In reaction to the Government sex segregation Petition response, M&S are finally reconsidering their position on their sexist unsafe and undignified policy.

[OneHourTwentyFourMinutes]

I have had several discussions with M&S who were very much digging their heels in and putting male feelings ahead of sex segregation exemptions in the EA2010. I had another discussion with them today and they are finally looking at their policy again.

Please take action and message them your feminist concerns.

Further discussion www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3269463-Government-response-to-the-petition

Including links to a trans woman who admitted to throwing clothes in an aggressive act, at female staff in a woman's changing room.

Why do M&S keep claiming that all their changing rooms have lockable doors when multiple people have confirmed that the one local to them only has curtains? People should start pointing that out in their responses.

TK Maxx.

Ah yes another shop with unisex changing rooms.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had you tasered on sight!

...

Yep, that's what a store that mostly sells ready meals, multi packs of knickers, and conservative jumpers needs, security guards running around zapping customers.

They seem to be saying that they choose to deal with any voyeurism or masturbating after it happens instead of making any effort to prevent it as provided for in the EA.
Good to know.

Omg you're actually trying to educate M&S about autogynephila

People need educating on this.

You just sound odd. I doubt they'd want you shopping in their store now anyway, or being let anywhere near their customers. I wouldn't be surprised if they had you tasered on sight!

Said the pot to the kettle...

"Wait, gran, what happened when you were in M&S buying a chicken pie and some socks?"

"I was about to try on a bra and there seemed to be a man in line for the ladies changing room so I asked the security guard, and then he pulled out some sort of device and shocked me with it!"

Best PR ever. Brilliant plan, Supermatch, I'm sure M&S will get right on that.

Timelady: no

Between that and the weird boxy tshirts I'm not sure who they think they're making clothes for.

Not much progress by the sound of it really. They could go the route of single occupancy changing with sturdy lockable doors. Probably expensive to implement at bigger stores.

I'm actually more concerned at Topshop and 'teen' stores ditching segregated changing. With 2 teen DDs I'd say they need segregation more than any other. Adults wouldn't get into kids fitting rooms whatever gender.

Best PR ever. Brilliant plan, Supermatch, I'm sure M&S will get right on that.

Yes because obviously I'm suggesting M&S literally do that. Are you having comprehension issues?

They seem to be saying that they choose to deal with any voyeurism or

And you can stop with your filth as well.

Are you having comprehension issues?

Oh, the irony.

You always get a bit nasty at this time of night, Supermatch. Maybe time to step away from the computer for a bit.

If you say so. Night.

In the TK Maxx near me - women to the right, men to the left, assistant stationed in the area in the middle. Lockable cubicles. No problem with that. Would I be happy with complete unisex? Probably not. It feels comfortable segregated like that.

Back in the days when communal changing areas were around, I'm afraid I took my custom elsewhere. I didn't want to strip off in front of strangers, full stop.

Last time I seem to recall gappy curtains was in Laura Ashley but they only sell women's clothes. If I had encountered a man in there, I guess I would have left and wouldn't have shopped there again.

We do have the purchasing power to make a difference en masse. Try things on at home and take them back for a refund, like in the good old M&S days. Hey, the TIMs could do that too....now that would be an empathetic gesture towards women, wouldn't it?

The pitiful response which isn’t even accurate!
Thank you for your email. As a member of the Executive Team I wanted to contact you directly regarding your recent visit to our store.
At M&S we are committed to delivering a pleasant and comfortable shopping environment for all our customers, irrespective of gender identity or expression. Whilst our fitting rooms are usually located in specific product areas, such as Womenswear and Menswear, our customers are welcome to use whichever fitting room they feel most comfortable in, always with respect to the privacy of other customers. All of our fitting room cubicles have mirrors inside and lockable doors to ensure full customer privacy.
All our policies are reviewed on a regular basis.
Thank you for taking the time to contact M&S.
Kind regards

Andrene Gawley
Executive Team
Your M&S Customer Service

Ironically, an M and S ad came up as I logged on to MN. Maybe we should lobby MN to drop them.

The M&S near my office in the city has lockable cubicles in the City. I went in specifically to check yesterday!

I'll check the one at marble arch tomorrow when I have a meeting up there...

If a store has lockable cubicles then do they still have one set of lockable cubicles designated as the male changing area and one as the female changing area? If so both areas need to be unisex. Some TW get a kick from using female areas. I'm not up for giving them any validation.

A follow up email from m & s about their changing room policy. I think the message is that women’s feelings don’t matter. We can take our clothes home and try them on and return them because they don’t want to upset 0.03% of the population. They seem to be missing the point. Culturally some women aren’t allowed to be in the same spaces as men (which is what TW are - 86% do not transition), young women may feel embarrassed and older women won’t understand. It seems absurd that no one seems to care about the fact that sex is a protected characteristic by law.

While I appreciate from your email you are unhappy with our fitting room policy there is no current plan to review it.
Our fitting rooms provide customers with a private area to change but we do have a generous refund policy which allows customers to try their purchases on at home and return any re-saleable items in accordance with our goodwill policy.
Please be assured your comments have been noted and will be taken into consideration in the future.
Thank you once again for getting in touch.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/voices/what-keeps-norman-stormin-1525976.html%3famp so this guy

Having read that, I think this is marketing technique. Along the lines of, getting mentioned every day on MN, more google searches, clicks and hits, more m and s on the ad side bars because we are talking about it.

I haven't been in there got a while but the Oxford Street m and s used to be FULL of very very rich hijab clad Gulf women buying up everything. Can m and s afford to lose them?