A Professional Bodybuilder Is Being Absolutely Savaged After Fat-Shaming A Woman At The Gym

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past couple of months, it’s that it’s no longer to roll into the gym, have yourself a workout, and then mercilessly mock someone whose body you don’t like all over social media. That s*it has consequences, and as bodybuilder Diana Andrews has recently learned, fat-shaming people is no longer a chill thing to do. In fact, making fun of someone who’s just trying to better themselves through exercise? That’s going to cost you thousands of followers and a whole bunch of (well-deserved?) public ridicule.

The story is this: Earlier this month, Andrews went to the gym where she saw something that made her blood boil. No, it wasn’t someone not wiping down a machine after using it — the worst sin, even though paper towels soaked in anti-bacterial soap probably do nothing — or a gym bunny hogging three machines at one time. Instead, what Andrews saw was a woman using her phone while on the treadmill. Her phone. Is it rude and annoying to be chatting at the gym? Sure. Should you invite the person to stop or get a personal trainer involved in your dispute? If you feel like it. But you know what you shouldn’t do? Take pictures of the person, insinuate that they’re busy ordering multiple burgers to eat after their workout (which sounds delicious, so whatever) and then post a series of Instas that include shots of your victim’s backside and the words “love handles” happily emblazoned upon the image.

Guess which thing Andrews did. You’re right:

We don’t know what response Andrews was hoping for but what she got was anything but praise and gratitude. In fact, people came out in droves to make it clear that people like Andrews are exactly the reason that so many people who need to be at the gym aren’t.

https://twitter.com/rubyabriella_x/status/840195087434944512
https://twitter.com/swolesistah/status/841660416749051904
https://twitter.com/rrojas913_rose/status/841909555613298688
https://twitter.com/faded_converse/status/841866402956992513

Of course, there were other people who chose to attack Andrews for her looks. Their contributions, of course, were more proof that two wrongs don’t make a right. Was what Andrews did terrible? Absolutely. But supporting one woman (who’s already been torn down) by tearing down another seems like a really inappropriate way to deal with the issue of how terrible it is to be publicly shamed for your looks and weight.

Once Andrews began going viral — you can imagine her fear as her notifications began blowing up — she quickly launched into action, offering fans and critics a classic semi-apology and then taking her accounts private as she began receiving more and more backlash for her actions.

Here’s Andrews’ apology, which was criticized due to the fact that it was an “explanation” versus a very much needed mea culpa and once again tried to take the pressure off the bodybuilder instead of recognizing what she did was wrong:

https://twitter.com/faded_converse/status/841861956470489088

Yo, if you made fun of someone’s body because they were “on the phone” (weak excuse), here’s some news for you: It’s exactly who you are. Because you did it! And then you completely misunderstood why people were upset that someone in a position of social influence would just do something like that.

One person even fixed a version of the apology that Andrews posted on Instagram to help her understand why what she wrote wasn’t working:

That could have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. This is the internet, things get drilled into the ground! Now even Andrews’ trainer, Eddie Abbew, a professional bodybuilder, has taken a stance on her behavior, condemning her social media posts as against his ethos and telling The Sun that the way Andrews conducted herself was against the moral code of both of his entire team. “It’s the exact opposite of what we believe in,” he said.

The reality is that what Andrews did really sucks. And if nothing else it should serve as a reminder that social media is a part of real life, that other people have the right not to be photographed and shamed in public, and that we should all be kinder to each other. Fair?

(Via Some E-Cards)