The Swimsuit Double-Standard
I need some assistance here.
So me and my mom just got back from our local recreational park. She went to the swim center, as she does about four days a week, and I ventured off to look at the dog park and to battle the nearby pokemon gyms.
I returned to the swim center a half hour later, as had been agreed upon, to find my mother talking on the phone at the front desk, reduced to tears and seething with anger.
She had gone into the lap lanes as she usually did. She enjoys swimming, as she has a bad knee, and it is one of the few forms of exercise in which she can exclusively use her arms.
A little while later one of the female life guards came over and very politely asked her to confirm that she was in a swimsuit. Keep in mind, that this
is what my mom was wearing at the pool. I was with her when she bought that swimsuit. The both of us are G-cup (if you think that’s too much information, get over it) and beyond, so finding one piece suits is difficult or extremely expensive. And because of the size the swimsuit needs to be more like a bra, because it functions in essentially the same ways. As for board shorts, they’re swim trunks, and clearly don’t show too much skin.
The lifeguard assures my mom she was just making sure, and then walked away just as politely as she had approached.
Then, a few minutes later, comes the swim center manager. Herb Poe.
He proceeds to be very condescending and imperious, asking my mother, again, if she is in fact wearing a swimsuit, how she can prove it, how does he know that she isn’t lying, all while looking her up and down like something in a bakery window. At this point my mom was humiliated. She gives up on swimming laps now and walks to the life guard office and asks if anyone wants to check the tag on her swimsuit.
And they laugh at her. She goes to the front desk and the woman there laughs at her as well. When she decides to call their supervisor, she discovers HERB POE IS THE MANAGER they try to hide her behind the desk and she refused.
That was when I got back. I am furious. It took everything in me not to jump the woman behind the desk, who clearly couldn’t care less what was happening.
There are, everyday, men, young and old, who come to the pool in speedos that leave far too little to the imagination, and this old fart has the audacity to single my mother out. It’s clear enough what happened here.
So if any of my followers want to help here is the number to the center itself:
And here is the number of the Parks Department Director:
Gabriel Albornoz: 240-777-6800
Call the center. Ask them about swimsuit standards. There are no rules against two piece swimsuits, so ask them how they are going to guarantee that the life guard manager isn’t going to look at them like a piece of meat and kick them out . This goes for guys too. Be ridiculous. “Well ma’am my one piece swimsuit does show my arms, so how will he know that it is actually a swimsuit.” “But how will can the manager be sure that I’m not wearing shorts instead of trunks?” Inundate them. Waste their time.
And please, call the Director and make them aware of what is happening there. Ask them how the double standard is permission to harrass women. Ask them why they aren’t doing anything to stop it. Make sure they can’t ignore this.
Please reblog this and spread the word.
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