John Lewis 'allows trans women into bra-fitting rooms' as retailer hit by furious gender row

[IwantToRetire]

High street giant John Lewis is at the centre of a furious row amid claims its controversial trans policies put the safety of female staff and customers at risk, it can be revealed.

The retail group is facing claims its inclusive transgender policies – claimed to have been unilaterally imposed on staff – are "dangerous" and relegate women to "second class employees".

Lesley Pickup, who quit her job as a "selling partner" in John Lewis' Cheadle branch, allowed her resignation letter to be published on TV comedy writer and women's rights campaigner Graham Linehan's Substack platform, "The Glinner Update". In her letter, she insisted "female colleagues live in fear of dismissal if they speak out".

Ms Pickup said that for the past 20 years, she had been "involved with female victims from all faiths, cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds who have been subjected to domestic and sexual violence and psychological abuse by men".

For some, she said, work offered "the only time in their lives where they should have guaranteed female-only safe spaces free from the demands of men regardless of who those men claim to be".

Full story https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-lewis-allows-trans-men-33622299

Absolutely not.
If shops are welcoming these men they can train men to deal with them in the men's department.

Predatory. Attention seeking.

What exactly do you mean, in practice, when you say:

" If we are concerned with safety and dignity then it should be made available to all?"

Especially when it comes to a man presenting as a woman. What is it you are trying to dignify?

Safety and dignity should be available to everyone. It's up to John Lewis to make sure that all their staff and customers are safe and treated appropriately. Not every trans person is an autogynaephile.

How do we know which ones are autogynephiles and which aren't?

Where else would they get their bras fitted?

Not every trans person is an autogynaephile.

No one said they were. This is about women wanting single sex spaces when they need privacy and dignity.

Not a problem for women to solve

Dh is about as unpervy as you can get and I wouldn't want HIM in a womens only space.
Nor would he want to be

And not all teachers are paedophiles, but we treat them as though they are.

Modern schools have lots of glass in doors or windows between the classroom and corridor.

Teachers and students have separate toilets.

If a child need to use the lift because they have a disability then they get a 'lift buddy' so they are never alone with a teacher in the lift.

If a child is alone in a lift a teacher is about to get in then there needs to be another teacher or student.

Teachers have to have a DBS and other checks before they even set foot in a school.

We do all this because historically teachers have abused children so we make it as difficult as possible.

Same with My Nigel.

But every man who claims to be a woman is a man
So for that reason alone, should not be in women's single sex areas.
Why on earth can't an MCW be seen by a man in male changing rooms, or at a specialist shop for MCWs? What is wrong with that?

How about they start their own services with a male person who understands the male body and how bras have to be adjusted to fit. Surely there is enough demand that a department store can offer a service one or two days a week. And once known those male people just book as needed.

It is not for women to solve. At all.

Whenever a man presents or 'identifies as' a woman he is objectifying what it is to be female.

At a specialist shop - the sort that sells stilletos and other feminine accoutremeents - in man sizes

This is exactly what I mean.

We've come so far down this ridiculous rabbit hole, that a bloke going into the lingerie department of a department store and asking women to fit him with a bra might somehow be justified.

Why does any man need a bra fitted??

Women go their entire lives without getting a bra fitted.

It's like they've never heard of the Internet. (And we all know that can't be true.)

It's because it's a female only service.

Somehow that won't fly because it won't involve humiliating a female employee and making her pretend she's dealing with a woman in this Just Girly Thing We All Do.

@ReadingWorm
The real world example is that women don't like this policy and are deserting JL in droves. As they well know.
Who on earth thought it was commercially sensible to prioritise the 0.5% of the population over the 51% ?

Here are three quotes just for starters:
"Once again: any business that doesn't know who its customers are deserves to fail."
"Well that puts me off shopping at JL again."
"I haven’t shopped at John Lewis for quite a few years."

This also helps protect the teachers from false reports, fwiw. Safeguarding benefits everyone.

[edited 'protects' to 'helps protect' to be more accurate; there are no absolute protections or exemptions in any of these situations, that's the point.]

[editing again to add that perhaps it doesn't 'benefit' predators and abusers, although even that is arguable]

If any male needs a bra fitted for whatever reason it can be done in the male changing rooms, no? Preferably by a male fitter. It's a skill they can learn. Women aren't props.

In a specialist shop where no one minds blokes getting their chest lumps out.

Women aren't props

Quite.

What sort of man could possibly think it's acceptable to go into a female only changing room, ask a woman to fit him with a bra, talk about his 'breasts', etc.

It may be instructive for John Lewis to survey their shoppers.

How many are women?
How many are men who say they are women?

What are the relative spends of each group?
What does each group think about single sex spaces?

I like John Lewis, I love the business model and the idea of it being a trustworthy, solid, dependable institution. I don't want it to fail. It's frankly weird that it's been so taken over by fetish and misogynistic policies.