I’ve been feeling troubled by this recent furore over the “trans” assistant in the lingerie section of Marks and Spencer’s.

I’ll say it now: this whole story is part of the phantasm that is the victimisation of trans people – an already persecuted minority – there is no threat from trans women.

It’s not a shop that I tend to visit, as it’s styles are – well – not right for me as its styles tend to lean more toward the respectable-aunt end of the spectrum.

I heard about the story on social media in the trans chat rooms, where there was a lot of consternation.

I needed to do my own research, and the best article I found was https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/06/ms-trans-bra-fitting-controversy-explainer/.

I must say that M&S comes out of this much better than I expected.

Their “apology” can be read a number of ways. I’d say that it was one of those non-apologies “we’re sorry if you felt this way…” isn’t an apology. “We’re sorry that we caused you to feel this way” would be. They haven’t changed their staffing policy either. Good on you M&S!

Also, the point is very well made in the Pink News that nobody aside from the employee and M&S knows whether the assistant was actually trans or not – which made me think…

…not only is this a case of transphobia from the usual TERF¹/GERM² sorority, and the right wing media – it is also misogynistic.

How so?

The reason given for assuming that the assistant was trans was her height.

So, are women now allowed to be tall now?

So is Gwendoline Christie at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) not a woman?

Or Geena Davis (6 ft 0 in)?

Or Brigitte Nielsen (6 ft 1 in)?

Or Venus Williams (6 ft 1 in)?

You get the drift.

Any one of them could bench-press me before breakfast.

Physical strength or stature is no indicator of womanhood.

Making judgements based on those attributes is an indicator of bigotry.

1. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist ↩︎
2. Gender-Exclusionary Radical Misogynists ↩︎