Glasgow M&S Changing room debacle

[Lordfrontpaw]

Now I can't quite get my head around this. I must be missing something. Please note this was two men, no claims of them being anything other than two men.

So - 2 men wanted to use the changing room in the ladies clothes section because (just the) one was trying on trousers.

A member of the M&S team then told him: “I can’t stop you from using it,”

One was told by a member of the public that it was for women only to “try on bras”

While in the changing room, they heard the member of the public say, “I wouldn’t want to get my t**s out in front of other men.

It is then claimed the M&S staff member laugh and agreed before saying, “we have to allow it because of all this new stuff."

The couple complained to a manager instore who told them that she would reiterate to staff that fitting rooms were unisex. They also complained in writing to the store and are now looking to escalate their complaint further. (of course they are)

The men said that while they don't identify as women, if they had, then the negative comments they heard from women could have driven them to suicide

One said “I could have been a non-binary or trans person, they don’t know that.”

M&S apologise

www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18302422.amp/

I can believe that this happened. What a mess. Scotland has gone from being deeply homophobic to utterly woke in one generation (although tbh I wonder if the enthusiasm for trans rights isn’t actually down to internalised homophobia ). What hasn’t changed is the misogyny.

I really don't know whether to laugh o cry I really don't.

On the basis of the M&S staff's response I would suspect it was either an assumption on the part of the presumably adult human female customer that the men were trans identifying hence 'other men' or they actually said 'I wouldn't want to get my t**s out in front of the men'.

Whatever. M&S should not be apologising for anything other than the removal of all single-sex changing rooms.

I feel really alone here. Nobody talks about this in real life.

What 'views' are these men even complaining about?! They were allowed to use the changing room - did the staff member not fawn over them enough, or was she just being too female? What nonsense.

I tell everyone who will listen about their rights disappearing and men stamping their feet to get their own way.

It comes as a shock to most.

I leave them with little outraged purses mouths.

It is getting to be my favourite hobby.

I suspect that M&S (and JL, Primark, etc etc etc) will be doing a lot of apologising before this is all sorted. Then they will be doing a lot more to the customers who have voted with their feet.

In my day they most likely would have been described as 'wee nyaffs' (nb translated, this is not an insult based on sex, sexuality, race or gender etc)

Bleurgh - these men are utter creeps. On another thread someone has pointed out that they had to leave the men's changing rooms and seek out those in women's underwear?
No (real) women anywhere have demanded that M & S hand over lingerie changing rooms to men. It's just men without boundaries who demand (and have been given access) to changing rooms where women are undressing.
So pleased that I no longer shop there. Hope M & S appreciate their new dodgy customers.

What a pair of creepy bastards.

I feel terribly sorry for the staff who will now be discplined.

typo sorry disciplined

Well done guys, you managed to force your way into the women's bra changing rooms for absolutely no reason, making the women who were in there legitimately feel uncomfortable, and no doubt getting a female shop assistant into trouble.

Dicks.

Weaponising suicide now where have we seen that before

Haa it's entirely ridiculous.
M&S have brought it on themselves by making all the changing rooms unisex. What a stupid decision.

Are the changing rooms clearly marked as mixed-sex instore with signs for all to see?

Anyone? I can't imagine they'd be daft enough to do that.

I can’t imagine any of the women who were present going back there and they won’t exactly keep it to themselves!

I will weep the same amount of tears at the demise of M &S as I have over the end of the victoria derbyshire show.

Ah, good to know that I am still doing the right thing by boycotting M&S

Despite the level of physical and sexual violence perpetrated towards women by men, some men seem to find it hard to hear how unsafe women feel when they are in more vulnerable situations around men (e.g. not fully clothed). Given that men still hold disproportionate power in our society, this is a problem.

Come on M&S, think a bit harder. Your best customers are the ones you are pissing off with this.
Unisex changing is a shit idea!

"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.”

But these men did not identify as anything other than men. M&S don't seem to know whether the changing rooms are unisex or whether they're split by gender identity (which makes them unisex in my world, but not in the world of gender identity).

M&S just haven’t thought it out have they. This was a mixed sex room because these were men who never claimed to be anything else/nothing.

And what about the women who have been traumatised by past abuse having to change with men in a ‘unisex’ changing room? Could it not be argued that that experience could possibly drive them to suicide?
(Sorry to resort to ‘what aboutery’)
And why does it take two men to try on one pair of trousers

Maybe M&S will be giving wine, flowers, chocolate, vouchers, grovelling apologies and a parade for all those women (and staff) who were upset by the wee nyaffs in the changing room causing a commotion?

It sounds to me as if possibly these two men were hoping to be challenged.