MS are handing out pronoun badges to their staff

[PostingForTheFirstTime]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10173649/M-S-diversity-managers-staff-pronoun-badges-customers-know-address-them.html

I will be emailing the appropriate departments advising them that gender ideology is still a hot political topic; its decision to allow men to use women's changing rooms made me so uncomfortable that I will not shop for clothes in their stores any more, but its decision to push a political stance with which I fundamentally disagree means I won't be using them at all from now on.

So sad, because I love their trousers and their Christmas party foods.

p.s. they also are unaware of the impact pronouns will have on the already excluded, the marginalised because they have probably never met anyone who was excluded or marginalised.

I work for M&S

Would you like a badge?

No thanks.

OK

That's how the conversations are going so I really wouldn't get too excited about this. It's not compulsory and most people just have 'Sarah, Manager' (or whatever) on a small grey oblong badge

I suppose it will show those who have bought in to this and those who have t.

I don’t understand where this focus on third person pronouns gets you in a customer-facing role like this. The only pronouns I’m likely to use to a shop assistant are “I” and “you.”

For maximum annoyance, I have decided my pronouns are thou and thee.

Somehow SuperDup3r I thought that might be the case. No one has yet explained how to use these pronouns when speaking to someone. Do you only use when 'talking behind their backs' or does it go like 'hello she, how are she doing'. The puzzlement will eventually win out and one the wonderful working class get a hold, laughs a plenty in store

Not a new thing, primark in my city have been doing this for ages.

@CatherinaJTV

why are you getting all upset about a decision that has been made by employees for employees?

1). You don’t know who made the decision.

2). The name badges are to communicate information to customers.

3). It is sexist.

4). It’s questionable whether it supports trans people.

Comments on this thread are evidence that it is absolutely about dominating. Not using the pronouns of an ideology that you vehemently, and completely legally, disagree with is being treated as 'transphobic'. Ie being described as something that is socially, and perhaps even legally, wrong. When of course, it isn't.

Being told that you will have nowhere left to shop because this ideology will be in all supermarkets, and if you put a foot wrong, even completely unintentionally, you will be punished, is horrifying.

As is teaching all our children that they are now not allowed to identify the male sex.

And I'm genuinely wondering what will happen when, marks having opened the floodgates, get inundated with complaints from the staff because people aren't using the pronouns vis or eir. Or from their customers, because their staff aren't using the correct pronouns.

That will keep the HR department busy!

Ive seen people complaining on twitter that although their preferred one was used... the user didn’t ‘believe’ it (and they didn’t seem to be rolling eyes or sniggering). How can you win?

@highame yes, trust me - you're not about to see a slew of 'they/them' attached to people's chests in M&S as you go about your shopping!

You can't. You're not meant to. Because it's about power.

@ShortKipper

I don’t understand where this focus on third person pronouns gets you in a customer-facing role like this. The only pronouns I’m likely to use to a shop assistant are “I” and “you.”

For maximum annoyance, I have decided my pronouns are thou and thee.

Of course you wouldn't use third person pronouns.

Because it's not about actual use of language in everyday conversation, it's about declaring support for a particular ideology.

A very, very particular ideology.

I bet staff wouldn't be allowed to put 'Free Tibet' or 'Tax the Rich More' on their name badges.

@littlbrowndog

These are not just pronouns. These are pure gender ideology pronouns from *@marksandspencer*.

😀

@Ereshkigalangcleg

You can't. You're not meant to. Because it's about power.

Exactly.

And it will only go one way. Despite TRAs fondly imagining otherwise, customers are really quite important to a business 🤣

Them being punished for not doing what the shop wants is not going to be on a tick list of how to stay in business.

I mean, it's only going to take one newspaper article about how a customer was berated for not using zee or zir for the Ratner moment to explode.

I think the general public think it is a way to 'be kind' to people who have gone through a full transition, without knowing the truth or anything about the TRAs.

I don’t think it’s kind to suggest that somebody who has gone through a full transition needs a pronoun badge.

Customers are important to a business

And M&S are not going to be able to stop misgendering

Sometimes out of bloody mindedness and sometimes through lack of glasses (Im looking at you chrysanthemum) sometimes because people not in the know will thinks its a joke and sometimes by accident

And they are ESPECIALLY not going to be able to stop it if the customer has to BELIEVE its true

@RufustheBadgeringReindeer

Customers are important to a business

And M&S are not going to be able to stop misgendering

Sometimes out of bloody mindedness and sometimes through lack of glasses (Im looking at you chrysanthemum) sometimes because people not in the know will thinks its a joke and sometimes by accident

And they are ESPECIALLY not going to be able to stop it if the customer has to BELIEVE its true

Exactly. All you need is someone militant either on the staff, or as a customer, and the whole thing is going to blow up.

Misgendering is going to happen. All over the place.

I can see Daily Mail journalists positively licking their pencils in gleeful antici...pation. Especially if they get to list all the different pronouns that the Marks & Spencer shopper needs to learn.

Absolutely

And sorry I should add another reason for ‘misgendering’ because obviously there are people who will use the ‘wrong’ pronoun because they are correctly sexing the person and don’t want to be part of a lie

That is not ‘bloody mindedness’

The world is going bloody mad.

@SuperDup3r for some reason no one is listening to the two people (you and me) who have direct knowledge of this, telling them this isnt happening as its being portrayed. Yes there is the offer no there is no pressure no there isn't a slew of staff members wanting them, it is a non issue.

Of course people are listening to you ohmygod

Discussions evolve

@Ohmygodyesthatsit I know. You have to laugh

Let's not let the truth get in the way of a good froth

Please - we work in M & S. This really is NOT happening. I'm sure you can pop a badge on if you so wish, but we aren't sat in meetings where we discuss this. And I'm not on the shop floor, I am privy to these things.

Non issue

No one is frothing

@RufustheBadgeringReindeer nah, no one is listening. It's all about how the world has gone mad etc etc. How the OP will be emailing in etc etc (she should, it would give people a bit of a laugh)

I am the first person to be against this sort of woke shit btw. I saw a young girl wearing a 'they/them please!' badge in Argos - that's exactly what it said. And I inwardly eye rolled

But this thread is specific to M&S and you won't be seeing this in there - UNLESS a member of staff specifically wants it.