It's been very interesting reading the varied responses. Especially @Merchfach that the men's changing area was closely supervised. My experience in M&S female areas has been that often they aren't and it is hard to find a member of staff. But I shall certainly inhabit the men's if there is a queue for the women's.
Generally, I have been trying to think why I do object to the rush to change to unisex areas and don't think just saying we ought to get over ourselves, make compromises, minimise the risks, is enough. These are all the arguments that were brought into play against the introduction of safeguarding policies.
Some of them are not much different from the rationales in societies where women are not allowed out in public, or not allowed to dress how they wish 'for their own protection' or the victim blaming of rape victims. It is no different from the attitude of the judge in the recent court case where the female assault victim was told that her attacker's sentence took into account that she had been lacking in grace by referring to him as male. It is always our behaviour that must be modified.
If the whole scandals and issues about safeguarding has taught us anything it is that predators and those with ulterior motives will gravitate towards areas and organisations where the controls and boundaries are loose and not enforced. So self-id is Christmas for these people and ultimately there will be backlash and the genuine trans people will suffer.
There has been a lot of comment on t'internet about how public places are leaving men's facilities unchanged and making women's multi use.
That all the emphasis is on women making their space available to men and not the other way round makes me suspicious and I have been thinking that I would rather be in a changing area/toilet with straightforwardly heterosexual/gay men who would not dream of going into a women's area than in an area where the men inhabiting it are more likely I think, to be there for the wrong reasons.
There has been lots of comment on other threads and in other arenas how the abuser/narcissist will keep moving the boundaries and goalposts until there is nothing left.
What has #PeakTrans'd me and made me feel this is a hill worth dying on is the attitude and behaviour of the transactivists. It is vile and reading it makes me feel ill. How anyone can not see this for the abuse it is is beyond me. This is what we are allowing to drive social change if we keep allowing our boundaries to be breached. Thin end of the wedge.
I think of a young just pre-teen girl I know who would be mortified to have to change with men/boys. She also suffers severely from anxiety and has already been assaulted by an older boy at school. Her needs are simply ignored in all this. In fact her younger brother is a very modest boy and would not like to be with women. It works both ways.
For myself I do not want to go shopping worrying about what circumstances I might encounter and have to deal with. I am more than capable of asserting myself, but really don't want to feel I have to gear myself up for this every time I go shopping for clothes.
So I think the rush to change existing provision is ill thought out and maybe poorly executed. It certainly doesn't cater for women with religious views/cultural expectations that prevent them from undressing in spaces where men have access. I notice that M&S has a modest clothing range!! They are not joining up the dots here.
The whole problem is that there has been no debate so the issues arising have not been explored or understood. So my protests to M&S and others reflect this. I am not going to let them say they were not warned when it all goes pear shaped.