A California influencer who was ripped at the gym for wearing body paint on her legs has claimed that she is a victim of societal double standards.
A video of the confrontation with fellow gym-goers, the New York Post reports, currently boasts 32 million views on X, formerly Twitter.
“Guy in the gym presses me for wearing painted pants,” Natalie Reynolds, who is a fixture on the video game streaming platform Kick, wrote in the caption of the clip, taken on December 27.
The footage showed the 25-year-old, who also boasts 2.4 million TikTok followers, walking through an undisclosed weight room while decked out in painted-on tights – which reportedly took her five to six hours to apply.
Reynolds’ fashion statement attracted the attention of a fellow gym-goer, who labelled her choice of workout wear “inappropriate”.
“If you don’t have clothes on, you need to be out of here, ma’am,” he said.
“I do have clothes on,” Reynolds responded, approaching him so he could inspect her leggings.
The man concluded that her attire was “not fine”. “I’ve worked in the industry long enough to know. I work in the entertainment field,” he told her.
At that point, Reynolds’ friends backed her up, claiming that “she’s covered”.
The clip ended with the man telling her she’s also not supposed to “videotape” inside the gym, before walking away.
Reynolds’ clip didn’t seem to elicit the sympathy she desired, with the majority of social media users agreeing that her gym wear was inappropriate.
“That dude was 100 per cent right,” one wrote. “He called out your degenerative behaviour and you played victim.
Another said: “This is indecent exposure.”
“Did you really think we would take your side,” a third said.
Reynolds’ argument also rang hollow with X’s Community Notes, which adds context to “potentially misleading” posts on the platform.
“The main in the view is protecting the overall gym etiquette according to which you should wear clothes suitable for exercise,” it read, citing a Healthline article.
“Wearing unsuitable clothes or none at all is considered to be disrespectful towards the other (sic). It is also a hygiene risk to others.”
Despite the criticism, Reynolds doubled down on her position.
“I was wearing a sports gym workout bra and a bathing suit bottom … why [is] everyone acting like I was naked lmao,” she insisted in a follow-up post on X.
“The amount of women who wear pants up the (arse) at the gym … This is nothing bad at all.”
In further follow-up posts, Reynolds suggested that society has a double standard when it comes to clothing, referencing scantily-clad male bodybuilders and male YouTubers working out in similar attire to her with seemingly no backlash.
She argued that if it was a real issue, the gym would’ve kicked her out instead of allowing her inside to film.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission