Men objectifying young woman exercising at Planet Fitness lose membership thanks to viral video
The world is not a safe place for women. Violence, abuse and harassment are somehow the halpmark of a woman's life, whether it is in their own homes or when they are walking down the street or in a public space. This time around, a man got to witness the crude way in which men objectify women even when they are doing the most mundane of tasks - working out in a gym. A TikTok user named Charlie Banga took to the site to share a viral video of two men commenting on a woman’s body and smell as she exercised at a Planet Fitness in Florida. Later on, the TikToker also confronted the men with the video of their conversation, and needless to say, their reaction is not all that surprising to women.
Banga, who goes by the user name @charliebanga on TikTok, posted the video on May 24, 2021. In it, he discussed his interaction with the men and played a clip of their conversation. The video now has more than 1.8 million views
In the video posted by Banga, the two middle-aged men are in the middle of a conversation about women's bodies. One of them is seated across the table from Banga while the other can be seen standing. Both the men are looking at a young woman running on a treadmill in front of them. They discuss how they saw her outside and her smell.
"Girl’s perfume, man," the man sitting across Banga can beheard saying. To which the other says, "Ripe for the picking".
"The smell of a woman walking by you…" the first man responds. "I was in prison for three years; all I smelled was dirty ass men. A girl guard walked by, you were like, ‘Oh my god.’" The clip then cuts off as the other man begins another anecdote about a vacation.
Then comes the confrontation.
Banga tells the camera directly that he usually minds his own business when he goes to the gym, but this time, he had to take matters in his hands.
"I guess these men felt like they could speak freely around me, say whatever was on they mind," he said. "And at first, I wasn’t even listening to them, but then they started saying some wild shit, you feel me? So I started recording them."
Banga then proceeded to show the men the recording - to show them what they look like, how they sound when objectifying a woman.
"After I finished recording, you know what I’m saying, I played it out loud so they could hear it. I was like, ‘Y’all are nasty as fuck, man,’" he said. "I got mad, because she didn’t even know what was going on, you feel me? And I just knew that was some fucked-up shit."
So how did the men react?
Many people watching the videos had a similar doubt. Banga described their responses in a comment, saying, "They were looking all scared and dumbfounded, couldn’t even say shit bc they knew they were dead wrong smh." Banga added that he didn’t tell the woman what had happened behind her back because he didn’t want her to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable.
But thank god for small victories as Banga says he did manage to get the two middle-aged men to leave the gym.
"I was like, 'Man, y’all better move the fuck from around here, and if I see y’all doing that shit again, I’m going to smack the shit out ya, straight up,'" Charlie says in the TikTok. "I don’t care if I go to jail. I don’t care if you tell, because y’all are in the wrong."
As per a report in Daily Dot, director of public relations for Planet Fitness Becky Zirlen said that the franchise owner had revoked the men’s memberships. "As home of the Judgement Free Zone, the safety and privacy of our members and employees is our top priority, and we take this incident extremely seriously," Zirlen said.