Unless you have a personal home gym, chances are you’ve got to work out at a place where lots of people go. You’d think it would be easy: go, do your workout, clean up your machine, and leave. But some people like to interfere or harass you while you’re trying to mind your business — and sometimes that harassment is sexual.
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One Redditor who lifts weights explained that she doesn’t need to (and also just does not want to) wear a bra. After being harassed by a guy at the gym who noticed her nipples through her shirt, she lost it — quite rightly, I think.
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“I (25f) f*cking hate wearing bras. They’re uncomfortable, constricting, and expensive. With work from home, I spent the last year and a half basically never wearing a bra and got used to it. Quite frankly, my boobs are nonexistent anyways.”
“I recently started going to the gym again and started working out braless. I should note that 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 tf is this guy staring at my nipples in the first place and then stopping me mid-set to inform me?”
The OP got really annoyed with the dude, but she tried to finish her set anyway. The guy grabbed the bar from her and put it on the rack, saying that it looked like she was having trouble. The OP told him she did not need his help, and asked him why he had been staring at her chest. He said it was inappropriate.
“But he just insisted people at gyms look out for each other, and 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. 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 sh*t. 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.”
“So I tell 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 b*tch. Honestly I’m not sure if I overreacted, but I’m still kind of pissed off so maybe that’s clouding my judgment. AITA?”
Is there any environment where a man won’t take it upon himself to police women’s clothing choices? Should she have done anything differently?
“NTA. Report it to your gym, 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,” advised sph1nxa.
“Also. As someone with boobs, sometimes your nips show through a PADDED bra. I’ve never worn a sports bra that didn’t headlight people pretty much the entire time I had it on. His argument doesn’t even make sense if you know boobs work,” noted teyyannn.
“NTA. He was harassing you, and you should tell management about it. As a fellow bra-hater, it’s no one’s f*cking business if I wear a bra or not,” said ellabcedar.
“This is 100% sexual harassment and taking the bar from her and racking it is taking it to another level. And the suggestion that wearing a bra would make you better at lifting is just fucking wild. NTA and report that guy,” said moxiecontin714.
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“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 bitch. Tell them he made you feel unsafe wouldn’t leave you alone & continued to stare & comment on your breasts after you repeatedly asked him not to & your worried about other female gym members & how that incident might of escalated had their not been other men at the gym at the same time,” suggested excel_pager_03.
Featured Image: Pexels
*First Published: August 25, 2021, 1:20 pm
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