Playmate Dani Mathers pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor of invasion of privacy on Wednesday for a Snapchat she posted of a naked woman at the gym last July.
According to the Washington Post, Mathers—who won Playboy’s “CyberGirl of the Month” in January 2013, “Playmate of the Month” in May 2013, and “Playmate of the Year” in 2015—secretly photographed a naked 71-year-old woman in an LA Fitness locker room and posted it to Snapchat with the caption: “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.”
Seriously? You love empowering women? Does this look like empowerment? GIRL. Just stop. pic.twitter.com/BglwhW7lIP
— Bonnie Reynolds (@bonniereynolds) July 14, 2016
Her actions not only violated the gym’s privacy policy, but also contradicted the notion of women’s empowerment that typically accompanies a career in nude modeling. Critics quickly decried Mathers’ post on social media and accused her of body-shaming. One Twitter user wrote, “#DaniMathers is the kind of ugly Photoshop can’t fix.”
#DaniMathers is the kind of ugly Photoshop can’t fix.
— Suriname Choad (@brianparra) July 15, 2016
The 30-year-old model faced criminal charges last fall, including up to six months of jail time and a $1,000 fine, to which she initially pleaded not guilty. On Wednesday, a judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court sentenced her to 30 days of scrubbing graffiti around the city and three years’ probation.
Since learning about the incident, LA Fitness has also banned Mathers from all 800 of its locations and reported her actions to the police. California law prohibits the use of a camera in private places “with the intent to invade the privacy of a person,” as well as the distribution of a person’s “intimate body part or parts” without their consent.
The woman in the photograph was “mortified” to learn about the post.
“The issues that surround body shaming can be devastating—not only to daughters and mothers, but also to sons and fathers, members of the LGBTQ community, to a trans kid who might be struggling with identity, to people who are disabled,” wrote Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, who handled the case. “The message today is clear: Body shaming is not tolerated in the City of Los Angeles.”
Mathers apologized for the post, claiming she meant to send it privately to a friend, and deleted her social media accounts for several months.
“I know that body shaming is wrong,” she said. “That is not the type of person I am.”
