Fitness Influencer Says Sexualized Comments From Men Are Drowning Out Her Workout Content

A personal trainer who posts fitness content on TikTok says male followers routinely sexualize her videos and send her explicit direct messages, a pattern she says is undermining her attempt to build an audience of women.

In a video posted to her account, the creator, who goes by @jessicamccabefit, said she would restrict male access to her page entirely if the platform allowed it. She repeated the phrase “Men stay away from me” several times during the clip, in which she wore a black spaghetti strap tank top.

“If I could block every single male on my social media account, I would because I’m just sick and tired of literally posting anything,” she said. “As a personal trainer and someone who posts gym content, I’m sick and tired of posting anything and men just immediately sexualizing the h*** out of me, commenting on all my stuff, dming me the most horrific things, and just constantly engaging with my stuff. That’s pushing it to more and more men every single time. And it’s literally so frustrating.”

She said the behavior conflicts with what she considers a serious approach to training.

“I’m trying my hardest to stick it out and keep doing this, but it is literally so annoying cause it’s like if you’re genuinely like a man, especially in like the fitness industry, you’re like serious about yourself in the gym, you don’t immediately sexualize women just because of the way that they look and like if they have muscle on their body,” she said.

The trainer compared her posts to those of male lifters who share photos after a workout.

“It’s the same way you think about how me or anyone else that if they post a pump pic after their workout and then it’s not taken as something to be sexualized or as a thirst trap, it’s really just showing off what you got,” she said. “Because we work hard as h*** for the physique that we have.”

She attributed the responses she receives to broader cultural forces.

“And the only reason that anyone can’t figure this out is because they are just so messed up in the head because freaking like pornography and everything is just completely messed this world up and has made men absolutely horrible and disgusting,” she said.

Her larger concern, she said, is how the engagement affects the way her videos are distributed.

“Like, I don’t even care, like, what they have to say; it’s more of just like, you’re interacting with my stuff and it’s pushing it to more and more men, making it harder for women to find me and making it harder for me to actually do something with my social media,” she said.

“Like, I’m genuinely trying my best to create a community of women and people that wanna be educated in fitness, because I truly love what I do and I think it shows through my content. It’s constantly being overshadowed by the amount of men that comment and interact with my stuff.”

She said her comments were not directed at all of her male followers.

“Obviously this is not targeted to any of the men that genuinely support me and that are kind and like, have good things to say about me, because there is a good share of that as well, but it’s mostly and 1,000% the men that just have nothing good to say, they just comment on my body, say that this is posted because you wanted us to see your a***s,” she said.

She pointed to a recent post as an example.

“That like, no, I literally posted a video of me coaching a client actively in class. I took a video, I set my camera up, I said, hey, can I record? She goes, yeah, put it up,” she said. “And then all it is about the way that I look and all this and that and like, that’s fine, but it’s like, also not, cause it’s like, jeez, so these men like, I’m so sick of it.”

@jessicamccabefit

♬ original sound – jess