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, who looks to be 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 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 is incontrovertibleNot able to be denied or disputed.: 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".

In parallel, some male content creators have amassed millions of followers by critiquing the trend. Fitness influencer Joey Swoll has built an impressive following of 6.5 million people by berating #gymcreep video-makers whose claims he sees as dubiousQuestionable. It derives from the Latin word for doubt.. The women whose videos he targets often become subject to an abusive online pile-on, and are forced to leave the platform.

Such ironies are a staple on TikTok. Many fear that women stand to gain social capital from falsely accusing men of harassment online. In reality, critics say, it is the men criticising the movement that have built profitable careers, whilst many female gym-goers feel afraid that their experiences will be dismissed.

After all, rage attracts views. The movement has been caricatured by influencers who have cherry-picked its most ludicrousAbsurd or ridiculous. Ludicrous originally meant to play or jest, from the Latin ludus: play, sport. examples and sent them viral, over the hundreds of thousands of legitimate claims.

Many are advocating for the return of gender-segregated gyms. But for others, this would signal a great step backwards. Co-ed gyms only became the norm in the 1980s, and back then they were seen as a symbol of women's full inclusion in the sporting world after being excluded for much of history.¹

But what other solution can be found? Some think we need to practise better media literacy - understanding that a whole movement cannot be represented by a few red herringsA clue or piece of information that turns out to be misleading. .

Others think we should turn a scrutinising eye to those who have profited from this movement. Those who stand to gain a lot from your attention may not always be the ones to listen to.

Yes: Clearly, these male influencers are trying to discredit 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 trivialising 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. .