Sexist guy asks woman at gym to wear a bra 'so other people wouldn't get uncomfortable'

For many women across the world, one thin silver lining of these pandemic times has been the opportunity to finally liberate themselves from the constant crushing constraints of bras. For over a year, those exorbitantly priced dainty brassières and maximum support sports bras lay forgotten in dark corners of their wardrobes along with any piece of clothing that didn't qualify as sweatpants or pajamas. The experience has been so life-changing that many women have sworn not to go back to the "necessary evil" of wearing bras. One of them is 25-year-old Reddit user Far-Experience2070, who admits that they "fu**ing hate wearing bras."

In a recent r/AmItheAsshole post, the Redditor explained that aside from not wanting to, they also don't really need to wear a bra. "They're uncomfortable, constricting, and expensive. With work from home, I spent the last year and a half basically never wearing a bra and got used to it. Quite frankly, my boobs are nonexistent anyways," Far-Experience2070 wrote, adding that they've started working out braless since going back to the gym recently. "I should note that up until now, no one has ever pointed out anything wrong with me not wearing a bra," they clarified.

All was going well for the poster until an annoying gym dude—there's always one, isn't there?—felt the need to step into their personal space and school them about why they should wear a bra. "In the middle of a set of squats (yes, MID SQUAT), a guy comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder to get my attention, and tells me that my nipples are poking through my shirt. I get really irritated because why [the f**k] is this guy staring at my nipples in the first place and then stopping me mid-set to inform me?" the Redditor wrote.

The encounter only got worse from there. "I get really annoyed, try to finish my set, but then this fu**er literally grabs the bar, as I ascend and re-racks it for me. He claimed it looked like I was having trouble with the last rep, and that he had come over to make sure I could do it, then noticed my nipples," Far-Experience2070 recounted. "I'm really fu**ing pissed off at this point and told him I didn't need his help finishing my set and why the f**k was he looking at my chest in the first place?? He said he was going to spot me, but then noticed my chest and thought it'd be inappropriate."

"I pointed out that the safety bar was set, so even if I did fail the set, he wasn't needed. But he just insisted people at gyms look out for each other, and that going forward, I should probably wear a bra so other people wouldn't get uncomfortable and that it may help me stay more balanced in my squats," they revealed. "I'm literally the only girl at the weights section of the gym at the moment, and other guys who were squatting and failed sets never have to worry about this shit. I've seen guys fail multiple sets in a row and no one ever rushes to their aid, but I have a very slight pause, and everyone thinks I need rescuing. So I'm now really annoyed and also kind of uncomfortable that this guy I've never spoken to in my life thinks he's helping me and then has the audacity to tell me how to dress."

The Redditor hit back with a scathing response. "You have bigger boobs and nipples than I do. Maybe YOU should wear a bra so people won't get uncomfortable and you won't fail your squats," they told the man, who immediately got defensive and called her a b**ch. While the man clearly had it coming, the Redditor wondered if they'd gone a step too far in calling him out like that. However, fellow Redditors — especially women — immediately came to their support and assured them that they'd done the right thing.

"Report it to your gym, he had no right to comment on your body at all, and no right to try and assert his 'help' onto you, if he can't control himself from staring at another person's body then he shouldn't be at a place where he's going to encounter all manner of bodies," commented u/sph1nxa. "As someone with boobs, sometimes your nips show through a PADDED bra. I’ve never worn a sports bra that didn’t headlight people pretty much the entire time I had it on. His argument doesn’t even make sense if you know boobs work," pointed out u/teyyannn.