To alert you to the fact that Topshop just changed its policy to let men into the women's changing rooms

[YouStoleTheBowlFromTheRoom]

Been made aware of this today: a 'gender fluid' man having a pop at Topshop because he wasn't allowed to use the women's changing rooms at their Manchester store:

twitter.com/travisalabanza/status/927198660089339904

Topshop have now been quoted as apologising to him, and saying they've changed their policy to get rid of sex-segregated changing rooms altogether.

Another shop to strike off the list. Am I the only one worried this is past the point of no return?

sanddune

I agree. It's like a modern day Emporers new clothes

"Bumpowder no, the comments have been mocking."

Because we aren't required to accept all of his demands and assertions blindly like idiots.

battered because you aren't getting changed with them. You enter one space together and then enter a separate space yourself to change. Shops and other facilities have been doing this for years with no issue. Unless you have always boycotted the small number I have already mentioned?

Shops that only currently have male and female changing areas cannot reasonably introduce a new changing area due to layout constraints. You can easily change both to gender neutral but cannot add in another space that there is not room for.

I wouldn't force a man to have a penis examination with a female doctor

Are you happy for a woman, who wants a female doctor, to be confronted with a man who wants to be a woman, when she goes for a smear. Do you really think men are happy to stop at changing rooms. We've already had women thrown out of a FEMALE refuge, because they objected to a man staying there. We've had a man drag a rape crisis centre through the courts because they didn't permit him to become a counsellor. Where do you draw the line? The line is constantly being pushed by men and women are told to shut up, because their feelings don't matter, only the feelings and rights of the men who want to be women.

Frankly I boycott Topshop anyway, not because of fluid gender changing rooms, but because the clothes are over priced crap and because Phillip Green is a tax dodging git. Enough reasons for me. Hit the bastard in the pocket, maybe he will have to sell a yacht

Tweet TopShop and let them know if you're unhappy

@Topshop

Pisacake mocking someones appearance and accepting someones views are not mutually exclusive. Disagree with the views and wants expressed without mocking appearance. It's not hard.

@sailor no one's mocking Travis's appearance what are you talking about?! He is NOT THE VICTIM

I used to work in GAP in Leeds and we always had unisex changing rooms. It wasn't advertised, nor was even a thing. If one of the other was busy. Mixed genders went into both. I was there 2 years and didn't have a singular complaint. This was 12 years ago.

I do think that we should pick our battles wisely. A supervised changing room in a shopping centre, is different to an unsupervised female only bathroom. In my opinion.

However I do think that changing rooms in shops need to be better than that stupid curtain. I don't want to see a trans persons ball sack through a gap In the curtain as much as they don't want to see my saggy boobs.

ant way I shop online. I suspect 99% of transpeople do too.

"Pisacake mocking someones appearance and accepting someones views are not mutually exclusive. Disagree with the views and wants expressed without mocking appearance. It's not hard."

Sorry which comments are you referring to as mocking precisely?

It's obviously necessary to consider his appearance, because that's the basis for his claiming to be entitled to access a female space.

Shops that only currently have male and female changing areas cannot reasonably introduce a new changing area due to layout constraints. You can easily change both to gender neutral but cannot add in another space that there is not room for.

So keep the female only and make the men's the unisex ones then.

You're happily assuming all men want to sexually assault and abuse you

Sorry, what? Did you actually read my post?

If someone is going to stare at your breasts they will do it walking through the street, in a coffee shop and wherever. The issue there is not changing rooms.

I’m not in my underwear in the street. It’s precisely because you can’t avoid being ogled in public spaces that women are against men in their changing rooms - I don’t particularly want to be ogled there.

You may feel insecure modelling clothes for others to see if a man is there but will happily wear them in public, in front of many people.

I don’t feel even remotely insecure about my appearance, at 5’11” with blonde hair I am never invisible. But when I am trying on clothes I would like some privacy.

I can’t work out whether it’s shallowness or stupidity that makes you believe this issue is about insecurity. Or perhaps you’re just a goady fucker.

Yes!

battered because you aren't getting changed with them. You enter one space together and then enter a separate space yourself to change

So what does travis have to worry about changing in the men’s and why was he placated?

You simply cannot have it both ways! If the men’s changing room is scary because there are men in it when a man says so why is the women’s changing room not scary when those same men are in it when a woman says it? Which is it? If the men are safe to be around then travis shouldn’t have been allowed into the women’s, because the men’s is a safe place for him to be.

cannot reasonably introduce a new changing area due to layout constraints.

And yes they can. Shops change layouts all the time. Their structures are flimsy and made to be easily changed with minimal effort and cost.

How about appropriating a couple of men's cubicles for the special men who like to wear dresses? Why always the women's spaces?

Frankly, I have no problem with anyone mocking Travis - because mocking is exactly what he is doing to all of us when he puts on "womanface." He's taking the piss out of women, and deliberately pissing all over their boundaries. What he is doing is every bit as offensive as blackface.

Agree prickly! That’s exactly what it is.

Tatiana I wasn't referring to you specifically, more the general you who are against this because they/their daughter might not want to come out and show the clothes off. That is an actual issue given as to why this isn't acceptable.

Again, gender neutral changing rooms are not new nor have they caused this much outrage before. Why now? Men are not in the physical cubicle with you. I don't use a changing room without ensuring that the curtain isn't left gaping open somewhere regardless of who is getting changed in the cubicle next to me or standing outside. That doesn't change if it is only women.

Pisacake I'm in the apparent minority on MN who believes that female and male are not solely attributed to the way you look. His appearance is not the deciding factor although people seem happy to use appearance as the only thing to talk about.

It seems like you cannot post on these threads unless you state it is an awful idea as all men are perverted peeping toms and should be locked away. Heaven forbid you don't lose your head over a bloody gender neutral changing area, that has individual changing areas, and are actually incredibly common.

So when a woman is sexually assaulted in a changing room by someone who, one day, fancies being a woman, are we all just expected the shake our heads, say “oh what a shame” and pretend that it wasn’t 100% preventable?
If you’re genuinely trans, as in you are a woman in a man’s body and are taking steps to transition or actively transitioning, that’s different. If you can wake up one morning and just decide what you fancy being, then no. It’s not right or fair!

He is obviously Topshop shopping to get tips for his next Halloween costume mobile.twitter.com/travisalabanza/status/924354793891663874?p=v
Mocking indeed

If the changing rooms had cubicles with lockable doors, as I think they might have done in this case, I probably wouldn't have minded. What is more worrying is the fact that increasingly, the rights of women (who make up half the population!) are being trumped by the rights of a handful of trans people (less than 1% of the population) as if our legitimate concerns about our safety and privacy are not as important as theirs. You can't even talk about it without being accused of being transphobic. I actually don't have a problem with sharing single-sex spaces with trans women but I don't know if I feel comfortable with any old man being able to walk unchallenged into our changing rooms just because he says he's a woman, which is the way things seem to be going. That is absolutely open to abuse. There has to be some kind of safeguarding to protect biological women, as well as trans-women. And I really don't think all-gender changing rooms are the solution. I for one certainly wouldn't use them.

I'm in the apparent minority on MN who believes that female and male are not solely attributed to the way you look.

Biology is not a belief. Female and male are determined by your genitalia and chromosomes. Not what you wear, not what hobbies you do and not how you feel.

I wasn't referring to you specifically, more the general you who are against this because they/their daughter might not want to come out and show the clothes off

Then why address the comment to me? Perhaps you’ve reread my post and realised you made a mistake. Either way if my daughter doesn’t want to consider her clothes in the mirror in front of random men that’s up to her. It’s not for you to say.

Gender neutral changing rooms are not the same as women’s changing rooms accessed by a man. However, some teens of both genders avoid gender neutral changing rooms.

Hazeyjane that says it all really :(

Why on earth are mothers happy with their daughters sharing a changing space with men we know nothing about?

Shops would be better off with male, female and gender undecided changing rooms. A lot less hassle....