You know how sometimes, on a dark day, you worry that people in the gym locker room might be judging your body? (If this does not apply to you, you are an excellent person who has thrown of the shackles of a superficial, commercialised culture, and we salute you).
Most of us quash these thoughts by reminding ourselves that people are there to shower, not to cruise, that bodies are all different and weird and delightful in their own ways, and that anybody hanging out in a gym playing Stretchmark Police is an idiot whose good opinion is not worth earning.
And lo, here we have it! Model and Playboy Playmate of the Year 2015 Dani Mathers saw a naked woman in her gym, and decided throw all sense of the expectation of privacy, understanding of the culture of body-shaming, and human decency out the window and Snapchat a picture of her to the world. Just in case anybody wasn't quite sure why she would do such a thing, she helpfully attached a picture of her shocked face and the caption, "If I can't unsee this then you can't either".
Source: Dani Mathers
Mathers has since deleted the Snapchat, and issued the following apology:
I just wanted to acknowledge a photo that I accidentally posted here on Snapchat earlier today and let you guys know that that was absolutely wrong, and not what I meant to do. I have chosen to do what I do for a living because I love the female body and I know that body shaming is wrong and that's not what I'm about, that's not the type of person that I am. That photo was taken to be a personal conversation with a girlfriend, and because I am new to Snapchat, I really didn't realise that I had posted it and that was a huge mistake.
To be fair, Mathers does get points for actually acknowledging that this was a dick move, rather than going for the tried-and-tested, "I'm sorry this has hurt people's feelings". But there's still a few things here that rankle.
Firstly, you clearly do not know that body shaming is wrong. Or if you do, you know it's wrong in the sense that one knows double dipping isn't okay - we don't want to be caught doing it, but we figure it it goes unseen then no harm, no foul.
Yes, clearly this would have been far less humiliating had it gone unseen - but don't pretend that's not the kind of person you are. If accidentally posting a Snapchat you meant to send to has a friend has a purpose, it's this - it shows EXACTLY the kind of person you are.
More importantly, it doesn't matter if she took a picture of this woman to body-shame on Snapchat, to a friend, or just to show to her bikini waxer and ask for the same design. This really shouldn't need saying, but here we go: Don't Take Naked Pictures Of People Without Their Permission. Unless they're in the midst of perpetuating an act within the public interest on the scale of Watergate (which I think we can all agree, showering after a workout is not) then naked creepshotting is unequivocally Terrible.
And lastly - seriously, GF - using Snapchat ain't that hard.
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