Woman shares how 2-year-old girl was asked to cover up by lifeguards, sparks debate

One cannot deny the fact that this world has significantly progressed in terms of women's empowerment. Some of the most notable personalities in any field include women. They now make up a substantial part of the workforce. Yet, the age-old custom of objectifying women has never died down. Entrepreneur and body acceptance advocate Katie Sturino

—who goes by @katiesturino on Instagram—shared the story of her friend's toddler being ordered to cover up at the pool. This video from July 2023 went viral with over 3.5 million views and the internet agreed with Sturino's take on women being objectified at a young age.

Sturino, who founded the body care brand Megababe, often voiced out the lack of body positivity in our society. Sturino started the video with a simple question: "Should toddler girls have to cover up?" While narrating an incident faced by her friend's 2-year-old daughter, the entrepreneur said the little girl was with her mom at the pool for swim lessons. "All the little boys around her were shirtless. Baby boys were shirtless in diapers and she was in a swimsuit bottom and didn't have her rashguard on yet," Sturino explained. That's when two lifeguards warned the toddler mom twice to cover up her daughter.

"Ma'am you need to put a shirt on your daughter. There's no nudity allowed at the pool," said the lifeguards. Sturino was infuriated hearing this incident, which made her "head pop off." She pointed out how "policing women's bodies" started at such a young age. "They start to say you got to cover up. There's something wrong with you. This is not appropriate. Your body is not appropriate," the body acceptance advocate emphasized. Even a two-year-old girl could not escape being objectified and Sturino was enraged that "these rules are put on women from the start." She highlighted in the caption, "Different rules for boys' and girls' bodies start young and are reinforced constantly along the way."

Many women in the comments could relate to Sturino's perspective and were furious at the lifeguards' rules for the toddler. "Yup, my head popped off when it happened to my niece. I just told the lifeguard she was a boy and they said, 'Oh ok, I'm sorry,'" said @sarahfifileblanc. "It's completely and wrong. And it's not about the body. It's all about gender, about body parts. Females are sexualized from the beginning," remarked @allonmyownnotalone. "And then I would have asked, 'What about the boys? They need to have shirts on as well,' and then you complain to whoever is in charge of the pool," chimed in @kathleenazquilter. "This is an American issue. In Europe, kids are nude till about 5 years and no one cares," added @proofoftimewasting.

Speaking of women being objectified, it's not just men who ask women to cover up, but even a fellow woman might do that. When a teen girl, u/Dear_Fault_67, was asked by a woman next door to cover up inside her house, her mom stood up for her. The 16-year-old, who had a fever, was wearing shorts and a bra as her living room was a bit warm and the neighbor woman who saw this asked her to cover up. The teen's mom defended her daughter, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you could tell me what to do with my kids in my house." After giving the neighbor an earful, the mom slammed the door on her face.

You can follow Katie Sturino (@katiesturino) on Instagram for more body-positivity content.