14 DAY TRIAL // The other day, lingerie and clothing giant Marks & Spencer announced that women with larger busts would have to shell out £1.50 to £2 for a larger cup size for the specialist work that goes into ensuring a quality bra and proper support. Because of this, a group of women who go above the DD size, called Bust 4 Justice, is set on taking M&S stores by storm and protesting against such a discriminatory police, the British publication the Daily Mail informs.
Marks & Spencer, usually an enviable standard in terms of high-quality lingerie items that go for affordable prices, has just made a huge mistake for charging extra depending on cup size, the Mail piece says. This is double-standards policy at best, and open discrimination towards larger busted women who are not only forced to endure a life of pain and not finding suitable clothes, but, now, also to pay extra for getting the right size brassiere, it is further being said.
Consequently, women who feel they are being discriminated are set to charge M&S stores in the following days, to show the management that applying a price-to-size policy is not only unjustified, but also deeply offending and infuriating. “Why on earth should we pay more for an extra bit of material and support on top? If I buy a size 16 dress, I don’t pay more than the girl buying a size 10, do I? And the same would go for men, who would no doubt be horrified if they were asked to pay more for a suit in a larger size or a bigger pair of shoes. Anyone would think M&S is subliminally encouraging women to reduce their body size.” Ulrika Jonsson says for the Mail.
At the same time, she points out that finding the right size undergarment is as hard as it is – and M&S shouldn’t further complicate things by adding an extra charge. Writer Erin Kelly agrees: the clothing and lingerie giant is discriminating against larger sized girls and women and, what’s worse, it’s doing it without even bothering to offer a seemingly plausible reason for it. The official line, the larger sized bras need more “specialist work” doesn’t hold water.
This is how the aforementioned group has come into being in just a couple of days since M&S made the official announcement. These women are asking the clothing giant to consider installing the same price-to-size policy on all the other items it retails, including extra-large sizes for overweight people (which would be justified since these items do require more fabric), and not only on bras. Whether they will actually succeed in their effort is still to be seen, so keep an eye on this space for more.