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A woman was left seething with rage after a stranger approached her at the gym and told her she should be wearing a bra.
Writing about her experience on Reddit, the furious 25-year-old explained that she “hates wearing bras” and said her “boobs are nonexistent anyways”.
She said she had got used to life without them after spending the past year-and-a-half working from home. So, when she started going to the gym again, she decided to work out “braless”.
In her post, shared on Thursday, she said: “Up until now, no one has ever pointed out anything wrong with me not wearing a bra. However, in the middle of a set of squats (yes, MID SQUAT), a guy comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder to get my attention, and tells me that my nipples are poking through my shirt.
“I get really irritated because why [the f***] is this guy staring at my nipples in the first place and then stopping me mid-set to inform me?”
The man apparently said he was concerned that she was struggling with her reps so had come over to help her – which is when he “noticed [her] nipples.”
“He said he was going to spot me, but then noticed my chest and thought it’d be inappropriate,” the Redditor explained.
When she argued that the machine she was using had a safety feature so “he wasn’t needed,” the stranger allegedly insisted that “people at gyms look out for each other”.
The man insisted he was ‘just trying to help’ Getty Images
He continued by recommending that “going forward, I should probably wear a bra so other people wouldn’t get uncomfortable and that it may help me stay more balanced in my squats,” she said.
The 25-year-old went on: “I’m literally the only girl at the weights section of the gym at the moment, and other guys who were squatting and failed sets never have to worry about this s***.
“I’ve seen guys fail multiple sets in a row and no one ever rushes to their aid, but I have a very slight pause, and everyone thinks I need rescuing.
“So I’m now really annoyed and also kind of uncomfortable that this guy I’ve never spoken to in my life thinks he’s helping me and then has the audacity to tell me how to dress.”
Venting her fury, she then told him: "You have bigger boobs and nipples than I do. Maybe YOU should wear a bra so people won’t get uncomfortable and you won’t fail your squats.
“He then got really defensive, saying he was just trying to help, then called me a bitch,” she added.
The woman ended her post by asking fellow Redditors if she had overreacted during the encounter. The overwhelming response was “no”.
u/Far-Experience2070/Reddit
“He had no right to comment on your body at all, and no right to try and assert his ‘help’ onto you. If he can’t control himself from staring at another person’s body then he shouldn’t be at a place where he’s going to encounter all manner of bodies,” one wrote.
“It is not our job to control men’s thoughts and actions. They need to do it no matter what we are wearing, what we are doing, where we are. (Vice versa for us)” added another.
Meanwhile a third said passionately: “It doesn’t matter if you’re Dolly Parton, if your boobs, braless, hang down to your knees; it doesn’t matter if this is pre-, during, or post- panini, it doesn’t f***ing matter WHAT your excuse is: IF YOU DON’T WANT TO WEAR A BRA TO THE GYM THERE’S NO LAW THAT SAYS YOU HAVE TO.”
Scores of other users suggested she should report the man to the gym’s management for “sexual harassment,” with one setting out a list of complaints she could make.
They wrote: “You should report him to the gym management for sexual harassment for
- Staring at your nipples
- Telling you what you should wear to the gym
- Interrupting your set & putting your weights back on the rack unasked for when you clearly weren’t struggling
- Calling you a b***.”
The user added: “Tell them he made you feel unsafe wouldn’t leave you alone and continued to stare and comment on your breasts after you repeatedly asked him not to and [you’re] worried about other female gym members and how that incident might [have] escalated had [there] not been other men at the gym at the same time.
“Also complain about the lack of social distance – we’re still in a pandemic.”
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