We were in the family change room at the local public pool. I was struggling to get my toddler and my six-year-old showered, and my just-turned-12-year-old daughter was standing by the shower in her bathing suit waiting for us. I glanced up just as a childless adult man?probably in his mid-twenties?openly checked my daughter out, his eyes scanning her body, before he disappeared through the door to the pool. I was too shocked to say anything.
After hustling my kids into a changing booth, I asked my daughter if she?d noticed. She hadn?t, and her first response was, ?Oh my God, I won?t wear this bikini again.?
Her immediate reaction was that somehow she had caused this. Trying not to choke up, I quickly told her,?This is in no way about what you are wearing, or anything you did. He is just gross.? Because he was in the family changing room, I assume he had kids already in the pool, and was a young dad staring at my daughter. Or, worse, he didn?t have children there to swim at all, and he had no business being in the family change room whatsoever.
Before continuing, I want to point out?even though I shouldn?t have to?that my daughter?s bikini is very demure: it?s a kids? bikini with a halter top and full briefs. It?s a suit that she felt happy and confident in prior to this incident.
And I?m going to assume that any woman reading this knows that you could be wearing a garbage bag and some men will always think they have a right to check out and comment on our bodies.
This is ...