Weighty topics

In security camera footage that went rapidly viral, a young woman interrupts her workout to let in a fellow gym-goer gesturing at the door, who appears to have forgotten his keycard.

Within seconds, he is chasing her around the deserted gym, violently attacking her and ultimately pinning her to the ground. Impressively, the young bodybuilder,  around half his height, gets him in a chokehold long enough to dial 911 into her phone.

It is many women's worst nightmare. And whilst this incident was extreme, many women say harassmentUnwanted attention that makes someone feel scared or upset. or sexism in gyms happens all too often. In a new TikTok trend, female gym-goers are highlighting the harassment they experience at the gym with a new hashtag - #GymCreep - which has gained hundreds of millions of views.

It should be an uncontroversial movement. Everybody wants the gym to be a safe space, and the evidence that it is frequently not seems clear: a 2021 survey claimed that 56% of women had faced harassment during their workouts.

But the clips, which are mostly filmed in public gyms, have attracted a lot of critics. Many say that it is unethical to film strangers without their consent, especially as their faces are rarely blurred before the videos are uploaded.

Others have said that many of these videos do not even show harassment. Several female content creators were forced to leave the platform after coming under fire for uploading videos of men merely glancing at them or walking past as they worked out, dubbing them "creeps" and "predators".

Some male content creators have gained millions of followers by critiquing the trend. Fitness influencer Joey Swoll has built an impressive following of 6.5 million people by criticising #gymcreep video-makers whose claims he sees as unconvincing. The women whose videos he targets often become subject to an abusive online pile-on.

It is a common TikTok irony. Many fear that women stand to gain social capitalThe value and benefits of forming social relationships and networks. from falsely accusing men of harassment online. In reality, critics say, it is the men criticising the movement that have built profitable careers from it.

It has caused a huge online furoreAn excited or angry reaction. It was originally an Italian word meaning "rage" or "madness".. Some are even advocating for the return of gender-segregated gyms. But others say all we need is to be more critical of the information we consume online. A whole movement should not be dismissed because of a few bad examples.

Yes: Clearly, these male influencers are trying to discreditShow that something or someone is untrustworthy or unbelievable. women's stories of harassment. They are highlighting videos where the harassment is more doubtful in order to imply that all women's claims are false.

No: It is not men trivialisingMaking something seem unimportant or silly. the argument, but the women who have made these videos. You should understand that making false claims against strangers is serious, and also that it trivialises the stories of people who have really experienced sexual misconduct in public.

Or... Clearly, both groups are at fault. But we should keep in mind that the victims here are the women who are suffering very real and targeted harassment in gyms, whose stories are now being discredited because of a few outliersExamples that are different to other things in the group, such as differing behaviour, beliefs, or religious practices. Outliers cannot be used to draw a conclusion about a group. .