Breast Cancer, Topless Pool Debate Raised in Seattle
A breast cancer survivor has won the right to swim topless during specific hours at her local pool after a newspaper ran a photo of her topless in its pages. The photo caused the Parks and Recreation superintendent to change his mind.
"I'm not an exhibitionistic kind of person," Jodi Jaecks told ABC News. "It's not my personality. I don't think of this as nudity, not as it's generally perceived."
Jaecks is a breast cancer survivor, having had a double mastectomy without reconstructive surgery. She asked the pool to let her swim topless because it is too painful for her to wear a traditional bathing suit; when the department of Parks and Recreation denied her request, a local paper, The Stranger, picked up the story.
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The Stranger ran a photo of Jaecks completely topless in order to show her appearance and that there was honestly no reason for her to swim with a bathing suit top. After the paper ran the image, the superintendent of the Parks and Recreation department had a change of heart.
"This was a long-standing policy that had been in effect for a lot of years, and it had never really been challenged," explained communications manager Dewey Potter. "The staff on the face of it did their job by following policy, but when the superintendent took a closer look, he decided attitudes had shifted and he decided to allow this woman to swim and look at further cases one by one."
Jaecks will be allowed to swim topless during adult-only hours but has chosen to avoid the pool altogether in an act of solidarity with other cancer survivors.
"I never wanted this to be personal," she said. "This isn't about me specifically. Sure it started that way with my personal interest in swimming, but as soon as the department clarified their policy, then it became much more political to me."
