Photo via @nicknush0/TikTok
October 7, 2021, 1:57 pm
A baffling TikTok video currently spreading online shows an entirely unnecessary confrontation sparked when a man started filming a stranger who was trying to make a workout video because he was apparently rather offended that the weight-lifter wasn’t wearing a shirt—at the gym. Upon noticing that the strange man was obviously recording him, TikTok user Nick Nush stops his workout and the other guy asks him what he was doing, as though it wasn’t pretty clear that he was lifting weights.
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“Getting a shirtless workout in?” the man asks.
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When Nush confirms that yes, he is doing the thing that anyone can see him doing, he gets called a “weirdo” and gets hit with some serious hostility when he asks what he’s doing that’s weird.
“‘Cause you’re shirtless at the f—ing gym, r—-d,” the other man replies.
“I’m recording my back,” Nush explains.
“Weird man, it’s weird.”
Anybody who has been to the gym has likely seen a man or two working out with his shirt off, as is generally allowed if you don’t have breasts. It has also become rather common to see people specifically filming themselves from different angles in order to demonstrate a proper workout technique or to show of their muscles, which Nush often does in his TikTok videos as a bodybuilder.
However, it soon becomes clear that the other guy’s issue with the shirtlessness is rooted in homophobia. When Nush objects to being recorded without his permission, the man starts cussing him out, including using the anti-gay f-slur.
“I don’t even know this dude, and I am confused as hell of what’s going on, because I don’t understand why he’s cursing me out and stuff,” says Nush in a voiceover, “but he continues to stare at me and flip me off and mouth things to me, so I just had to say something.”
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“What, you mad than an 18-year-old bigger than you?” Nush asks the stranger.
At that, the real gym weirdo throws his water bottle down and comes up to Nush to issue a number of empty threats and tough-guy talk as Nush laughs him off before the anti-shirtless dude walks away.
After the video spread to Twitter, many speculated that the gym weirdo may have been a bit stirred up by the sight of a shirtless man and then angered due to his potentially internalized homophobia, suggesting that the man is closeted or in denial about his sexuality. It is important to note, however, that assuming every homophobe is a closeted queer person is in itself homophobic, as that puts a whole lot of bigoted jerks into the LGBTQ+ camp, and we don’t want them.
Popular Twitter account Fifty Shades of Whey also conducted a Twitter poll below the video asking people who they would side with, and the results, as they should be, are overwhelmingly in favor of Nush.
Back on TikTok, Nush answered many people’s burning question as to why he didn’t just knock the weird homophobe out by explaining that he simply wasn’t worth the effort and side effects.
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“For everyone saying why didn’t I hit him I know he was being a tool and an a–hole, but these people aren’t worth it,” he wrote in a comment. “I’m more mature then [sic] this guy.”
“Also I don’t wanna deal with the police for assault or being banned from the gym. I can control myself, obviously this dude has problems.”
*First Published: October 7, 2021, 1:57 pm
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