This Woman Was Kicked Out of the Gym for Wearing a Tank Top

A tank top on a curvy woman is still a tank top. (Photo: Getty Images)

Body-shaming is never okay, but when it happens in an establishment that’s supposed to encourage a strong body image — well, that’s just really wrong. Rose Nickels, a woman from Ottawa, Canada, says that this is exactly what happened to her at her local gym, the Movati Athletic Club in Orleans, Ontario.

Nickels took to Facebook to share the experience, saying that staff members at the gym publicly shamed her for the size of her chest. “I was instructed by a supervisor at the club that my tank top was inappropriate dress and is offensive to both the staff and other members,” she says. Here’s what her outfit actually looked like:

(Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/Rose Nickels)

(Image courtesy of Facebook/Rose Nickels)

After observing other women at the athletic club on her way out (and asking whether her attire offended them — they said “no”) Nickels pointed out to the staff that her top was no different than the tops of other women working out there. Instead of agreeing, they informed her that “it did not matter,” and said that due to her chest size, she could not wear a tank top in their gym.

Unfortunately, these instances of obvious body-shaming are more frequent that they should be. Body-shaming pregnant women has been running rampant thanks to Internet trolls, who say celebrity moms-to-be like Victoria’s Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel are “too skinny” to be healthy, while other celebrity moms like, Blac Chyna, are called “huge” and “gross” — because telling women the natural way their bodies are is appropriate.

Even Instagram fitness models like Sjana Earp have been body-shamed — she was called too skinny — which caued her to lash out at her critics in a post that said, “I simply block any user and delete their comments if they are critical of me OR anyone else OR if they swear because I want this space (my profile) to be a place of love, empowerment and posivity… [sic] Not judgment and criticism.”

It seems that no matter what your body type is, you’re constantly at risk of being body-shamed.

Nickels said it best: “Different figures does not mean different rules.” Discrimination like this against a woman’s natural body shape in any establishment is absolutely ridiculous and shouldn’t be tolerated by anyone, no matter what.

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