Woman forced to speak out after attempt to shame man at gym for being 'weirdo' backfires
"When I first posted the video I felt I was completely in the right."
A woman has taken to social media to reflect after being called out by social media users for trying to catch a 'weirdo' out at the gym.
Now, there have been - and sadly, will continue to be - many instances at gyms where someone acts a bit creepily or invades your personal space.
However, blame should ultimately only be doled out where it's due, and in this instance, many people online believed TikToker Jessica Fernandez was actually in the wrong when she called out another gym-goer.
Catch the incident here:
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Fernandez took to her social media page to accuse another gym-goer of 'staring' at her from behind as she worked out.
The since-deleted video - captioned 'This is how to not approach girls in the gym' - shows Fernandez squatting on the floor, getting ready to do some weighted hip thrusts.
In the background, you can see a man glance over - a look which is met with utter disdain by the TikToker, who whispers into her microphone: "Stupid piece of f**king s**t. Hate this, hate this, I hate this, I hate when there's weirdos."
The whispering rant continues, alongside a 'stare counter' which tallies up the number of times the man looks over at her, Fernandez ultimately branding the man 'feral'.
However, not everyone agreed with the TikToker's video trying to exemplify 'what women mean by staring at them like a piece of meat'.
The video quickly went viral, picked up on not just by other TikTokers, but by other fitness influencers and Redditors too.
A Redditor named u/AberrantDeliverance re-shared the video to the thread r/IAmTheMainCharacter, writing: "Girl calls a dude a f**king piece of s**t for looking at her general direction when she is working out in front of him."
As Fernandez's video continues, it shows the man actually come over and offer to help her get a weight on her bar. The TikToker declines and the man returns to his area of the gym.
Fellow fitness influencer and TikToker Joey Swoll even weighed in on the incident, writing: "Women are harassed in gyms and it needs to stop, but you are not one of them. An act of kindness or a glance does not make you a victim."
And Fernandez has since responded to the online backlash she's faced for the clip.
Taking to her X - formerly known as Twitter - in a since-deleted post titled 'My Gross Mistake: Addressing The Gym Video,' the influencer admitted she 'blew [the] interaction out of proportion'.
She says: "He didn't do anything wrong to me. [...] I know many people think that I'm only apologising because I got called out from the video I posted and this is half right.
"If I wasn’t called out for this video I wouldn’t have had the chance to learn from this mistake or even realise I made a mistake to begin with."
Despite initially posting the video thinking she was 'completely in the right,' believing it would be relatable to her 'female audience,' the 'thousands of comments' Fernandez's since read in response to her video have 'truly opened [her] eyes to how damaging this could have been' for the man in the clip.
While noting she's been sexually abused and harassed in the past, which she thinks contributed to her reacting in 'the worst way possible,' Fernandez resolves it's not 'an excuse of justification'.
She says: "I don't want to, and will never, hurt anyone ever again in this way."
Topics: Sport, Viral, TikTok, Social Media, Mental Health
Poppy Bilderbeck