Madelyn Sheaffer Wants Change: Woman kicked out of Water Park For Bikini

Woman Kicked Out of Water Park for Bikini

Many people are speculating if body and age discrimination alleged by a Missouri native at a water park is the case, reports the Daily News.

Just this past Fourth of July weekend, staff members at a water park in Independence, M.O. accused a woman of having on a bikini that was “inappropriate.”

Due to what the park’s staff members felt was indecent exposer, they kicked her out of Adventure Oasis Water Park. However, the water park attendee believes it was her full-figured body that speculated the accusation.

Many people believe that we live in a society where it is okay for people to wear whatever they want as long as they are skinny, but when a person has a body shape that includes minor or major curves, the person is told to cover up because it is “not appropriate.”

43-year-old Madelyn Sheaffer believes she encountered that exact type of prejudice when she was told to either cover up or leave the water park because her bikini was “too small.” It is believed that her choice of swimsuit was not the problem; it was the fact that she is a woman with a full figure.

According to the Daily News, Sheaffer had just lost 100 pounds and felt confident enough in her skin to wear a bikini to the Adventure Oasis Water Park. After employees told her to cover up or leave, the Independence woman decided to speak out.

“I just felt like I was singled out,” Sheaffer told KSHB. “I felt like it was both age and body discrimination.”

“There are 16- or 18-year-old girls wearing just the same amount and no one’s criticizing them or making them feel ashamed or feel uncomfortable in their bodies,” Sheaffer said.

Cases like these cause many women to feel self-conscious during the summertime because they are left feeling that they have to look a certain way just to have fun a cool off in a pool.

UPDATE:

On Facebook, Madelyn Sheaffer writes — a long update we are reproducing in full about why she went public with the water park bikini controversy. She says:

“17 years ago, when I had young children, there were no swimming parks within 22 miles of my family. I had grown up with a community swimming pool within 2 miles of me. My mom would buy my brother and I a season pass, and we would spend our entire summer, for summer on end, walking to the park each day, spending the entire day there. I remember falling into bed each night super happy and exhausted. My mom was a single mom, so this was a big help to her as well.

“By the time I had children, there had been a dramatic increase in insurance prices for these family owned pools. Every pool shut down, with the exception of private pools owned by individuals and apartment complexes. I called the City of Independence 17 years ago and talked with someone about the lack of swimming parks for the youth in our community. At the time he said, there just was not adequate funds, but it was being discussed.

“Now it is 17 years later, and the City of Independence has a nice water park at last. It was not there for my children, but it is there for the hot, summer, children of Independence as a whole, and believe me there are a lot of them. While I stand by my grievance that I was discriminated against at Adventure Oasis Water Park, and I do not believe it should happen again, it is not money that is going to correct the issue, but a change in the swimming park’s “appropriate swimming attire” policy, and also an improvement involving better education and orientation of their park management.

“Without legal counsel, I have decided that in lieu of a lawsuit which awards me money, I would like to pursue these changes. I support a swim park’s decision to decide and define what is appropriate, but it must be determined in a manner that is not discretionary, or according to the judgement of uneducated and possibly in some way personally biased, teenage girls and boys. Private Schools and other organizations have set standards as far as dress code that are easily gauged and applicable without leading to opportunity for discrimination. A shirt two fingers wide, and shorts that go lower than your index finger are easily measured and applied. How can this be applied to city owned swimming parks?”

On The Web:
Full-figured Missouri woman allegedly kicked out of swimming pool for wearing a bikini
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/full-figured-missouri-woman-allegedly-kicked-swimming-pool-wearing-bikini-article-1.1389763?localLinksEnabled=false

‘I was discriminated for looking too good in a bikini’: Woman, 43, was kicked out of water park because her bathing suit was too small
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2355075/Madelyn-Sheaffer-Woman-43-kicked-water-park-bathing-suit-small.html?ito=feeds-newsxml