Dad Offers Sh*tty Opinion On Daughter's Bikini In Reddit's AITA

This Reddit ‘AITA’ dad is absolutely baffled by the notion of his teen daughter wanting to wear a two-piece bathing suit

What is it with dads and the ‘Am I The Asshole‘ subreddit, amirite? Good Lord. The dad in question today is asking for feedback on his undeniably wrong opinions and behavior regarding his teenage daughter and her desire to wear a bikini. When will dads learn that their daughters’ bodies aren’t their property? Legal adult or not, your child’s body is not something you get to regulate in this way as a parent.

The post starts off with a bang: “My daughter is only 15. She is way too young to be dressing in a two-piece, but my wife agreed to let her buy one without my knowledge.” First of all, let’s just take a quick moment of silence for the mom who has to run purchases by her husband. If I “had” to do that, I’d be divorced.

Okay, now let’s dive right in, shall we? The dad says during a very recent lake trip with his family, he experiences angina at the sight of his daughter baring her stomach in a bathing suit and grills his wife about it (okay, I’m taking creative liberties here with angina, BUT STILL).

“I tell them that she’s too young to wear something so revealing and I disapprove,” he writes with zero remorse. “I tell her that either she covers up or I will take the boat back to the ramp, so she agrees, mostly because some of her friends were there and she didn’t want to ruin their trip.”

Oh also: shaming your child about her swimwear and her body in front of her friends is abusive. He explains that he thinks what her friends are wearing (spoiler alert: they wore bikinis to the beach) is “irrelevant” and that the next time his daughter didn’t wear a one-piece or tankini to “cover up more,” she’d be disinvited to the lake with the rest of her family. He doubles down on the fact that he thinks 15 is too young to “show so much skin.”

Hmm…but what about shirtless teen boys? Is THAT okay? I dunno, they might be too young.

Making your daughter self-conscious about her body during a time when she is very likely already super self-conscious and will be made to feel crappy about said body for the rest of her exhausting life as a woman is just… NOPE. We do not need to teach our daughters that it’s okay for dad to sexualize their bodies or that a man is in control of them and how they’re displayed. Welcome to Surviving The Male Gaze 101: YOU FAILED.

Thankfully, Redditors were more than ready to deem this dad an “asshole” and let him know why.

Here’s hoping this dad sees the error of his ways and does some serious de-programming with his misogyny. Until then, Reddit (and anyone reading this) determined he IS, in fact, the asshole here.