Waitrose has dropped the word ‘feminine’ from its sanitary products after receiving a complaint claiming it was not inclusive of transgender people. The Telegraph has the story.
Period products will no longer be marketed to females following a complaint which said “not all people who have periods are women”.
The high-end supermarket was described as “disgraceful” and accused of having erased womanhood by introducing the change.
A spokesman for Waitrose said the term “feminine products” was changing because the range now included incontinence products for men.
The section rebrand came after an internal complaint said it was “disappointing” that sanitary products were referred to as “feminine care”.
James Esses, a gender-critical campaigner and Conservative councillor who shared the complaint, branded the change “disgraceful”.
In the document, the complainant wrote: “Not all people who have periods are women. Trans men and some non-binary people have periods. The category also includes products used for incontinence.
“Yet the language we use still suggests that these products are exclusively for women and femininity.
“To some people, that might seem like a small detail. To me, it isn’t. Words matter because people matter. This matters to me because inclusion should never be conditional or performative. If we say everyone is welcome, then our language should reflect everyone.”
In response, a manager at Waitrose said she agreed that “the term ‘feminine care’ does not accurately describe the products within the category and that this should be changed”.
“I believe that the internal naming comes from the title given to the layout group so I will ask that our range and space manager and buyer work to get this name updated as soon as possible,” the manager said.
Esses said: “Waitrose erases womanhood. A whistleblower from Waitrose has just leaked an internal document to me, in which senior leaders have pledged to remove the name ‘feminine care’ from sanitary products, on the basis that ‘not all people who have periods are women’. Disgraceful.”
Worth reading in full.
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This sort of capitulation to people who are clearly very unwell is why we are in the nonsense that we are in. If a male wants to dress as a female, and live their life as if they were a female, that is fine. But this affectation of outrage is clearly unhinged and we must push back. That someone who is mentally ill is triggered is irrelevant and a push-back is surely likely to make them to reconsider a stupid complaint.
To quote John McEnroe, ‘You cannot be serious!’ 😂
If ever there was proof the World has lost it sense of direction, this must be it. I think I will still be laughing this time next week.
As a woman ( yes, a real one ), I won’t be laughing – instead, I will be weeping tears of despair.
Waitrose is insufferably woke. I never buy my groceries there.
That goes for John Lewis too. Left both these bossy, sanctimonious operators years ago.
Here’s a question;
What non-women people are having periods? Show me a person, who is not a woman, who has periods.
I have a challenge for the arseholes who say that anyone identifying as a woman IS a woman.
Line up 10 naked people on stage, five of them who, 10 years ago, most people would have said were obviously women and five of them who, 10 years ago, most people would have said were obviously men. Then get the woke trans-rights arsehole activists to pick out which of the group are women and which are men, and, crucially, explain their reasoning.
Oh, and to spice it up and elicit genuine answers and responses to the question, hold a gun to their heads and warn them that a single wrong answer means a bullet through their skulls.
I reckon every single arsehole woke trans activist will suddenly remember what reality is.
That’s got the makings of a Channel Five game show…!
I think if people have a need for these products they don’t need to be reassured that they are feminine, but by implying they are for feminine use, that doesn’t exclude other people from using them.
I believe that women in the past quite happily used masculine products for removing feminine hair, and it was only marketing initiatives that introuced producs designed for feminine contours.
For years lots of women have realised that some products designed for men are better quality eg. pullovers
Plus, when you think about it: ‘menstruate’ contains the word ‘men’, which is nice and inclusive. So there is that…⚧😐
“inclusion should never be conditional or performative” – making statements such as “Not all people who have periods are women. Trans men and some non-binary people have periods” isn’t performative? What is it, then, idiocy?
Lies?
I hadn’t shopped at a Waitrose since their appalling behaviour during Covid years.
But I did go into one last week, I was shocked at the low quality of its food, it is no longer an upmarket supermarket in reality, it is living off a past reputation.
As for this latest insult to women, essentially erasing them as anything different from. a man Because any bloke who says he is,is of course a woman.
Waitrose customer is i would think over 60% Old fashioned biological female.
I would urge all biological females to Bud lite Waitrose, let the cos playing men replace the sales of the biological female. I suspect they won’t have a need to sell tampons or towels.
Meanwhile divert ladies your money to marks and spencer,food is better, and they still know what a woman is.
I shop in my local Waitrose for certain items, but it seems to me the quality of their produce, fruit, veg, meat, cheeses, sausages, bacon, cooked meats is no better than the local Lidl but up to twice the price.
Fresh bread and pastries are double the price of stuff in Lidl’s bakery section and not as good.
Steak & kidney pudding disappeared from their shelves for a while, then returned. I bought one but when I went to cook it, strangely the instructions recommended cooking in the oven. The pastry was more like pie pastry than pudding. The ingredients list did contain suet plus the inevitable palm oil and other muck – but is was of course all “sustainable” and “responsibly sourced” which these days is more important than quality, how it tastes.
I gave feed-back on their website about the product complaining it really was a pie not a pudding – a couple of other comments noted this – and said I wasn’t interested their sustainability crusade just a product that is what it’s is supposed to be.
I got an email saying my comment was not posted because it did not meet their comment standards.… Read more »
Buy food from farmers’ markets wherever possible.
Avoid as much as possible the processed shite these people sell.
M&S is also on my ‘Woke to Avoid’ list for failing to once mention the word ‘Christmas’ in their Christmas ad campaign. The irony of trying not to offend non-Christians while mounting a Christmas ad campaign was lost to them.
I am fully aware that men increasingly need incontinence products (fortunately not from personal experience) and visits to public toilets should make everyone aware of this in the modern world. But, when I go shopping for shaving products, antiperspirants, shower gels etc, they are always in a section for men, so can men’s incontinence products not be included in this section of the supermarket or chemists, leaving women’s hygiene products safely in the section for women. No confusion and no embarrassment for some lady having to reach for an item while a hairy arsed fellow is picking up his items.
For Waitrose to be fully consistent it must merge all toiletries into one area containing all hygiene products with no gender descriptions. See how they get on with that.
I don’t know if anyone else can relate but my husband is funny in that he won’t use shower gel unless it has ‘for men’ written on it. He’s even particular about hand wash. I don’t know if he thinks he’ll grow moobs overnight if he uses a fruity or floral-based shower gel, or perhaps his subconscious suspects I’m attempting to emasculate him by buying Dove instead of Axe, but the times I’ve given him a bottle of Mr Muscle and encouraged him to do a bit of light housework because it counts as exercise for one’s biceps/triceps he’s seemed strangely unenthusiastic. 😮
With Yorkie bars as well.
Surely ‘feminine care’ is already a silly euphemism. I really think the correct response to this kind of nonsense is just to point and laugh.
I just find the double-standards hilarious whereby all of this ”toxic masculinity” nonsense originates and is used by the Lefty woketards yet they demonstrably think the same about femininity. It’s a bit weird, therefore, that they haven’t conjured up and attempted to popularise ”toxic femininity” as a mainstream, nonsensical term. Especially given their aim is to erase the distinction between the sexes because the sex binary offends them so much. As a realist, I have no qualms about pointing and laughing at such ideological claptrap and those pushing it.
They’re already on my anti-woke ‘Don’t shop with’ list, so no change for me.