Gold’s Gym Posts, Then Apologizes for, Body-Shaming Meme
Do you like your body shaming with a side of bizarre fruit analogies? Then you’ll love Gold’s Gym’s latest social media faux pas. One of the franchise’s locations enraged customers when it shared a picture of a pear, alongside the caption “This is no shape for a girl,” on its Facebook page.
The post, from a Gold’s Gym located at the Hilton Dreamland in Egypt, has already garnered 3,900 reactions, mostly from people pointing out that yes, a pear shape is actually a perfectly acceptable shape for a woman and that to claim otherwise is body shaming.
Said one commenter in response to the photo: “Actually, it’s the most common body shape for female bodies. Y'all need a new marketing team.” Another comment reads, “Actually, it is. Now give me one good reason why I should go to a gym that bullies girls, instead of gyms that actually encourage me to workout.”
Related: Woman Mocked for Using Gym to Lose Weight, Tells Bullies Where to Shove It
Gold’s later came back with this bizarre apology that kind of reads as if it were written by a Nigerian scammer:
“our apology, this post was not meant to offend anyone, and not against god’s creation, or any type of women’s body, it was meant to refer to a Healthy Fit body and cutting fats, NOT THE ACTUAL STRUCTURE OF THE BODY.
So Again our Apology. for all the women out there.”
The non-apology apology only garnered more outrage, with comments like “Bulls***. Pear shape isn’t unhealthy or unfit. It’s simply a shape. Width of hips, width of shoulders, etc. If you’re going to apologize, at least own it.”
Related: Outraged Citizens Say This Gym’s Campaign Is Fat Shaming
It doesn’t help that a quick scan of the Gold’s Gym Facebook feed reveals several other fat-shaming memes like one that shows a woman’s body cropped down to the face alongside the words “What You Leave Out Of Messenger, Put It Into Gold’s Gym.”
The Internet struck back by doing some admirable trolling on several of the older memes. On an image of a thin woman attempting to bust out of a larger silhouette, reading “Challenge yourself,” one woman responded: “I did challenge myself and ate the last thin person who tried to tell me a thin person was inside me.”
Another comment reads, “I challenged myself but couldn’t do it. I tried and tried and tried but just couldn’t manage to swallow a woman whole :( Help me Gold’s Gym!”
Related: London Mayor’s First Order of Business? Ban Body-Shaming Advertisements
Let’s hope the sweeping response will be a reminder to the fitness industry as a whole that women don’t want to be marketed to with negativity and shaming, and that the first step to taking care of your body is loving it.
As one commenter put it: “You know, I think it was good you shared that picture. Because now women everywhere know what kind of philosophy your gym has and they can avoid it.”
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