At Fall From Grace, we’ve always believed that clothing is more than fabric — it’s identity, self-expression, and safety in your own skin. That’s why the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on April 16th, 2025, which narrows the legal definition of “woman” to biological sex, hits so hard.
It feels vital that we begin this blog with a small disclaimer: the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ are often used interchangeably, but this isn’t really correct. In very basic terms, ‘sex’ = the biological status at birth, and ‘gender’ = social construct, i.e. how the individual identifies.
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman will be based on biological sex. In simple terms, this means that transgender women - even those with a Gender Recognition Certificate - may not be legally recognised as women. This particularly applies to equality measures and potentially some single-sex spaces (UK Supreme Court Trans Rights Ruling: What You Need to Know). Here at Fall From Grace, we find this decision to be dangerously reductive and short-sighted.
Some outspoken “Feminists” have declared this a win for Feminism. The predominant argument touted here is that women can now feel safe in “women only” environments, putting transgender women in the role of the aggressor and suggesting that they are the biggest threat to cis women, when this is fundamentally not true. Office for National Statistics data shows that trans people are twice as likely as cisgender people to be victims of crime, with hate crimes against trans people increasing by 186% between 2018-2023 (The Guardian, 2023 & Stonewall, 2023). Furthermore, 93% of defendants in domestic abuse cases are male. It seems fairly apparent what the true biggest threat to cis women is, and it’s not trans women. With these statistics already showing a huge discrepancy between crime against trans and cis people respectively, we can only assume that the - already dramatically skewed - number of hate crimes towards transgender people will increase in light of this ruling.
Further, it must be acknowledged that this ruling brings about problems regarding both cis and transgender women' s safety: how are we to stop a cis man entering the women’s toilets and claiming to be trans, to potentially cause both cis and trans women harm? To be quite clear, if this were really about protecting women, the UK Supreme Court would do better to focus on rates of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault, medical misogyny, amidst a long list of gendered issues.
All this ruling achieves is creating further social unrest and making trans people feel less safe for just existing: those who already question the presence of trans people are given a pedestal for their view, with this law creating questions around if trans people can be considered women/men.
This is not a “win” for feminists and it is not to make women feel safer. It is purely a further attempt to erode trans rights.
We stand with our trans community — our customers, our friends, and our family. Clothing has no gender, and neither should compassion. We’ll continue creating spaces where everyone belongs, and we invite you to stand with us.
Author: Rebecca Petch
Editor: Grace Ridge
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