are well off, but in reality most women are not.

Olga of course there should be a proper changing room for those who need unisex changing rooms. Why does that have to be at the expense of those who want single sex changing rooms?

"I've never seen a changing room that declares itself to be single sex like this one did"

I have only seen unisex changing rooms in Asda.

If you are with children using a single sex adult changing room then you should go to the one for the sex of the parent. You wouldn't have to queue for different changing rooms because you have a boy and girl with you.

Not in my ASDA. But if there is only a small selection of clothing, there will only be unisex changing rooms because of space. In ASDAs with a decent selection of clothing, they do have single sex changing rooms.

Personally I wouldn't want to use a unisex changing room.

Honestly I do get fed up on MN how so many situations are judged on the basis of what it is like if you are well off. And so many MNers don't even realise they are doing it.

Places like ASDA for example have a lingerie section, but one women's changing room for everything.

You were the one talking opening doors half dressed to get assistance with bras from the shop staff, doesn't sound like Asda to me!

Me neither Corrine. If most changing rooms were unisex, I would only buy clothes from shops that had single sex changing rooms.

YAB a bit martian-like. I have never seen a unisex changing room. What have you been doing all your life MrsM?

I am actually exceedingly poor - M&S and Primark are my usual haunts.

I still prefer unisex everything, from loos to changing rooms. It's so much more civilised.

You are not exceedingly poor if M and S is one of your usual haunts.

Why do you think you have the right to dictate that other women should use unisex facilities?

And I have said I would be happy for there to be both, it is you who insists that other women and men should use unisex facilities because you prefer it.

Unisex loos? No thanks.

I know women take bloody ages but at least (generally speaking) they don't spray the cubicle with piss and usually flush

I read one place near me made the loos unisex. After 6 months they changed it because of the many complaints from female customers about men's piss on the floor and seats.

Crikey, where did I insist?

You can be as prudish as you like, but I value the convenience of a unisex set up, especially since having children.

My preference, I'm not about to start a campaign banning single-sex changing rooms

Corus, I am assuming unisex loos would not have urinals. I know you would have no problem seeing men's penises you didn't know as they piss in the urinal, but most women would have a problem with that.

Corus - So you think men should have single sex toilets with urinals, but women should only have the use of unisex toilets?

Funnily enough when I was shopping with my Mum in New Look the other day there was a male assistant working on the fitting room.
My Mum was horrified at first, then I pointed out they were the only changing rooms and the shop sold both Women's and Men's clothing and was he really going to be seeing anything through a curtain anyway and she calmed down.

It really doesn't bother me, I'd rather DH could come into the fitting room than me have to try something on, realise it has a back zip, traipse outside to the man seats and have him try to fasten it I front of a shop full of people.

Doesn't the prefix "uni" mean "one", as in unicycle, unicorn, and the prefix "bi" means "two", as in bicycle, binary, biennial? I've always wondered why we use the term "unisex" which means "one sex" when we actually mean both sexes. Curious.

Sorry, I realise that adds nothing whatsoever to this debate!