M&S Colchester claim mixed changing is ‘completely safe’ for women.

[PeachOctopus]

How is it that M&S can continue to flaunt the high court ruling and do not offer single sex changing rooms?

Abouterf in this video confronts the store manager and is fobbed off and told that it’s head offices policy:

Colchester @marksandspencer I asked where the women’s changing room was to try on swimwear. Manager Andrew (he/ his /him) says gender neutral changing areas are “completely safe” for women and girls. For asking him this question, he told me to leave the store.

Abouterf x account

And if she didn't have the recording no-one would believe her.

He was breaking the law, incidentally, in asking her to leave because of her beliefs.

If I saw someone breaking the law I'd be inclined to film them in the act, even if they were at work in a public-facing role.

Acting illegally

Ok thanks for confirming - no actual bullying then. Just a hyperbolic potential possibility of bullying which should definitely be illegal.

If you agree with this member of staff then presumably others will too. Why do you automatically consider this to be shaming? The video is just information - there is no judgment by the person filming - it is those watching who make their own judgments on what they see. They both expressed their own beliefs. Noone died or was injured. The man complied with his workplace policyand will come to absolutely no harm because no GC people will be hunting him down to do anything - which could not be said if it was a GC person who had their name and workplace revealed. You are completely overreacting or have been living under a rock.

I am glad we don't live anywhere so authoritarian that anything in the video is illegal - whether that is the customer or the shop worker. I would say you should be careful what you wish for - we are fortunate to live in a liberal pluralistic democracy. And if you are a trans activist (someone who supports unqualified rights of trans people over those of women) you should appreciate what trans people do have instead of bemoaning what they don't. It is the Equality Act we are talking about in many of these posts = equal treatment for all. If you don't like that or understand it, then you really do need to educate yourself. The law in the UK is very progressive compared to many other countries and is one of the closest internationally to reaching a balanced situation. If the TRAs keep pushing their bullshit ideas, you may end up worsening your situation by antagonising everyone. Pissing off everyone's mothers is about the most stupid idea all of you ever had

100%

Again - what is this "any old shit"? What negative consequence or detriment is this manager going to face?

The Baroness has written a letter....
https://x.com/i/status/2061535670028415156

I don't recall you asking a specific question addressed directly to me.
I wouldn't say "scared". I wouldn't like it. But if I had been the manager I would have known my rights and asked them to stop because it is not permitted on private property.

ETA - but if I was caught on camera acting unlawfully and was called out for that, then it would be very embarrassing. Noone has ever literally died from embarrassment. I might painfully reflect on what had gone wrong and think about how to do even better next time. But then again I am weird like that because I believe any feedback is a gift which helps me - even if painful sometimes - your comments imply you consider it to be more of a personal attack. It is probably worth thinking about that and adjusting your mindset - when you have lived a bit longer you will realise that doing hard things means you can do (more) hard things. It is all good even if tough at the time

Now you - please explain what you were referring to when you said you feared how far it would go (or similar words)?

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What happened to this member of staff was out of order and the fact you are determined to excuse this behaviour says a lot about you.

You’re being patronising and I’m not particularly interested in reading anymore massive assumptions about me. It’s getting exhausting and frankly boring so carrying on believing that this was acceptable. I just hope nobody ever behaves like this towards someone you care about.

Very good point

And trans men going into the ladies… that would be interesting someone would no doubt scream look there is a man in here! Are you going to get people to carry around identifying cards so you check their sex at birth… seriously this is silly

Oh my God, these people who can't tell men from women. Dating must take you bloody ages.

If a transman passes so well she upsets the women in the space, the Supreme Court has said you can exclude her and offer her an alternative.

Another day, another MN thread linked on X to reinforce the message that people on here are batshit. Good work.

The video that sets out to discredit M&S is a ridiculous own-goal. Everyone can see it's contrived nonsense staged to whip up division. The joke is that almost everyone goes to M&S and knows that their facilities are fine.

For the majority, who don't waste their lives obsessing about changing rooms and toilets, the sympathy is firmly with the poor retail worker who was undeservedly splattered across social media and doxxed. Imagine going to work tomorrow and having that happen to you.

He's not breaking the law. He's enacting company policy and there's nothing in the SC judgement that obliges M&S to do anything more than they are doing. Nothing.

The SC judgement will spell the end of single sex facilities, no business is going to risk prosecution by instructing staff to police them as demanded by the absurd EHRC code. Retail staff can't even intervene if someone is blatantly shoplifting, they certainly can't be expected to challenge women for not looking feminine enough, and it is women who will get the worst of it.

If the hysteria continues, ordinary women who are too old or too tall or too athletic or have short hair or are not white enough, will routinely experience fear and intimidation. Is emboldening gender vigilantes the route to a safer world for women? Really?

What behaviour do you think I am excusing?

so what? THE MANAGER OF THE STORE doesn't create company policies.

The short stature, kazoo voices and bum fluff whispy beards are usually a give away.

@FairCat
The joke is that almost everyone goes to M&S and knows that their facilities are fine.

Lots of people go to M&S. I'm not so sure about the second bit. Or that it's a joke.

When WRN carry out their polls outside M&S, asking people about single sex changing rooms (spoiler, nearly everyone says they want sss) the majority of people haven't realised that M&S changing rooms are not single sex. It's been done by stealth. Turns out that numerous women haven't noticed the signage changes, or realised that Fitting Rooms means mixed sex. But it's in the bra section, they say...

As Mole At The Door has it, it's not misogyny, it's M&SOGNY.

Why not? The government wants us to all have identity cards.

No thanks I don’t feel confident that our government would protect our civil liberties. I do not trust our government at all with any kind of identity card scheme… it would probably be outsourced to some foreign private company with friends in the government. Not for me!

How far right of you to be anti-id cards and anti-immigration...

See how this goes?

Personally I am not for ID cards, but I do think ID should reflect sex and I do think that yes if appropriate there should be a challenge scheme like for alcohol.

Mainly because you can pretty much tell 99% of the time if it's a man or a woman anyway and that's kinda the point.

hahaha that’s made me laugh this morning. I’m usually called looney lefty so for you to suggest I’m far right is interesting

Interesting you don’t mention being concerned about private sector or foreign companies/ governments being involved identity card schemes…

You may not have liked it being pointed out that your approach could be seen to be allied with the far right, but saying that every post has to mention every aspect is just a version of whataboutery.