This is shocking.
An Australian mum is fuming over an incident that happened to her daughter in school – and we totally understand why.
The woman – who used the name Greta for her interview with family website Kidspot – says her 9-year-old was shamed by her teachers for her swimwear – a two-piece tankini.
A few months ago, Greta explains, her daughter, Elly, had asked her if she could have some of “older girl” swimwear. And after hunting high and low for something appropriate, Greta says she found a modest two-piece tankini online, which her daughter loved.
“She’s worn them every week at the pool for swimming lessons, as well as on casual swimming trips and has adored them,” the widowed Aussie mum-of-three tells Kidspot.
“I don’t see any issue with my 9-year-old’s tankini”
After having worn them all summer, Greta says she was so used to seeing her daughter in the two-piece swimwear, that she didn’t think twice about sending them into school with her when the term started again, and it was time for swimming lessons.
However, Greta says her daughter had mentioned that she was a little “nervous” that the school wouldn’t like them before bringing them in.
“I brushed it off because they, in my opinion, were age-appropriate and I didn’t see any issue with them,” Greta explains.
“They covered her up almost as much as a one-piece… I also would not expect anyone to point out and ask any child in primary school to cover up.”
Forced to cover up
However, the school did indeed not like them, and Elly’s teachers ended up calling her out for wearing the tankini, and made her wear a shirt to cover up.
At the time, Greta had no idea what had happened – she only found out at the end of the day when she arrived to pick up her daughter from the bus.
“She was embarrassed but tried to brush it off and said ‘I told you they wouldn’t let me wear my swimmers’,” the mum recalls.
“She said she never wants to wear them to school again.”
Needless to say, Greta was fuming – especially when she found out that only the girls had been forced to “cover up” – while the boys had been allowed to go shirtless.
“The teachers were sexualising my nine-year-old daughter… it makes me extremely uncomfortable knowing they are even thinking of my child and other girls in that light,” Greta explains.
“I’m tired of the responsibility and pressure being put on girls from such a young age. They need to stop putting the responsibility of men’s sh**y behaviour on girls.”
Greta sent an extremely blunt email to the school asking them to explain why her daughter had been shamed over her swimwear – and requesting a formal apology.
“To be frank, I find it disgusting that you sexualised a child,” her message read.
“It disappoints me to hear this backwards thinking of shaming girls is still being pushed, instead of teaching boys to treat girls with respect despite what they wear.
“The double standard for boys is just absolutely laughable. I’d like to see either this mindset be addressed by the whole school OR the boys be held to the exact same standards and forced to wear shirts also.”
What would YOU have done had this happened to your child? Has this ever happened to your child? Let us know in the comments.
