“I Didn’t Think This Could Ever Happen To Me”: TikToker Went Viral After Confronting A Stranger Who Secretly Took Photos Of Her At The Gym
About every 1-in-4 Americans went to the gym in 2019. That’s more than 82 million gym goers right there. And while everyone has their fair share of ‘gymtimidation‘ at the beginning, women are often forced to grin and bear through it on a regular basis because of the uncomfortable stares from their male counterparts — something that is clearly evident by the statistics that show nearly 71% of women are harassed at the gym on a daily basis, which make two-in-three change their routine or switch gyms entirely.
When TikToker Stephanie Lim, a 22-year-old nursing student from California, experienced the unwanted attention firsthand — she could hardly believe something like this could happen to her. In a now-viral video with over 2.6 million views, Stephanie captures the emotional distress of being sexually objectified in a place that should be a safe haven for everyone despite a person’s appearance, age or gender.
A video of Stephanie Lim, a 22-year-old nursing student from California, went viral on TikTok after she shared her firsthand experience of being sexually harassed at the gym
Image credits: vniel
Image credits: vniel
“I hadn’t lost motivation because I was bored, or feeling lazy or insecure about my progress – I had just become exhausted with the uncomfortable feeling of entering a gym filled with potential harassment,” writes Grazia’s women’s health and fitness editor Georgia Aspinall about her own exhausting relationship with male-dominated gyms.
The sad truth is, this is how millions of women feel about going to the gym. And while the talk about sexual harassment at these fine establishments has been bubbling for a while — especially since Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator made flashy headlines after dropping on Netflix in 2019 — data-rich surveys and concerned gym staff members won’t solve the larger problem alone. Although they sure can help bring it to light.
In order to understand just how big of a problem sexual harassment at the gym is, Bored Panda has reached out to the Sport England organization which launched the award-winning ‘This Girl Can‘ campaign aimed to increase physical activity among women in the UK.
In the data provided by Sport England’s senior press officer Jamie Harding, which breaks down the campaign’s most recent research “on the issues of harassment towards women in sport”, 13% of all participants reported having fears of being sexually harassed or intimidated within the confines of the gym. This, in itself, is a significant improvement, compared to the data by FitRated‘s study published in 2019. However, until this number drops to zero, there’s work to do.
Before being warned about the ‘peeping Tom’, Stephanie was doing her regular pre-workout routine of admiring her gym wear
Which changed to a sweatshirt as soon as she found out about the ongoing situation
Image credits: vniel
Here’s the video that caught the attention of 2.6 million TikTok users
@vniel please be safe out here ladies.. i would have never thought this would ever happen to me but it did.. #fyp #citysports #foryoupage ♬ ANOTHER DAY – PARTYNEXTDOOR
People couldn’t believe this is still happening in 2022 and admired the way Stephanie and the gym’s staff handled the predator
I see a lot of girls saying "This is why I wear baggy clothes to the gym." You shouldn't have to wear anything because of someone creepy that can't understand that a gym is a place to work out...not a tittie bar for their amusement. If you see this happening, report them and get them banned!! After word travels, the creeps will stay away and the girls can workout without worries.
Gyms really need to have, AND ENFORCE, a no phones/no cameras rule.
Except so many people use the phone for music or to follow a workout, the stopwatch feature and notes so they can read their workout, so I fear people would rebel against giving up their phones.
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I quit going to gyms ages ago but in the 80s and 90s some gyms used to have women-only hours. But in today's busy world I think that idea would be untenable.
For whatever reason, I can not see the actual offending video. However, I don't understand why she is crying over having her picture taken while wearing what she did to the gym. She's literally wearing JUST a bra going out at night in the 2nd photo (sorry ladies, but the fully see-thru top does NOT count). If you're begging for eyes being upon you at night wearing something 90% revealing, then have some thought into why you get ogled even at the gym. People are going apeshít over this particular situation, but you never see any articles about when women snap pics of guys at the gym and use then as wank material (since that's what this article is truly bored about), knowing fully well that happens too. Perceived hot people are gawked and lusted over, regardless of man or woman, particularly in sweaty workout situations. People dress a certain way to get attention. They thrive with it. It's no different than clubbing outfits.
You don't ever read of a complaint where a fully stacked dude at the gym wearing a cutoff shirt gets his picture taken. You know fully well it happens though, but maybe women are more discreet about snapping that pic. If you're going to wear revealing figure-hugging or figure-revealing gear at a public gym, don't cry about it when it's the most easily preventable thing. Now when true harassment comes into play, such as when the guy offers to "help" or has the gall to actually make physical contact with the women in the pretext of help, that's unsolicited in the fullest and then he should be booted.
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I'm excited cuz the college I wanna go to has either a female only gym or female only gym times (dunno which) which eliminates the main thing keeping me from going to the gym (pervy guys).
Me and my mom used to go to the gym but we stopped, one of the reasons is cuz this type of stuff happened. A man was taking pics of my mom as she was using a machine, and another time, some guy was burning a hole into my face he was staring at me so hard while I was rebounding a medicine ball
Oh no, a woman was looking out for another woman! She must be a liar! There's no reason to make up that sort of thing and he won't be the first or last creep at a gym.
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It doesn’t matter when he took her picture the point is he did it without asking! This behavior is creepy and if you don’t think so you’re clearly part of the problem
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I see a lot of girls saying "This is why I wear baggy clothes to the gym." You shouldn't have to wear anything because of someone creepy that can't understand that a gym is a place to work out...not a tittie bar for their amusement. If you see this happening, report them and get them banned!! After word travels, the creeps will stay away and the girls can workout without worries.
Gyms really need to have, AND ENFORCE, a no phones/no cameras rule.
Except so many people use the phone for music or to follow a workout, the stopwatch feature and notes so they can read their workout, so I fear people would rebel against giving up their phones.
Load More Replies... I quit going to gyms ages ago but in the 80s and 90s some gyms used to have women-only hours. But in today's busy world I think that idea would be untenable.
For whatever reason, I can not see the actual offending video. However, I don't understand why she is crying over having her picture taken while wearing what she did to the gym. She's literally wearing JUST a bra going out at night in the 2nd photo (sorry ladies, but the fully see-thru top does NOT count). If you're begging for eyes being upon you at night wearing something 90% revealing, then have some thought into why you get ogled even at the gym. People are going apeshít over this particular situation, but you never see any articles about when women snap pics of guys at the gym and use then as wank material (since that's what this article is truly bored about), knowing fully well that happens too. Perceived hot people are gawked and lusted over, regardless of man or woman, particularly in sweaty workout situations. People dress a certain way to get attention. They thrive with it. It's no different than clubbing outfits.
You don't ever read of a complaint where a fully stacked dude at the gym wearing a cutoff shirt gets his picture taken. You know fully well it happens though, but maybe women are more discreet about snapping that pic. If you're going to wear revealing figure-hugging or figure-revealing gear at a public gym, don't cry about it when it's the most easily preventable thing. Now when true harassment comes into play, such as when the guy offers to "help" or has the gall to actually make physical contact with the women in the pretext of help, that's unsolicited in the fullest and then he should be booted.
Load More Replies... I'm excited cuz the college I wanna go to has either a female only gym or female only gym times (dunno which) which eliminates the main thing keeping me from going to the gym (pervy guys).
Me and my mom used to go to the gym but we stopped, one of the reasons is cuz this type of stuff happened. A man was taking pics of my mom as she was using a machine, and another time, some guy was burning a hole into my face he was staring at me so hard while I was rebounding a medicine ball
Oh no, a woman was looking out for another woman! She must be a liar! There's no reason to make up that sort of thing and he won't be the first or last creep at a gym.
Load More Replies... It doesn’t matter when he took her picture the point is he did it without asking! This behavior is creepy and if you don’t think so you’re clearly part of the problem
Load More Replies...
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