We strive to be inclusive
When it all becomes just mindless knee-jerk formulas with absolutely no thinking involved…wtf can you do?
Jean Hatchet asked Marks & Spencer a question:
Cubicle or no cubicle. Curtain or no curtain. Open space changing or not. Men should not have access to any of these female spaces alongside women. @marksandspencer please clarify your policy on female changing rooms.
The reply was a mindless formula:
As a business, we strive to be inclusive and therefore, we allow customers the choice of which fitting room they feel comfortable to use, in respect of how they identify themselves. This is an approach other retailers and leisure facilities have also adopted.
But that’s not “inclusive.” It excludes people who don’t want to take their clothes off in the presence of the other sex. Lots of women don’t “feel comfortable to use” a fitting room with men in it, but Marks & Sparks is not allowing them the choice of a fitting room where that can’t happen.
Put down the formulas. Think.
I must be missing something. I’ve never been to a store selling clothes to both sexes that has separate fitting rooms. Ever. Stores here have individual cubicles, sometimes with doors, more often with curtains. They’re used by everyone. They’re also oriented so that they are pretty public. Whether that is an intentional safety measure making it hard for a man to slip into a woman’s stall, or whether it’s because it makes for a more efficient and therefore cheaper layout of space I don’t know.
I find changing cubicles slightly stressful as a result. Sometimes poorly fitted curtains and invariably the store person turning up asking how you’re getting on 20 seconds after you walk in.
Huh. I have to admit I haven’t been in one of the things in I don’t know how long – I just get my size and leave. I don’t wear fancy clothes so it’s all quite simple. I always hated them, I remember that much – hated them on top of hating clothes shopping period.
I was recently in Penney’s for something, and it’s the first time I’ve been in a changing room in years, mostly because I’ve lost some weight and needed to check fit. I’ve never been in a place where they had anything but sex divided changing rooms, often on opposite sides of the store, and this was no exception. I think that is the norm here, but I didn’t even think about the fact that Penney’s may now have that same policy. Fortunately I get most of my clothes at local garage sales and order my pants online most of the time (the only department store remaining in our town is WalMart, and I refuse to patronize them), so it’s not a problem.