To want Primark to provide a women only changing room?

[Amelia1985x]

I’m a regular Primark customer and was surprised to go the store yesterday and find all the changing rooms had been redesignated as mixed sex. The shop assistant told me not to worry, because most customers on the ladies’ floor were women, and anyway, she could see down the line of curtained cubicles and would challenge a “dodgy man”. When I questioned her about how she would spot one, she called the Manager as he could explain the policy better.

He told me the world was changing. I asked him why Primark had had sex segregated changing rooms in the first place. No answer. I asked him what specific legislative change or scientific discovery had occurred that made the world different to this time last year. No answer. He said that this arrangement was more inclusive for nonbinary people.

I explained that I didn’t feel that comfortable stripping to my knickers in a mixed area, and he told me I could always use the one disabled cubicle which has a lockable door. Clearly this has been designed for mixed sex use and did have a lock, but obviously I would then be blocking its use for a disabled person. He suggested there was no reason to be concerned. Yet when I think about me and my women friends, all our me-too moments, - of being flashed at, or masturbated at, sexual assaults and rapes – all have been my men.

The manager was unabashed. He said Primark had done research – even though he couldn’t produce it, and there were no leaflets or posters to explain this HUGE policy change to customers. He told me I was the only person who had ever complained.

So I guess this is what I want to know. Am I a dinosaur? Am I being unreasonable to want a women only changing room?

What I don’t understand is 99% of women are happy with single sex changing rooms , yet about just 1% of men want access to women’s changing rooms. Why does 1% male wish trump the 99% female? I asked my 16 year old DS yesterday, he prefers single sex changing rooms too.

As regards rape surely you need a penis for that? Last time I did biology at school when I was about 13 we learnt that only the male human has a penis. I didn’t take biology o-level to be fair, maybe I missed out on the bit where humans could change sex spontaneously?

@MamaToTheBabyBears Would some religions ban women from using locked cubicles with floor to ceiling doors? Like, a separate, completely enclosed room with nobody else in it?

If so, why? Any time you're in public, you're fully clothed. It wouldn't make any sense at all.

Mind you, sometimes women abuse their children. It's not unheard of. So we should all have a changing room each, right? A totally separate one with a door that locks.

Ah bless your cotton socks

@GaraMedouar Your 99% isn't accurate. And of your cod 99%, lots of women would be happy mixed sex too. There are many on this thread. You can't just make up numbers.

@Eckhart Is that what these companies are doing? Are the re-furnishing changing rooms to be like this? Or are they changing the signs?I

@Baguetteaboutit That's not very nice and doesn't contribute to the discussion. What's you're argument against the point I made?

Refurbishing*

Eckhart you seem really keen to get penises into womens changing rooms. Bit too keen.

I'd just like to point out that this sort of thing is what is discussed a lot on the Feminism Chat board, in terms of the impact on women's rights, safety, privacy and dignity.

You know, the same board that is routinely slagged off by people with vested interests in glossing over the inevitable problems with "woke" policies like this.

So next time someone tries to tell you that Feminism chat is a bad place and you should block it, ask yourself why they are so keen to dissuade you from seeing and discussing stuff like this.

Then come on over and join in the debate!

I rarely use any changing rooms these days, I try on at home and return the next day. It raises an eyebrow at the returns desk when 80% of the items are going back but I hate changing rooms, huge queues, hot, flimsy curtain.

I'm just impressed by the mental gymnastics performed to keep your woke sensibilities untarnished by reality and facts.

And I have never made any bold claims about being nice.

@APerkyPumpkin I'm overly keen to get secure, lockable changing rooms that are totally private for everybody, so that nobody has the slightest chance of viewing or abusing anybody else.

@Baguetteaboutit The reality is that the vast majority of people who use changing rooms, unisex or otherwise do not suffer from any kind of abuse. This would be even less with secure, lockable cubicles. Is that not the case?

@Eckhart - how do you know my 99% isn’t accurate? It might be? And I didn’t say 99% prefer single sex changing rooms, or are unhappy with mixed changing rooms per se. I said they were happy with single sex. Yes, arguably I haven’t stood in a street and polled ten thousand women. There will be some women who actively dislike single sex - I’m sure. But , every single woman I ever talk to about this in the real world prefers single sex, same with men (those normal nice men not the predator type).

Last year they opened a massive Primark in my home city. But when I found out that there were no single sex changing spaces for women, I decided to boycott the store and have never been in, not just for my own safety, privacy and dignity, but that of my SN niece who deserves the right to change in a female only space.

Single sex spaces exist for a reason, to protect women and afford us those rights that we fought for. We weren't just handed single sex spaces.

I do not want men in my safe and intimate spaces for all those reasons highlighted upthread. My rights are being given away without my consent.

Yanbu. Basically women are losing all of our safe spaces because of vocal lobbying by a tiny minority and the result will that we rarely go swimming / buy clothes to try on at home then return etc etc.

The problem is that the people who sign off policy changes like this are massively naive about the behaviour of some men towards women.

Here are three cameras you can buy on eBay for a few quid. There is a raging business in covert recording equipment.

They could be installed in seconds and nobody would clock them.

The installer can film you/share the footage across the internet with other perves to his hearts desire and you wouldn't know a thing about it.

The vast majority??? Is that the framework that you are dealing with? Is that the best women can hope for when it comes to male violence? Is that the spectrum that you are playing with when you are telling women that they shouldn't have a problem losing a sex specific space to get changed in store?

On the up side, corporate wokeness is only a marginal issue against set against profit. When companies lose custom to online stores and spend a fortune in processing returns because the women won't play nice and tolerate the risk level set at 'the vast majority of women won't be harmed by our virtue signalling' - there will be a quick re-shuffle back to common sense.

@GaraMedouar Nobody's personal experience is a strong enough argument. Another poster upthread got criticised for a 'Not my Nigel' post. I don't see why 'Not my Nancy' is any more acceptable.

Has anyone ever been in a curtained cubicle where the curtain has closed properly? I haven’t.

I went into M&S recently to try on bras, breaking my usual rule of getting completely topless in a changing room (needed to try on several sizes so had no choice - to be honest I rarely ever try anything on in shops as I hate it). Part way through a male and a female member of staff came into the communal area of the changing room and were chatting, sorting things out... I was quite surprised by my reaction, as soon as I heard the bloke’s voice I felt extremely uncomfortable, got dressed and left. I don’t even like being naked on my own, let alone around men with an inadequate curtain between us (he would definitely have been able to see me if he’d tried).

And that’s with a member of staff, alongside a female member of staff - highly unlikely to be any threat to me. Random male members of the public? No chance.

hopelesssuitcase you can repost your original post as many times as you like however I read it clearly the first time. You were being dismissive of the store manager and I was defending him, short and sweet.

The sexism on this thread is appalling.

@FOJeremy Against men, you mean?

Saz M&S is now happy for males to change alongside women. There are several threads on this on Mumsnet. They don't care about women.

AGPs (men who get off on wearing women's underwear and clothes) are big fans of M&s. There was an article in the news yesterday and a current thread on the feminist chat about fetishists reviewing women's knickers and how nicely they hold everything in - oh and the knickers are returnable by the way 🤮