Kara Kennedy

The toxic women of gym TikTok

Who's the real victim in their viral videos?

  • From Spectator Life
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The hashtag ‘gym creep’ now has more than 37.3 million views on TikTok. Honestly, I’ve watched hundreds of these videos and the only weird behaviour I can spot in any of the clips is from the women recording the unsuspecting men while they work out. ‘Watch this creep,’ the lady will say as a confused male just happens to glance at the camera that’s been shoved in front of him. Scandalous!

Gina Love is one of these women. The TikTokker, whose feed mainly consists of her trying on different shades of lipgloss, went viral after posting a video of her doing deadlifts, supposedly catching out one of these so-called #gymcreeps. ‘Watch this creep come over to my personal bubble while doing Romanian deadlifts,’ Love wrote. She added: ‘The gym was practically empty, and so many corners to be in and he chose this one.’ The Guardian wrote that ‘in the clip, the man stands directly behind Love as she lifts dumbbells before deciding to leave’.

Perhaps I’m naive, but in this clip all I can see is a man working out five feet away from somebody else. How big does Love need her personal bubble to be? The space between them is bigger than my flat. If he is looking at her, which we can’t see, as his face has been conveniently covered by the creator of the video, it’s probably because she’s decided to film him during a sweaty workout without his consent. But like everything on TikTok, the trend of filming unsuspecting gym bros has caught on quickly. In the court of public opinion this man is now a creepy predator, and the accuser gained a large following because of it.

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