Monsoon

[Awkwardy]

Oh, I'm so bored.

Here they go... twitter.com/MonsoonUK/status/1513811068686155778?s=20&t=zQnlx9T5PprC0S2v-ECHxQ

Another one off the list. Who do they think spends lots of money with them?

[quote wishitwasaduvetday]@PonyPatter44 my local one closed down about 6 months ago so if they have now gone it's very recent. But a lot of the high street has gone. All of the Arcadia brands for a start! They never had mixed changing rooms for the decades they had stores in uk. My point is this is not a new thing. Pick your battles. Fight to save the spaces where it makes a real impact... sports, hospital wards, swimming room showers... these need to be single sex. Shop changing rooms being mixed isn't an issue. [/quote]
Single sex changing rooms are specifically mentioned as an example in the EQA2010 single sex exemptions -

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/notes/division/3/16/20/7

Gap is a rather odd example to use. A quick look at Gap's website shows that they sell categories of clothes which includes categories for women, men, teenagers, children, babies and maternity. Monsoon sell two categories of clothes - women and children.

Therefore, it's not outlandish that women shopping in a women and children's clothing store would not expect there to be grown men in the changing rooms. The person who complained seems to have simply been asked to wait to allow the women then using the space to finish up and leave. But this seems to have been unacceptable.

[quote wishitwasaduvetday]@TheAbbotOfUnreason completely ignoring the point being that mixed changing rooms have been around for years with no issue. [/quote]
@wishitwasaduvetday

Nope, not ignoring that at all.

I shopped in Gap in the late 80s / early 90s and whilst I don’t particularly remember how changing rooms were segregated I’m pretty sure blokes weren’t wandering in and out of where I was trying stuff on.

I’d also say your experience of working there 17 years ago is not that relevant to today, where anyone thinks they can self ID as a woman and use women’s spaces with impunity.

@wishitwasaduvetday

I don't really understand the fuss about changing rooms where there are cubicles. I worked at Gap from 1998 - 2004 and it was always mixed changing rooms with curtains on the cubicles. I don't recall one complaint. So how is it an issue 20 years later?

Back when you worked there, having a Nokia 3310 was considered the height of technical sophistication because it came with four phone games and a choice of over 30 ringtones.

It certainly didn't have a camera!

@FOJN

Monsoon have been played.

Why would you offer an apology and a free dress before you have completed an investigation?

If you have an established changing room policy then why wouldn't you outline that as part of your response to the initial complaint?

Charlie says they have just started university; are end of first year proms common?

They're going to be dealing with grifters for months.

Monsoon's tweet is textbook "dealing with customer grievance" stuff. It's the first stage in dealing with an issue. It's not an apology. You are "sorry that your customer is upset" and let's talk about it. The mistake is to do it in public on Twitter. The procedure works well when you are dealing with a customer aggrieved at the service you have given them, but is not designed for customers really after making a public point.

I feel sorry for Monsoon.

[quote wishitwasaduvetday]@TheAbbotOfUnreason completely ignoring the point being that mixed changing rooms have been around for years with no issue. [/quote]
You make statements which ignore that there have been issues.

Even if the women, girl's, men and boy's have only been subject to non-contact sex abuse, they as people as an issue have a right not to be subjected to unwanted sexual contact.

What you are implying is the issue of sexual abuse has an acceptable harm level. That the women, girl's, men and boy's fall within a class of people who are an acceptable harm issue. A small enough issue not to bother counting where someone engages in sexual offending against them.

I am sure that the member of staff at the till in this shop ⬇️ and all the other staff who had to safeguard to manage to get a conviction must have believed that there was an issue, irrespecive of where in their workplace the sexual offence took place.

www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/man-caught-masturbating-in-three-separate-shops-is-jailed-1.4625900

Monsoon Charlie is quite a good name though (sung to the tune of Champagne Charlie).

Reading between the lines, the CEO is quite fucked off at Charlie's behaviour and is also well aware that many Monsoon customers will be not only unimpressed by males in the changing rooms, but that it's a problem for some customers due to specific cultural sensitivities. In Birmingham that's probably a large number of customers.

How dare Charlie identify (and rudely) a member of staff?
And how dare Charlie throw his/her/their/zeir weight around at being asked to wait?

I like the Monsoon CEO, but whoever is dictating those boilerplate responses needs a talking-to.

Yikes. Disgusting. But also, wow that's an impressively long penis.

Back when you worked there, having a Nokia 3310 was considered the height of technical sophistication because it came with four phone games and a choice of over 30 ringtones.

It certainly didn't have a camera!

That was my thought too.

That a poster was entirely serious that the situation is the same from that era is quite ridiculous.

Given that Monsoon already expect you to shop online for the majority of their ranges (they keep a tiny amount in stores), it smarts that they don't expect men who want to try on dresses to follow the same request.

They provide spaces for female customers to try on clothes in store. They shouldn't be bending over backwards to make a small percentage of men who like to wear dresses comfortable at the cost of safety and comfort of 99% of their actual customer base.

I've just emailed asking for my details to be removed from their marketing database as I won't be making any future purchases. And pointed out that males with a fetish for womens clothing need to be given their own areas in store for indulging their needs rather than bulldozing their way into safe female spaces.

Monsoon are now selling on QVC. Says it all really, sad times………

@Awkwardy

Yikes. Disgusting. But also, wow that's an impressively long penis.

@BoodleBug51 what email address did you use to ask to be removed from mailing lists?

Don't know if it's already been said on here but Charlie is a Lib Dem activist and is the Youth Trans Officer for the Lib Dems.

There was no prom.

twitter.com/Kalesiwolf/status/1514578194321612801

Quelle surprise.
Ofc, this never happens.

Pulling my surprised face.

I emailed customer services and they sent the generic response that everyone else has had ... I'm fuming. So I've replied and asked for them to confirm removal of my email address from future marketing.

Charlie continues to insist that they absolutely did not at all want this fuss.

The screenshotted tweet attached reads:
Hihi, their full response is under the original thread, they offered a dress and a full investigation. I declined the dress because I really think it takes away from the bigger issue. I seriously just wanted to know what the policy was I really didn't want this big hubbub

If Charlie just wanted to know what the policy was, that was accomplished at the point Charlie was asked to wait to try on the dress. As I said in my earlier post, if they were unhappy & wished to make Monsoon aware of this, they then had multiple ways to raise a complaint or concern privately. Somebody who didn’t just complain privately but courted press attention & used it to direct people to their GFM for quite worrying-sounding (in terms of ethics, rigour, & quality of care) “medical transition” very clearly did want “a big hubbub”.

Charlie behaved incredibly badly throughout & should there be any proof available that the facts of Charlie’s GoFundMe are not as stated, it should be reported for fraud as per their T&Cs.

@DameHelena

Reading between the lines, the CEO is quite fucked off at Charlie's behaviour and is also well aware that many Monsoon customers will be not only unimpressed by males in the changing rooms, but that it's a problem for some customers due to specific cultural sensitivities. In Birmingham that's probably a large number of customers.

How dare Charlie identify (and rudely) a member of staff?
And how dare Charlie throw his/her/their/zeir weight around at being asked to wait?

I like the Monsoon CEO, but whoever is dictating those boilerplate responses needs a talking-to.

If the ceo isn't happy with how this went down there doesn't appear to be any evidence.

They need to be firm with their social media people both in terms of them centering males and the frankly disgusting behaviour in ignoring the many many women who have tweeted them.

Have you heard the M & S are planning to hire out clothing?
That will be a wankers paradise imo.
When asked about the cleaning of the items afterwards the representative said “ oh everything will be steam cleaned before being hired out to another customer. “

I just feel that this will sound the death toll for high streets.

There has already been a significant swing towards internet shopping.

The main benefit of actually physically clothes shopping is trying stuff on. As more and more companies put their preference for the wants of males above the safety and dignity of girls we just won't bother to do this anymore. It's easier to shop on line.

Who does the risk assessment for these organisations?

Which is worse .....young girls being raped or a man who thinks he's a woman being insulted ?

Absolutely bonkers.

Jan Moir in the Mail

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10720487/JAN-MOIR-Sorry-women-dont-want-changing-rooms-open-sacrosanct.html

After leaving the store, the 18-year-old complained on social media, where Charlie lists themself as ‘pansexual’ and also the chair of the West Midlands Young Liberals and trans-spokesperson for the Young Liberals.

Uh-oh.

One can only imagine the panic bomb that exploded at Monsoon HQ. God, no! Anything but the Young Liberals!

@LK1972

valadon68
To be fair, there's nothing wrong with male people wanting to try on dresses. It's regressive to say that these are women's clothes only. It's a tricky one. Could an assistant not have supervised the changing rooms (assuming there were secure cubicles for everyone)? I guess easy to say and harder to implement if they don't have the staff.

“The assistant should have kindly escorted this person and their dress to the male changing room, if one is available. Otherwise they can buy online and return if not happy, just like women now have to do if they want to try something on in M&S, due to their fucking lunacy.

If this person is allowed in, I can't use their changing rooms, they have curtains, not doors on cubicles in my local monsoon, ffs”

I don’t think there ever are male changing rooms at Monsoon. So I am not sure what the answer is.