M&S changing rooms

[SweetChilliGirl]

Was I unreasonable to send this to M&S?

Good morning,

Having not shopped for lingerie with you for several years, due to your policy of allowing trans-identifying men into the women's changing rooms, can I now be assured that, in line with the judgement of the supreme court males will no longer be allowed to identify their way into your single sex changing rooms, thus preserving biological women's dignity and safety? I would very much like to be able to shop with you again.

I look forward to hearing from to to clarify this important matter.

Regards,

Sweetchilligirl

There’s a lot of talk about who is going to police it, has anyone mentioned “genital inspections” yet?
Maybe some brave women will say something but half of Mumsnet are too frightened to open their own front doors so they’re probably not going to suddenly start asserting themselves in public loos. Oh but apparently there’s thousands of very tall muscular women with deep voices (who no one ever mentioned up until the last week) so maybe those women will be brave enough?

I think the wider point though is if there is an incident or even just an accusation of something nefarious then what would the TW’s defence be as to why they’re in the ladies loo?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could now just think that now that the law has been clarified, that any male who doesn't have ill intent towards women and children would simply keep out of the single sex spaces for female people? Just like people did before there was this paradigm shift forced by powerful lobby groups such as Stonewall.

Apparently, this expectation is too much from looking at the reaction to the judgement.

Fair point!

With a fair few it may just be a lot of talk but no trousers (no pun intended). Posting angrily on Twitter doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be so ballsy (no pun intended) go ahead and do it.

I hope that you are right.

Have you had a response to your email yet?

Nope, nothing 🤔

Looked at my local store - changing room has images of women at entrance and is in women's section of store but does not indicate it is for women. Just says Fitting Room. Same for the men's - images of men at entrance.

Don't know about lingerie section changing room. Suspect changing rooms are mixed sex despite mixed message.

Definitely implied and lulls you into a false sense of security

Mmnnn - EHRC interim guidance kiboshes this I think. If the space was intended for women but they've the removed the sign in an attempt to gender neutralise it - that won't do.

Respectfully I disagree, she was my daughter’s next door neighbour, on an army base. In a relationship with a guy from the army. I can GUARANTEE you if those guys had known from the start, they’d have said.

One of the women who regularly gets harassed for using female toilets was Kate Osborne, MP for Jarrow & Gateshead East. She spoke about it in parliament this week.

If you think the women who already struggle to use the correct loo in peace, are the sorts of women who are going to attempt to groll
others about whether they’re in the right place, you’ve lost your mind

Who are these people 'regularly' harassing Kate Osborne? They must have vision issues. She is clearly a woman, I can't see how there'd be any ambiguity at all.

I don’t believe her honestly. She clearly looks like a women. Having short hair and not wearing make up does not make someone a man.

Agreed.

I did once see someone doing a double-take when I dropped a girl off at a women's refuge - I'm tall, had short hair and was wearing trousers and a puffed jacket.

Once I reached the door of the refuge, the person concerned visibly relaxed. (For obvious reasons, the refuge had a females only rule.)

I don't believe that either. She looks like a woman.

My mum had a similar short hair style her whole adult life. She had a slim androgynous figure, rarely wore make up and, unless she was going out, wore fairly unisex clothing.

Not a single person ever mistook her for a man. Ever. Because she was obviously still a woman.

I was often mistaken for a boy as a child - by adults and other children. I had short hair and was often dressed the same as my younger brother. Even my own children looked at photos of my brother and me when we were younger and asked who the boy in all the photos with Uncle Mark was! 😁

When I was about 6, some kids on holiday asked me what sex I was. I didn't understand the question and an older girl told me that, if i was ever asked that again, i should tell them I'm a girl. I remember that I still didn't understand the question or the answer particularly! But I was asked again.

However, once I'd been through puberty, not a single person has ever questioned my sex. Even when I 'dressed like a boy' through my teens. Because it was fucking obvious I was a girl.

People generally don't go around accusing women with short hair of being male, or the pixie cut would have fallen out of favour a long time ago!

Your androgynous women look like women. It's easy. Very easy.

The same way as it was handled for decades beforwe, smart cookie.😊