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?

Most transgender men keep their male genitalia intact and a large number of them are straight.
Why should they get to change with girls in a swimming pool or Top Shop?
That's even before we get into blokes just using this to abuse the system.

I doubt TopShop even took that into consideration.
Shame on them. They are potentially putting young girls at risk.

Our local pool has a changing village with a male, a female and a unisex area, all within one big room. Ok gaps at top and bottom but in a wet area that's understandable. The local gym has no cubicles at all. If it's acceptable for someone like Travis to use the women's section at the pool how can you then say no at the gym?

effing, yes, I thought it was a family friendly thing. Surprised to hear there is a gap though, makes it all bit pointless to say it's safely unisex and then have gaps!

All but one clothes shop in my city centre have changing rooms with curtains. No way would I be comfortable trying on clothes behind a curtain if men can go in, nor would I be happy for my preteen to change there.

The one shop that does have completely closed and lockable changing rooms are single sex but I wouldn't mind those being unisex as there's a lockable door and no gap at the top or bottom of the door.

Surely the answer is to keep female and male changing rooms but also create unisex changing rooms.

True trans women are not a threat to women and girls. It's the abusive, opportunistic men who will claim to be trans to gain access to women only spaces that are a threat to women and girls.

I find it interesting that the vast majority of trans people who are in the media because they can't use the facilities of the sex they identify as are male to female trans. I can't recall any huge publicity about a female to male trans person who has been prevented using male facilities.

Rosa, I've only ever been to one pool with a changing village, and it was more open than the one noeffingidea goes to.

It was a new swimming pool, purpose built as a family-friendly changing village. It had rows of cubicles with locking doors, but they weren't floor to ceiling. There was a gap at the bottom (like lots of toilet cubicles) and it was totally open overhead (high ceiling). Hardly surprisingly, it hadn't been open long before there were complaints of men looking over the top of the cubicles .

The showers were totally open and unisex - just a tiled area full of showers, without even walls or curtains to separate you from the next person, so you couldn't have a proper shower. I hated it. I wasn't in there very long - I was trying to wash a 2 year old and give my long hair a quick wash - and felt very uncomfortable at being leched at by the man showering opposite us as I was bending over etc in a swimsuit.

Of course, this man had every right to be there, and I knew that. But it made me feel very vulnerable, uneasy and intimidated, and I wouldn't want to go there again.

My gym and another sports club have communal changing, one even has old style communal showers - a TW dis use them and upset the women in the showers he walked in on. Complaints were made but women were just told to make alternative arrangements if they weren't happy. This is all part if the same thing - no boundaries as sex no longer matters.

Blanche, OMD!!! That's awful - I mean, seriously, open showers are bad enough but open showers for all?

It's mad isn't it, I can't use the swings in the local park unless I have a child with me, but those showers are okay?!

bam "no boundaries as sex no longer matters."

I might be misremembering this but I thought last time Labour were in power they made a priority of getting rid of mixed sex wards?

I have no idea how we got here

They's quite a burly build

How old is they? Maybe they is too old for TS.

I a

True trans women are not a threat to women and girls. It's the abusive, opportunistic men who will claim to be trans to gain access to women only spaces that are a threat to women and girls.

How can TopShop and other places that are getting rid of women's changing rooms not see this?

What do you mean by a true transwoman? A “true transwoman” who is a serial rapist was sent to a women’s prison recently. I take it they must have met the “true transwomen” criteria.

Rosa Our local pool/leisure centre is the same. Took my toddler daughter swimming, ended up squashed up against a bloke under the shower. There was no need for him to stand so close, but you know pervy men and plausible deniability.

True trans women are not a threat to women and girls

Without wanting to tar everyone with the same brush, current data is showing no drop in the rates of violence against women and girls when a man 'transitions'. Proportionally, transwomen commit VAWG at the same rate as other males.

I'll try and link to the source to back that up, obviously - just in the middle of cooking.

Source study: journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885

I find it interesting that the vast majority of trans people who are in the media because they can't use the facilities of the sex they identify as are male to female trans. I can't recall any huge publicity about a female to male trans person who has been prevented using male facilities

I thought this!
You never hear of female to male trans people acting like these attention seeking professional snowflakes.

Even then when you think about it, the loud whiny ones are almost always:
Male to female
Under 30
Love collecting victim badges e.g. queer trans femme
Play to very overly female stereotypes
Dress in a way that screams 'look at me I am so youneek!'
Seem to think 'gender non conforming' means dress like a tramp crossed with a drag queen.
Are some kind of raging social media activist and collect thousand of followers
Write blogs about how society doesn't get them
Bigs up other equally special snowflakes so they can have some pseudo-intellectual circle jerk

Normal trans people are too busy getting on with life to care about the stupid whiny millenials with their victim narratives.

Proportionally, transwomen commit VAWG at the same rate as other males

Can you point to where in that survey it discusses VAWG?
I'll try and link to the source to back that up, obviously

If you are going to quote a statistic, at least make it accurate.

Without wanting to tar everyone with the same brush, current data is showing no drop in the rates of violence against women and girls when a man 'transitions

You are tarring people with the same brush. That link you put up DOES NOT mention violence against women and girls by transwomen.

I always find it strange when people quote that survey as showing evidence that transwomen commit violent crime as the same rate as men - but then dismiss suicide statistics amongst the trans community.

This survey also shows that transwomen have an 8 fold increase risk of suicide.

It also shows that transmen commit violent crime as the same rate as men.

This indicates a shift to a male pattern regarding criminality and that sex reassignment is coupled to increased crime rate in female-to-males. The same was true regarding violent crime

Something else that never gets mentioned when people quote that survey.

Maybe we need differing terminolgy to decrive gender rather than male and female.

There already is differing terminology. Masculine and feminine. We do not segregate based on masculinity or femininity in any area of life that I am aware of. And never will.

I've met some lovely transwomen and some deeply misogynist ones who had no interest in women's issues at all. They were only interested in their own rights and violence against themselves not women's rights and violence against women in general.

Trans activist group ATH actively condoned violence against women.
Members put out statments on social media after its members were involved in an attack on a 60 year old woman in September.

My bad, Saga - I can't source that properly, and retract. But, from that linked study.

"Second, regarding any crime, male-to-females had a significantly increased risk for crime compared to female controls (aHR 6.6; 95% CI 4.1–10.8) but not compared to males (aHR 0.8; 95% CI 0.5–1.2). This indicates that they retained a male pattern regarding criminality.The same was true regarding violent crime.

Given the levels of male-on-female crime we observe among the general male population, I don't think it's unfair to infer that VAWG will be covered by 'violent crime' here.