M&S are at it again. They're back to having "men" and "women" changing rooms, but...

[BuzzShitbagBobbly]

Scenario: Woman tries to use Male changing rooms. Turned away.
Woman is "non binary" (photos suggest this means jeans and jumper, not name, haircut etc)

Wokeycokey M&S then falls over itself to acknowledge this and rushes out an apology completely contradicting its store staff:
"'The fitting rooms are located within our womenswear and menswear departments and therefore are mainly used by customers of that gender, however, as an inclusive retailer and in line with most other retailers, we allow customers the choice of fitting room in respect of how they identify themselves."

Make up your bloody minds M&S.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8024395/M-S-apologises-non-binary-transgender-shopper-asked-leave-mens-changing-room.html?fbclid=IwAR2BKpWG0P9QaRowYh2hyOR4q8Ny-pTByRSC0z5yMGptIdbxAZTxC_K3B0U

Doesn't anyone else think this is a joke?

It doesn't feel right, I admit. But if it's a troll, who is being trolled ? M&S ? The Mail ? The Great British Public.

'Myla Corvidae
Actress | Camera and Electrical Department | Writer
Biography
Mini Bio (1)
Myla Corvidae is known for her work on The Pandora Men (2015), The Yird Swine (2020) and Post Pandora (2019).'

Yes, I think she's probably testing M&S while 'resting'.

Anyone fancy a meet up at a central m and s? We could all queue up outside the feels-like-a-man's changing rooms and see how we get on.

M3lon

The article wasn't about about trying on clothes in the nearest changing room.

its actually refreshing that this is about someone with female anatomy for a change.

Someone was being interviewed on radio 4 the other day about transgender issues and I nearly fell out of my chair when it turned out to be a transman. Some sort of balance would be better in this area IMHO.

I'm still confused about the female mentioned that was in the same space?

Did I say they were ‘mad’ for trying it on? This person went to use the male rooms and had a hissy for because they look female but the assistant didn’t recognise their inner non gender at a glance.

So you would demand to use the men’s changing room if you picked up a man’s jumper and decided to try it on - then end up in the Daily Mail if some poor assistant said ‘this is the men’s’?

Oh yeah this is me projecting my ‘crazy’ notion that people don’t really need to use a changing room to try on a jumper...

I'm assuming she doesn't really mind 'she/her' pronouns or she would have changed them on her page.

You can’t win as a retailer though. If they took a strong man /woman stance, they’d be hauled over the coals for being transphobic.
Perhaps retailers should just have separate private cubicles that whoever the fuck wants can use, man women, dog, giraffe, carrot...

Only two times in my life have I, a woman, had to share a fitting room space with men (or people with penises). One took great delight in exposing his penis to me repeatedly through an open curtain. The second took surreptitious looks at me through the gap in the curtain as I changed. NAM, I know, I know. Do not try to tell me to be comfortable with men in women's fitting rooms. I will NEVER be and you will lose my custom if you allow it.

Yes transmen are usually bottom of the pile, second bottom only to lesbians.
That said they weren't a transman, right? They were non binary.

Oncewasblueandyellowtwo
Possibly she had a penis but they could se into her soul and recognise her inner wonanliness.

once thanks for trying to help out - but I can, in fact, read.

I was responding to the endless litany of people saying how ridiculous it was they had chosen the mens changing rooms while identifying as non-binary by pointing out that if you are trying on mens clothes it actually makes more sense to use the mens changing rooms than to cart your items to a totally different location in the store.

I suspectcalling them a transman is misgendering and literal violence in much the way the member of staff did.

But how does an assistant spot the non binary person - and do they automatically get allowed into the opposite sex changing rooms (assuming their was a men’s changing room)?

Sorry not that you did that, just musing

stealth person on radio 4 was transman (unexpectedly), person in current DM story under debate is non-binary

I looked at her Twitter feed - which doesn't mention this incident - and she genuinely seems to believe all this rainbow stuff! She retweets the BBC's "The struggles of getting a haircut as a non-binary person."

Yep. I just struggle with a million genders and yet still usually only two options when it comes to practical matters. I don't accept the solution is for those with penises to do what they want. Maybe we should be radical and move to sex segregation for changing rooms, prisons etc? Or is that just weird?

#facepalm

I would think a useful rule of thumb for sales assistants would be to see if they a trying on men's clothes...if so, allow into men's changing rooms.

I also wonder about the 'looked me up and down' bit. I mean, that's pretty uncalled for.

I misgendered a student last year and they said 'actually I'm non-binary and use they/them' . I said 'I'm sorry, I will use that in future'.

They didn't cry, go home and cry, or complain to the university or the DM.

But then I didn't look them up and down to check if I agreed with them before apologizing either.....

I think all of this plays nicely into the narrative that shops should not be required to have fitting rooms at all. NEXT (for example) is already doing this - they don't offer any facilities to try clothes on in some of their shops, and instead advertise a US-style "no questions asked" return policy. Since we're moving toward everyone buying everything on line - why bother about fitting-room drama?

But how does an assistant spot the non binary person - and do they automatically get allowed into the opposite sex changing rooms (assuming their was a men’s changing room)?

They don't, the point is to remove all gatekeepers.

Having non-sex segregated prisons is a massive issue in my book. Everyone in prison should be safe and that can't happen if you let women share cells with rapists of women.

Changing rooms - meh. Just put proper cubicles in and this whole shit show just evaporates!

But how does an assistant spot the non binary person - and do they automatically get allowed into the opposite sex changing rooms

Exactly - if no-one is allowed to be objective about sex, there's no way to challenge anyone.

Everything is being 'queered', all boundaries are being broken down in the name of progress and soon there will be no way to enforce any sex-based rights as the term 'sex' has no objective meaning any more.