 |
| It has not only been hot in terms of weather this week - transgender people have felt like we've been in hell. |
This has been one hell of a week for transgender
people. Let’s start with Marks and
Spencer (a major, ‘posh’ UK department store).
There has been furore this week over something that may not involve
anyone trans at all:
An anonymous X (Twitter) account, newly created last week, claimed that in March this year the account owner and her daughter visited a branch of M&S to arrange a bra fitting for the daughter. As they were looking to see where they needed to be, a member of staff approached them and *politely* offered to direct them to the right part of the shop. That is to say, she did exactly what she is being paid to do. The mother and daughter then promptly left the store. The mother states that the employee was obviously transgender because she ‘was at least 6’2” (188 cm) tall’. No other reason.
For clarity: The
employee, who may or may not be trans, did not offer to perform a fitting. M&S have fully trained staff whose job it is to do that. She offered to direct the mother and the
daughter to the right section of the shop.
She mother then complained to M&S about a ‘transgender’
person speaking to them. M&S – in
record time – threw their employee under a bus and apologised for the fact that
this had happened and promised them that on a future visit they would “receive assistance from a
female colleague.” They made no attempt
whatsoever to stand up for their colleague.
This lit the blue touchpaper of social media hysteria; I’ve
seen some of the comments and replies, and they are vile. Some very high-profile transphobes (the usual
suspects) have jumped in, added fuel to the fire, and made things much worse
and even more toxic. I have genuinely never seen this level of manufactured toxicity for one incident before. It has been vile.
M&S also – allegedly - confirmed to an enquirer that
their staff typically work across all departments (fair enough) and that the staff member in
question did not offer a bra fit (which, on the face of it, is worrying; should they be confriming that to a third party?). They
were not willing, though, to say this in a statement of support. If anything, their confirmation added even
more fuel to the fire. I hope the staff
member is going to be ok! Quite
honestly, if that were me, I’d be considering whether I could continue to work
for a company that did that to me.
It has been genuinely impossible for trans people to avoid the story,
which has become louder, more vicious, and more toxic as the week has gone
on. Neither the complainer nor M&S
have come out of this well; this is not just a debacle, this is a Marks &
Spencer debacle.
Incidentally, M&S have form when it comes to gender and issues. A couple of years ago, a member of their staff in Stoke-on-Trent prevented a (cisgender but not necessarily traditionally feminine) young woman with a non-obvious disability from using the from using the store's disabled toilet and - presumably judging that she was male - shooed her into the Gents(!) where a man was using a urinal. Unsurprisingly, she rapidly left the Gents and went into the Ladies; she was promptly shooed out of there by the same member of staff and shooed into the disabled toilet she had been trying to use in the fitst place. She was shaken and upset. She and her partner, who had actually been using the toilets at the time, then had the humiliation of complaining and explaining what had happened to a Manager on the shop floor and in front of other customers.
-----
We are seeing more and more incidents where women, both trans and cisgender, are being misgendered and challenged in bathrooms. A certain Very Famous Author suggested taking photos of people judged not to be female (men, in her words) and posting them online. Not only would that would be quite the breach of privacy, it would in fact be illegal. Oh - and I have seen two items in the media this week alone where cisgender women have been challenged in toilets and have unzipped their tops to show that they have breasts and are therefore women. Oh no, though, no-one saw this coming as a result of the vilification of transgender people!
-----
There has been huge anger over the Polari Prize longlist where John Boyne, a prominent gender critical author, (who has very recently stated his support for the anti-trans views of the Very Famous Author in the previous paragraph) has a work listed; More than a dozen authors have withdrawn their books from the longlist and two of the judges, including a transgender woman, have resigned. The remaining committee then issued a statement that would have made M&S proud. The Polari Prize is the only UK Prize for queer authors.
-----
To add to our joy, it was confirmed last Thursday evening that the revised EHRC Code of Practice will be handed to the Equalities Minister this month, and that the trans segregation legislation (toilet access, hospital wards, grassroots-level sports etc) will take effect in the Autumn. Yes, challenges are in train, but it’s going to be difficult for transgender people. Our place in society is being lessened, and you can bet that there will be much more vilification of the community both in the traditional media and on social media.
Comments
Post a Comment