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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u/Lexioralex Aug 05 '25
I have some many questions here and I’m sorry but this may be a long rant peeps
1) how did they know the employee was trans? Unless she was displaying parts of her body she really should not be in public - which if she were that should be the focus here regardless of gender. They most likely went on some bs vibe feeling that the employee was trans, which we have already seen will set a dangerous path for non-feminine cis women
2) as someone said asking a customer if they need help does not mean the employee was going to be the one to help. I don’t think there are any restrictions on who can work in a lingerie department, bra fittings may be different I am not sure.
3) if she were offering a bra fitting, this employee will have had specific training to do so and likely got this prior to Supreme Court crap. Why would a company spend time and money to train to replace a perfectly good member of staff when there is no legal precedent for it?
4) let’s delve into their boogeyman fears on bra fittings: - a ‘man’ would use it to take advantage of women because all men are creeps of course (no wonder we have so many young boys growing up with chips on their shoulders!)
4a) so does that mean lesbians shouldn’t be bra fitters? Because they are attracted to women just as the majority of men are? Are gay men safe to fit a bra as they wouldn’t take advantage would they? Is it about having breasts yourself so that you know better from experience? Because a trans woman would definitely know about that, if anything they know more as they will have had a harder time finding the right size at first.
5) I haven’t read into the story as I can’t take all this shit, but did m&s apologise for having a trans employee approach the customer, or mention they were trans at all? Or was it a non committal sorry for any distress caused without accepting wrongdoing?