Albert Einstein once defined common sense as “the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen”. It is doubtful if that was ever true and it is not true now. A confused debate about gender, shared and accelerated on social media, is putting young women in particular at risk. In the attempt to be understanding and avoid offence, there is a danger that genuine harm is now being done.

The latest confusion comes in reports of drag queens being brought into nursery schools to instruct children on transgender issues. The retail chain Top Shop recently declared, under pressure from the performance artist Travis Alabanza, that its changing rooms would become gender-neutral. That would be fine if its stores had secure spaces in which young women could