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Primark Accused Of Sexism Because Of Fitting Room Signs

Primark Accused Of Sexism Because Of Fitting Room Signs

Primark has apologised after a fitting room sign in the Bolton branch of the retail chain referred to females as 'girls' instead of 'women'.

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa Pearlmen

Just the other day, there were accusations over the allegedly sexist toilet signs at the Penta Hotels chain, which suggested that men like football and women like shopping.

Now, a teacher has accused clothing retail giant Primark of having sexist dressing rooms, though for a slightly different reason.

Claire Griffiths saw the perfect example of everyday sexism when she noticed that male changing rooms had signs for "girls" but that the male ones read "men".

Mercury

The 28-year-old geography teacher - who's originally from Milton Keynes - was in the Bolton branch of Primark on Monday when she saw the signs.

"I popped into Primark in Bolton and witnessed this random bit of infantilisation of women - not girls," she said.

"Girl is not the opposite of man, full stop. It's a bit worrying, who the hell thought that was okay? It's stupid.

"I know it's only words but it's semantically incorrect.

"It surprises me that no one has thought, 'we need to get rid of that'. Is there nobody there thinking that it isn't right?"

To its credit, Primark has since apologised for the "signage error", explaining that other fitting rooms in stores across the UK were correctly signed.

A Primark spokeswoman said: "Primark uses separate signage for Women's, Men's, Girls' and Boys' fitting rooms in our stores.

"In smaller stores, where there are only two fitting rooms, we use signage indicating Men's and Women's.

"In this case, a Girls' fitting room sign was incorrectly displayed in place of a Women's fitting room sign. We were aware of this error in our Bolton store and it has since been rectified.

"Primark aims to deliver a positive shopping experience for all our customers and we are sorry for any upset caused by this error."

Mercury

Mistake or not, it's the wider implication that bothered Claire Griffiths (pictured above) more than the signs themselves.

"I think if it was the other way around, women and boys, it would stand out more," she said.

"We aren't used to referring to men as boys but we often hear women referred to as girls - such as 'grid girls'," she added, referencing the parading of scantily clad women in Formula One, which has now been banned.

"It's demeaning and it puts us in a vulnerable position. I didn't run away and cry but I look at that and think about the implications it has on a society when a girl is referred to as the opposite of a man.

"People tend to get upset when you point out casual sexism. I just would really like to know how that ended up there."

Featured Image Credit: Mercury

Topics: uk news, Primark