Gym slammed as fatphobic after ‘sickening’ model call out went viral: ‘I don’t even want to go back to train’
- A gym has come under fire for being ‘fatphobic’
- They posted an ad looking for female models sized XS
A small detail in a gym’s advertisement looking for models to promote their new apparel range has cause a stir for being ‘fatphobic’ and lacking size inclusivity.
The gym chain posted a notice online looking for female models between a size extra small and a small.
Hundreds were up in arms by the size requirement slamming it as ‘sickening’ and unfair to gym-goers bigger than a size eight.
However not everyone was offended and pointed out models of larger sizes could already be included or casters are trying to find people who fit in sample sizes.
The gym in question has clarified the post was a ‘miscommunication’ and they were looking for models of a certain size based on the clothing their suppliers had made available to them.
An Australian gym’s notice looking for XS-S female models has divided opinion. Many thought the size requirement was ‘fatphobic’ while others leapt to the gym’s defence
‘How’s this for size inclusivity?’ one of the gym’s members wrote online with a screenshot of the flyer temporarily posted to its Instagram story.
‘We are looking for male and female eCommerce models to shoot our new apparel – Melbourne based,’ the message from the Melbourne-based gym read.
It added they were after medium-sized male models and female models who fit an XS or S.
The woman’s post quickly racked up hundreds of reactions with many sharing their outrage over the ‘sickening’ detail.
‘Yuck they actually put this on the internet,’ one woman said while another wrote: ‘I hate it here. How hard is it to just support inclusivity??’.
‘Because people still don’t like us fat people, especially gyms,’ a third replied.
‘Like people bigger than a size small don’t wear gym clothes?????’ added a fourth.
Many came to the defence of the fitness brand and didn’t see any issue with wanting smaller-sized models.
‘I’m a chunky girl and honestly this isn’t that serious or offensive. More important things to worry about!’ one woman responded.
‘It’s really not that deep, they are probably modelling sample sizes,’ a second agreed.
‘This could be for a lot of reasons, if it’s merch sampling they may have only been sent those sizes or they may have already photographed other sizes already,’ a third explained.
‘It’s also a gym so they’re gonna wanna be promoting ‘fitter’ people more than likely.’
Sample sizes refers to clothing sent out by brands and designers for press, modelling and PR purposes.
They are normally made in small sizes supposedly to save money on fabric but have been criticised for not representing average body types.
Those angered by the gym’s post were not convinced by the defenders’ excuses with one saying: ‘The fact there are so many ‘what ifs!’ Instead of just supporting body inclusivity is mind boggling to me’.
The gym has been accused of not supporting diversity (stock image)
‘I’m gonna need a follow up when they post photos from their model call because the amount of people in here assuming they’ve already shot larger sizes are sweet, but most likely wrong,’ wrote a second.
A spokesperson representing the gym said the post was a ‘miscommunication’ and did not intend to exclude anyone or insinuate negative stereotypes.
They said they had only received items in extra small and small in the yet-to-be-released clothing range from their supplier despite requesting a range of sizes.
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