Singapore – A woman working out in a gym spotted a man looking in her direction and jumped to the conclusion that he was ogling her.
So she videod him, and included the telling hashtag “#gymcreeps” in her caption which clearly expressed her disdain for her fellow gym user, then posted the video to TikTok.
In fact, the man was actually watching the comedian Mr Bean’s show, on the TV set positioned above the aggrieved TikToker who goes by the name Michelle Lim (@michxlim).
Very quickly, Ms Lim found herself under fire for posting that video on Wednesday (Jan 19). She said had positioned her camera in the direction of the man “to confirm her suspicions.”
Her caption also criticised the man’s workout routine. “Exercise:10 sets of staring at girls in the gym”. Ouch.
As the video continued, she reminded other gym users to “sanitise before using the machine” after capturing the man touching his nose on one occasion.
“Watch how he slowly checks out the girl,” said Ms Lim in her caption as the man paced back and forth before stopping to look once more in her direction.
In response to the video, an anonymous TikTok account under the handle @dontanyhowrecord uploaded a post to clarify what happened.
“The person ‘staring’ at you was watching Mr Bean,” said the TikTok user, attaching an image taken from the viewpoint of the man.
After turning off commenting on her original video and eventually taking it down, Ms Lim uploaded a statement on Jan 20 to apologise for the potential harm her video might have caused to the man.
“I remember feeling uncomfortable while doing my walking lunges as we made eye contact frequently,” she said in a bid to explain her actions. She decided to film the man’s actions as “she felt unsafe at that time”.
Ms Lim said she had left the gym shortly after shooting the video and it did not cross her mind to approach the man or the gym staff about her discomfort.
“While I was editing the video, I just wanted to get my point across that everyone should feel safe at a public space that is commonly dominated by the males. And females should be free to choose their outfits based on their likes and preferences and shouldn’t be judged for it. That’s all,” she added.
She said she was fully aware of the consequences and “should have handled the situation better” as she had no concrete evidence to prove that the man was actually staring at her.
She apologised and asked him to reach out to her so she could apologise in person.
@michxlim Pause to read.
@dontanyhowrecord also responded to Ms Lim’s apology and agreed with her point that gyms and other public spaces should be safe for women.
“I understand that you felt uncomfortable, but discreetly filming the person and posting online with no attempt to confirm the situation wasn’t right,” said the user, adding that the gym staff could handle such situations.
“Please understand your actions caused an extremely negative impact to the person in the video. I hope this incident has brought more awareness to everyone on the need to be mindful and sensitive of each other in public spaces,” the user added./TISG
@dontanyhowrecord My response to @michxlim #fyp #gym #Singapore #genderequality