A WOMAN has slammed two lifeguards for ordering a two-year-old girl to “cover up” at a public swimming pool.
Katie Sturino revealed that the tot was getting changed before her swimming lesson and surrounded by “shirtless” little boys who weren’t told to clothe their bodies.
Retelling the story from a friend’s perspective, Katie explained that her friend’s daughter was standing by the pool in her swimming bottoms and yet to put on her rash guard.
The mum was left furious when two lifeguards quickly ordered the tot to “cover up” and referred to her state of undress as “nudity”.
“Two different lifeguards came over at two different times and said, ‘ma’am you need to put a shirt on your daughter, there’s no nudity allowed in the pool’,” Katie said.
“That made my f*****g head pop off because I was like, ‘this is it, this is when they start policing our bodies’.
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“They start to say, ‘you gotta cover up, there’s something wrong with you’.”
Katie, an outspoken body positive advocate who runs a skincare business, slammed the lifeguards’ “inappropriate” comments about the toddler’s body.
“She’s two years old,” she said. “She’s a two-year-old little baby.
“And these rules are put on women from the start.
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“Different rules for boys and girls' bodies start young and are reinforced constantly along the way.
“Should toddler girls have to cover up?”
She shared the story in an Instagram post which attracted mass disgust, with over 3,000 people jumping into the comments.
A number of appalled mums slammed the lifeguards as “creepy” and “gross”.
“That's so f****d up,” one raged. “She's a literal baby and her upper body looks exactly the same as every other boy there.
“It's not f*****g nudity.”
“Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew calling a baby's body ‘nudity’ gives all the wrong messages,” a doctor added. “That is some nonsense.”
Similarly, a paediatrician and “expert in the bodies of children”' stated that there is zero biological difference between a toddler girl’s chest and a toddler boy's chest.
“That is absolutely insane,” she added.
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