Awareness Disclaimer and Code of Conduct for Customers - English

 Dear reader and potential customer,

Thank you for actively participating in our visions and activities! 

The She said bookshop and café gives space to female and queer authors with a strong focus on intersectionality and the centering of marginalised voices.

She said is a public space and therefore will never be a completely “safe space”. 

At the same time it is important for us that everybody feels at ease within our walls. To achieve this, we have come up with a few points.

At She said we do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race, nationality and religion, such as anti-Black racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim discrimination, anti-Roma and Sinti racism, anti-Asian racism, transphobia, cissexism, classism, ableism, misogyny, fatphobia, ageism, adultism, lookism, colourism, trans and sexwork exclusionary ideologies. This list is non-exhaustive. 

As She said is a public space, the role of the visitor is as important as the role of the team working here. As a visitor to the space, we ask you to:

• Respect the personal space and physical boundaries of those around you.
• Not assume anyone’s gender, pronouns, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity.
• Be aware of all forms of cultural appropriation. We encourage you to educate yourself in respect to adopting meaningful cultural markers that don’t belong to your own cultural background and the privileges you hold.
• Treat the team members with respect and patience, remember that service has limits!
• Treat the books with respect; we love them :0) Return books you don’t wish to purchase to their original spot or leave them with a bookseller. Please don’t abandon piles of books and be mindful of unpurchased books while enjoying a beverage or snack at the cafe. Please don’t take unbought books outside the shop.
• Due to our limited seating space we do ask people who are not paying customers of the café to make space when needed so we can provide a seat for those eating and drinking. 

We do not tolerate any form of violence, be that physical, verbal, etc. and if someone is being violent, we will ask them to leave. She said aims to avoid involving the police in any possible incident. Nonetheless, considering we as a shop operate under the systems that we do, unfortunately police involvement cannot be completely ruled out in all cases.

She said doesn’t exist in a vacuum and we continue to be informed by the systems that we live in. As mentioned above this means that She said is not a safe space, but we strive to hold ourselves and others accountable.

As a team, we are always open to feedback about the content of the books we sell or about your experience in the space. We also recognize that we ourselves represent only a small range of marginalised perspectives. When we make mistakes, we try our best to learn from them. 

Please find a description of the space in regards to wheelchair accessibility on our about page. 

Please also take note of our Quiet Shopping Hour, on Tuesdays between 10am and 12 pm. We don’t play music during this time and dim our lights and customers as well as employees are encouraged to move quietly through the space to minimise noise and other potential sources of sensory overload.

Thank you for taking the time to read this disclaimer. We look forward to seeing you at She said. 

Warmly,