Bra dispute

Reading this article about larger bras costing more, and customers being up in arms (which feels like the wrong phrase, but I can't think of a better one), has given me several causes to witter. Firstly this specific situiation - for those who can't be bothered to RTFA, M&S (big UK retailer, for overseas readers) charges £2 extra for bras larger than a DD, and this has pissed off campaigners, accusing M&S of discriminating against them. M&S has come back with the arguments a) larger bras involve more detailed work because of the extra support, and b) shut up. Both seem valid to me.

One quick aside - beyond the general term "campaigners" there's no real indication in that article how many people really object that much. Yes they make reference to a Facebook group with 8,000 members (although a quick search turns up no such group - the closest one is "Bust For Justice (M&S) Share Price Drop?", which has 187 members), but a Facebook group is hardly a reliable indicator - the group "The Hardest Part of a Zombie Apocalypse Will be Pretending I'm Not Excited" has got over 61,000 members (myself included now I've just found it), but I'm fairly sure when that day comes most of those people (myself included again) will be soiling themselves, desperately trying to find the nearest concrete bunker. The woman who set up the group has bought a share in M&S so she can go to the AGM to confront the company directly - I'm fairly sure that the cost of the share, travel, etc. will probably outweigh the few quid surcharge she's going to suffer on a couple of bras.

I digress. One thought's just occurred to me, which is just to increase the cost of all their bras - that way smaller-breasted women pay a surcharge. Of course that's just as objectionable, just to a different group of women.

The cynic in me just wants to write off these protesters (however few or many of them there are) as whiners with nothing better to do. I'm sure it's not as simple as that, but I can't quite shake it. There are lots of legitimate issues to deal with in the world, and having to pay a small amount extra for something that almost certainly costs a small amount extra to manufacture doesn't seem worth kicking up a fuss about. Apparently the most popular bra size in the UK is 36C, so anyone who's into DD territory is significantly above average.

Now, being male (and not suffering from excessive moobage) I can't pretend to relate to large-breasted women (on several levels, more's the pity), but throwing the word "discrimination" around pisses me off. At worst the argument could be made that larger size clothing doesn't cost more, but I'd counter that while I'm not a bra manufacturer, I'd not be surprised that given the structural work involved in a bra, in order to make a good quality and well-supporting larger one, the design has to be tweaked a bit.

By contrast a larger shirt just needs a bit more material, which probably doesn't cost all that much given the volumes clothes manufacturers buy it in. Even if there is a difference, manufacturers clearly absorb it because it's small, or more hassle than it's worth given the range of sizes they have to sell. Now before anyone thinks "double standard", if anything that actually reinforces the point for me - the fact that they're charging more for bigger bras but not for bigger regular clothes seems like clear evidence that the costs involved are more significant. Or else the bra market so massively outweighs that for regular clothes that M&S feel they can make enormous profits just by milking large boobs. As it were.

Ahem. Ultimately having to pay more for something that costs more isn't discrimination, it's market forces. The fact that clothes companies absorb cost differences for regular clothes (or more likely just base prices on the cost of the most expensive size to manufacture, which brings me back to the idea of just charging more for smaller bras) doesn't mean they have to do that for everything if it doesn't make financial sense. Here's a radical idea - buy your bras somewhere else. If enough people do it then M&S will pay attention, and if no-one does then it's clearly not a problem enough people care about, so shut up and try addressing one of the world's many real problems.

I've resisted bringing weight into this post, despite desperately wanting to. I've got a degree of ranting built up on the subject, but will save it for another time. Thanks for reading...