Reply from the Body Shop re JKR... just so dreadful...

[onlywomennotmen]

Apparently men menstruate too...

^Hello, and thank you for getting in touch with us about our recent tweet to JK Rowling. We wanted to respond to everyone who has reached out to us to clarify our position on this issue.

We are longstanding supporters of the rights of women and girls on issues which affect them and believe it is important to keep having conversations around difficult topics such as this. Every person has the right to live their life free from the fear of violence, especially gender-based violence. The Body Shop has been an active campaigner on this issue since 1994.

The Body Shop’s position on menstruation in relation to trans and non-binary people is that we stand with ALL menstruators. People have periods – women, men and non-binary people. And plenty of women don’t. We value learning from everyone’s experience and we believe the conversation needs to go forwards, not backwards.

We disagree with JK Rowling’s view and wanted to demonstrate our support for trans and non-binary people. We understand why addressing the tweet to JK Rowling’s personal account has been interpreted as an attack on her as an individual, and as a domestic abuse survivor. That was absolutely not our intention. We didn’t get the tone right on this one and we do want to engage respectfully and constructively on these important issues.

We believe it is important to keep having conversations around difficult topics such as this, and doing so constructively. We recognise that our engagement with JK Rowling on this occasion wasn’t as constructive as we would like to be. We all need to educate ourselves, be inclusive and stand together so that we can end the shame and stigma around periods for all menstruators and stand up for what is right in our society.

We stand by our position on the rights of trans and non-binary people, and we will learn from this execution to ensure our communication is stronger and more constructive in the future.

We hope this helps you understand our position. We appreciated hearing yours.^

I couldn't be more sick of this shit if I tried. Absolutely sick of it. I have no issue with what people identify with, but why are people so offended by gender??? I feel like the Suffrage movement and feminism never happened.

Imagine how different all this would have been if they'd sent that bag to JK in genuine solidarity with her as a woman, a survivor of domestic abuse and a victim of vile trolling and online bullying

"Aww, have some bath salts"

Yeah, as horrific as that would have been, I guess that's actually still marginally better.

I’ve had an insight. I recently followed a younger female relative (she’s mid 30s) on social media.

I don’t know her very well (geography) but know she is a mum to a little girl and has been sexually assaulted (mum not the girl).

Just a peek into the mentality of today’s women - pro choice (ok), pro guns (in the US, so I understand that nonsense), very very very pro-lgbt - she doesn’t realise that T wasn’t there before. She was recently wailing about a change in the law that would protect LGB people from being fired on the basis of their sexuality (but it covered sex not gender, so T wasn’t covered). It was put as ‘lgbt rights destroyed (crying emoji)’.

Not a single message, meme, link, rant etc about women’s rights or issues. Not a single one. No critical thinking or analysis. I don’t want to get into a bun fight so I’m just going to mute her.

Will her daughter turn to her later on and say ‘mom, what did you do to protect my rights?’ I would have hoped having a little girl might have opened her eyes a bit.

It doesn't especially matter. I can't see the Body Shop surviving the coming economic crash, anyway. They're over-priced, what they sell now is tat, and their shops are always empty. They're only still around at all because they have an MLM model - and again, in a huge recession, there are only so many over-priced, under-delivering products women will buy from their friends.

I'll be very sad for their staff when they go into administration. But I will gloat for the senior management's unemployment, after this. Their contempt for women is disgusting. They chimed in on a thread in which endless rape threats were being made to a woman who had been open about her own sexual assault, in a manner which supported those threats, in agreeing to cast her as the one in the wrong. And they are still refusing to properly apologise for it. That's skin-crawlingly fucking awful, on every possible level.

Ironic, that a company flogging soap should choose to be such utter filth.

Bodyshop board members - guys, if you're reading this (and we know you are guys) - we might be invisible older women to you, but by and large we have disposable cash, perimenopausal skin, a very clear understanding of biology, drier hair than we used to, massive compassion and interest in women's causes around the world, a willingness to pay a bit extra to support genuine fair trade and enterprises that benefit women, a nostalgia for dewberry and white musk, and a severe intolerance to misogynist bullshit. You could have cornered the scented bath product market here by knowing who your customers are and being courageous. Instead you decided to try to get in with the popular kids by joining in with the bullying.

Brilliantly put.

New to posting. Avid reader/lurker for a few years.
Jessie MacNeil-Brown mentioned in document as TVS campaigns Unit Manager, check her out on LinkedIn.
Background - worked for Amnesty Int as Global Campaigns Manager. Describes herself as “a feminist“. Left TBS in March 2020. Just started at IKEA. Is this a leftover from her legacy or is the new Head of Global campaigns responsible? Questions??

Typo: TBS

*document posted in Fabtaora’s post.

I give up! This is why I don’t post 😂

I emailed, got no response at all. I may have been a bit ranty. Maybe they were lost by the word misogyny

Body shop outsourced all their marketing and brand management to 3 agencies last year. Jessie probably came in to do this bit.

One of the more hipster London based ones manages their social media strategy. They are named in the drum article above. Brands itself as ‘Making Awesome Shit Happen Since 2007’. Cool.

The whole thing is an example of big corporations (BS sold out to a massive cosmetic brand ages ago) using something called ‘social movement marketing’. A cheap and effective way of jumping on a disadvantaged group or cause, to reach a ready made audience, sell your product and gain market share through profile.

I doubt the board or CEO will even remember or care about what cause they are promoting. It’s all just strategy and media visibility stat’s.

Someone at the agency will tell BS it’s all great and they are leading the way in provocation and social activism. Template letter provided to comm’s department for complaints etc.

A few years ago I made a comment to the Body Shop Twitter about Black Friday promotions, saying it was a shame that they’d moved so far from their ethical and campaigning beginnings. They wrote back that I was remembering something from a long time ago and maybe their brand was no longer for me.

While this is probably true it seems a shame as I think the drive to conserve the planet has become much more mainstream today than it was in the early 80’s when I was young.

@SerenityNowwwww

I’ve had an insight. I recently followed a younger female relative (she’s mid 30s) on social media.

I don’t know her very well (geography) but know she is a mum to a little girl and has been sexually assaulted (mum not the girl).

Just a peek into the mentality of today’s women - pro choice (ok), pro guns (in the US, so I understand that nonsense), very very very pro-lgbt - she doesn’t realise that T wasn’t there before. She was recently wailing about a change in the law that would protect LGB people from being fired on the basis of their sexuality (but it covered sex not gender, so T wasn’t covered). It was put as ‘lgbt rights destroyed (crying emoji)’.

Not a single message, meme, link, rant etc about women’s rights or issues. Not a single one. No critical thinking or analysis. I don’t want to get into a bun fight so I’m just going to mute her.

Will her daughter turn to her later on and say ‘mom, what did you do to protect my rights?’ I would have hoped having a little girl might have opened her eyes a bit.

It depends on social circles too, I’m 38 and am fully rad fem. I’ve lost similar aged friends who are woke. Some have daughters, I hope their eyes open eventually.

Despite my message on Thursday they still haven't responded to me. So I have emailed the CEO too.

@LonginesPrime Thank you for your very reasoned explanation in relation to the legal impact of accepting TWAW/TWAM to Betty. It's helped me word my email and I will send something similar to my MP. You had worded how I feel, but I wasn't able to put it in words properly.

======

David,

Given that I have not received any feedback to my below mentioned query I feel I have to email you directly.

The Body Shop’s tweet to J.K. Rowling was out of order, yet no apology has been made. Especially given the tweet posted on Twitter on the 15th of April claiming to support victims of domestic violence stuck at home with their abusers during lockdown.

As biological women we have certain laws that give us rights and protection from sex based discrimination, sexual assault etc. By claiming TWAW and TMAM we blur the lines between sex and gender and, instead of true gender equality (e.g.: men allowed to wear dresses/make up, women not expected to wear heels/make up within their jobs) and the protection of trans people becoming additional law, natal women will be disadvantaged once again. We then cannot, for example, claim sex based discrimination against an employer simply for the misfortune of being born with a vagina and related physiology. Because if sex doesn’t exist, sex based discrimination does not exist.

There have been cases where men have identified as women in order to continue their abuse against natal women.

But given that The Body Shop see fit to verbally attack women (JK Rowling) who lobby for equality for all without erasing another group, I will no longer shop with TBS. You may be ok with erasing women’s sex based rights. After all, it doesn’t affect you being the lucky owner of a penis.

Please ensure my account is closed down and all my personal data held on TBS’s systems is removed as per GDPR regulations.

I do expect written confirmation that this has been done.

{name redacted}
A natal woman who doesn’t confirm to gender based stereotypes.

Nicely put.

...You forgot the menstruators and 'some men menstruate'. Exactly how any 'bleeding men' are they trying to appease? It would be cheaper to pay for their therapy- because f they are upset by biology, they mush be spending a lot of time hiding under the duvet.

'Not all people who are men' / 'Some women __' - we could have fun with this one.

it doesn’t affect you being the lucky owner of a penis

Glad it was useful, acatcalledjohn!

A few years ago I made a comment to the Body Shop Twitter about Black Friday promotions, saying it was a shame that they’d moved so far from their ethical and campaigning beginnings. They wrote back that I was remembering something from a long time ago and maybe their brand was no longer for me.

Wow. That is their USP! It's the only reason most people shop there! They have survived this long on brand loyalty, not because they offer anything genuinely original now. Do these social media idiots not have anyone overseeing what they say at all?

And their memo to staff does make it look like their tone deaf intervention in the JK Rowling row wasn't particularly well thought out.

"Do these social media idiots not have anyone overseeing what they say at all?

Some do I suppose (who write this crap that they are told to parrot) and some are just loose cannons who think they have Something To Say.

However - the general stance of businesses these days is to crawl over broken glass should a Person of Pronoun whinge or make a demand - but ignore women who protest.

Just been on the body shops site to check something.

Try searching for 'men', then 'women', then 'man', and 'woman'

Not surprising, but..ugh.

The 'women' one, shows products but only as women has men in the name..no actual things for women seemingly.

Didn't want to make new thread as hate starting them, so thought it fit here well!

What a load of shit.

But there are sooooooo many better companies out there!

Lots. Small companies that need business, companies with ethics, companies that don't play for woke cookies, companies that don't lie (I know I have mentioned it before but I saw one trumpeting the trans women and Latinas who started the stonewall riots - then thanked these 'women' - I may have passed a kidney stone when I read that).

acatcalledjohn

I appreciate you taking the time to write such a great letter but why do you say as a biological woman? Isn't that just as dehumanising and offensive as menstruator. What is a biological anything?

It's a jarring note. If we are talking about commonly understood language biological washing powder, sorry, woman isn't it.

Thanks

@FantaOra

acatcalledjohn

I appreciate you taking the time to write such a great letter but why do you say as a biological woman? Isn't that just as dehumanising and offensive as menstruator. What is a biological anything?

It's a jarring note. If we are talking about commonly understood language biological washing powder, sorry, woman isn't it.

Thanks

Isn't biology the whole point? I'm confused...

I've just noticed you then go on to say natal woman. Are you struggling with woman? Do you think this CEO will understand all these qualifiers?