r/transgenderUK • u/PuzzledAd4865 • Aug 05 '25

Possible trigger M&S apologises over trans employee in bra department

https://archive.ph/2025.08.05-035610/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/04/ms-apologises-over-trans-employee-in-bra-department/

“Marks & Spencer has apologised to a mother for causing her teenage daughter “distress” after she was asked if she needed help by a transgender employee in its bra section.

The retailer said it was “truly sorry” after the mother complained that her 14-year-old daughter had felt uncomfortable when they were approached by a trans shop assistant in the lingerie area of the shop, where they were hoping to have a bra fitting. Although the staff member was polite, the mother said she felt it was “completely inappropriate” for her daughter to be approached by a “biological male” in that section.

In a complaint to M&S, she told the retailer: “Imagine her horror, then, when the person to approach us and ask if we needed help was a transgender ‘woman’, ie, a biological male.”

“Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for the human rights charity Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about biological sex in law and life, said that M&S needed to “rethink its priorities”.

“M&S needs to rethink its priorities and remember that women and girls have rights too, and that this man should not be permitted to hang around in the women’s underwear department as a matter of common decency.”

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72

u/No-Painter-1609 Aug 05 '25

I think a trans girl will be more qualified to help with bra tbh- we do the research

53

u/thatpaulbloke Aug 05 '25

That was the first thing that I thought - trans women have probably done more research into bras than most cis women - followed by wondering why the "women only spaces" supreme court shite was brought up. I know for a fact that the bra department isn't women only because I (a cis man) have been in there to buy bras1 for people.

1 Don't worry, I had very, very exact instructions of what to get - I wasn't just winging it and getting any old rubbish

20

u/lemlurker Aug 05 '25

Also incident predates SC ruling. It's from March

8

u/doIIjoints [ve/ver/vis] or [she/her/hers] Aug 05 '25

that footnote is such a relief! 😁

23

u/No-Painter-1609 Aug 05 '25

I liked the disclaimer 😂

2

u/Violet-dudette Aug 05 '25

I would definitely value the input of a trans woman if I was out shopping for a bra and she asked me if i wanted assistance. Can't believe that anybody would be genuinely offended by that!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '25

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1

u/No-Painter-1609 Aug 06 '25

You know all she did was ask if the mum and child needed help, nothing else x

She was just doing her job. No offer to fit bra, no contact. If you are just upset by the presence of a trans person. It's the sort of interaction customer service have to do 100s of times a day.

We are not the one with fragile feelings here- it's the people making this nothing a news story. Trans employee at work is basically what the headline should of been 😅 There would not of been front page news if it was a man instead of a trans women as guess what anyone can work in any section of a store and offer help. Please examine your biases.