Madelyn 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.”
The woman was in the swimming pool with her niece and nephew when two park employees allegedly walked up to her and asked her to throw on some shorts. They said her bottoms were too small.
Unfazed, Sheaffer asked to speak to a higher up. The manager sang the same tune and showed her the exit in case when she didn’t want to comply with the demand.
But Sheaffer says that the younger girls at the pool wore similar swimsuits and were not being told to cover up.
“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. It’s summer time. It’s a swimming pool,” she said. “I’m wearing a swimming suit.”Sheaffer said.
A representative from the City of Independence told KSHB that managers have the last word when it comes to deciding whether or not a customer is wearing appropriate clothing. But Sheaffer didn’t understand what she’d done wrong.
Supporters on KHSB’s Facebook page seemed to agree.
“She looks awesome! We wonder why our young girls have so many eating problems,” one Facebook user writes.
“It's because beautiful women like this get discriminated against because they aren't 20 and have a stick figure. Our society needs help on what is and isn't beautiful.”
The woman has filed a complaint against Adventure Oasis Water Park.
