Marks and Spencer have fallen, part III; we’re gonna need a bigger boat

[MrsSnippyPants]

Fresh thread in case part 2 fills up overnight.
I am yet to receive a reply to my third email, have been furiously tweeting, and as am now pursuing the options available to me as a shareholder.
Still crossing fingers for John Lewis!

TheKrakening3 fast response - bit concerned that they wrote ‘This is a valid concern*. Is the implication that other concerns such as men going into women’s changing rooms or trying on underwear aren’t valid concerns?

As an aside M&S boycott still going strong and I used to buy a lot of food there. Christmas food order will go elsewhere unless they change their policy.

I can't imagine who else might want to buy a Firm Control Floral Embroidered Traditional Longline Bra. I'm assigning that to my Lingerie for Men section.

It would be good to see M&S use male models showing off their 'curves' in these products, and see how that goes with sales to women...

I’m surprised you got a reply saying it was a valid concern, maybe someone was off guard. How can that be Genuine when all others are not?

That bra review, really anyone starting underwear review with whooooo should be deleted. It’s like write your own porn section on Marks Suspenders (so love then new name) I wonder if I write a review for bog standard black socks then include detail of how well they go with my red panties and bra and whooooo. Would they publish that?

Is there scope for some rogue reviews here... Are they anonymous?

You can add a name some are real some are like Lovenix

Is the implication that other concerns such as men going into women’s changing rooms or trying on underwear aren’t valid concerns?

The implication seems to be that they haven't fully thought through their decision if something like that is news to them.

But we already knew that. And to be fair to M&S, they're not the first to show a total lack of understanding that maybe women might be affected by their change in policy. See the missing/possibly non-existant Welsh impact assessment and others.

H'mm, it'd be interesting to see if they have moderators.....

Even if they delete them, I can't unread those reviews and that six pack with cotton gussets can no longer be quite such a mundane purchase.

Brand image.....

God some of these things are so basic. Wasnt it on a Twitter thread about the mens changing rooms being different. Floor to ceiling petitions.

So how could they not remember the rooms.are different , and why they built them differently

That bra review is🤢

They could have one of those fair ground displays “If you are taller than me you can’t ride change here”

This is from the my angel my first bra range.... I can’t believe what I’m reading. He purchased in store, wonder if he tried it on first in store too...

I can’t believe how many there are, Sorry, I’ll stop posting them now.

What do we think about multiple lingerie orders by post, all of which is returned? Hit them financially with the p&p (it’s free if you collect in store), returns and stock confusion on the basis that trying on in store is no longer viable

SarahT
Had to read that a couple of times because you said petitions. I think you mean partitions. Sorry not trying to be the grammar police. I was just confused.

Idk what they are like these days. I do remember maybe 25 years ago when dh bought a suit in M&S and I quickly nipped in the Men’s changing room - at the time 4 cubicles with no one else in there to hand him a garment. Curtains closed, arm through type thing. And yes, they were floor to ceiling then.

TheKrakening
Thanks for this response. i can’t remember what the local M&S changing rooms are like now they’ve been refitted. Only been in once.

NoCurrent
Omg. That is angel bra one is awful. How can someone pass that review and not wonder about the motives eg paedophilia / hebephilia?

@Justabaker That Medium article is great, thank you.

Off out in a bit to shop in other places than M&S.

mummy

That's ok. Too much time on FWR board leads to Interesting typos ....

Stupid autocorrect

Sarah
Oh gosh, I know! I’m using my dds ipad a lot of the time. That should be...interesting for her one day. 😱

@Akire maybe I did get someone off-guard.

However, maybe this is an issue that M and S can’t deny. They can put their heads in the sand and deny women’s concerns on the other matter. They can say we are imagining it if we complain about the man grunting and groaning in the next cubicle. They can say we are exaggerating the risk of sexual assault. Our concerns about the intent of men using women’s change rooms are transphobic and they just want to try on clothes and stuff their man-boobs into bras- just like us girls.

But what they can’t deny is that men are a lot taller than women and a large proportion of men, with no effort, will be able to view the woman in the cubicles next to them.

I wonder if the M&S take on it is that men are perfectly entitled to buy underwear designed for women and so are just as entitled to leave reviews? And who knows, perhaps some of their underwear is already specifically designed with AGP males in mind? Given that each review has to be an account holder, M&S must know the size of that market, as they can pick out 'bras bought by males' from the database - we know they ask for sex/gender. Perhaps the on-line sales figures are indeed substantial enough to warrant the new fitting room rules and they believe these will increase by facilitating over-the-counter sales too?

TBH, I have far less of an issue with this than the problems of males physically encroaching female-only spaces. If anything, it just raises awareness amongst women reading those reviews to be mindful that creepy men may be loitering in lingerie departments in general.

And to inspect those gussets before purchase.

The male customer reviewing the bra designed for tweens made me want to vomit. I guess M&S have made a considered decision that that's the market segment that they're most interested in serving. Has anyone put that to them on Twitter yet? I really think that these reviews need to be shared with a wider audience than just the women here. In fact I think the Daily Mail, The Sun etc should be pulled in ASAP. I'm tired of playing nice.

The gussets thing is just horrifying.

So when they review the items, they say that they are men, but if they want to try on in store they say that they are women.

Or are there also reviews by transwomen who can try on in store, and review with their female name stating their gender as female?

Unless they've done an official reverse ferret the Wanking Men don't need to say they identify as women, at least not at M&S, they just need to say they feel more comfortable in the women's changing room. John Lewis, Next etc seem to expect them to say they identify as women before allowing them in, it's M&S (and Topshop) who've officially flung the gates wide open and laid down a trail of rose petals.