Right-wingers online are calling for a boycott of the gym franchise Planet Fitness over its policy that permits members to use the locker room that best aligns with “their sincere, self-reported gender identity.”
The backlash started after gymgoer Patricia Silva posted a photo from a Planet Fitness locker room in Alaska, explaining in the caption that she “Walked in the bathroom, and there stands a MAN shaving.”
Silva was later informed that her membership had been canceled. Planet Fitness said in a statement the decision was made due to her violating the gym’s policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room.
“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity,” a gym spokesperson said. “The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”
The incident was amplified by the right-wing account Libs of TikTok, who commented in a follow-up post about the gym chain: “They make a mockery of women. It’s a joke to them. WOMEN ARE NOT SAFE AT PLANET FITNESS!! Their own policies even proudly state that men can use the women’s locker rooms.”
Since Silva first posted to her account on March 12, Planet Fitness stock has dropped 7.5%—a dip that several conservatives are attributing to the boycott. The gym chain’s market valuation in total dropped from $5.3 billion to $4.9 billion, according to Fox Business.
“Planet Fitness already lost $400 MILLION in market value in the last 5 days,” wrote the account End Wokeness, along with the hashtag “BoycottPlanetFitness. “I guess forcing women to share their locker rooms with hairy men was not the greatest business model. Keep this going.”
Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier wrote on Thursday that he “personally would like to see Planet Fitness lose $1,000,000,000+ in revenue over this.” Fournier previously called on his followers to “cancel your memberships and not support a gym that does not support you.”
“We the people have the power,” echoed Riley Gaines, the former competitive swimmer known for her opposition to transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. “Cancel your #PlanetFitness memberships. I cancelled mine yesterday. Their gym sucks anyways.”
Another conservative user weighed in on the price drop, writing: “Planet Fitness paying the price on the stock market. I am in a stock watch group and it is heartwarming to see how men are standing by women and denouncing this fetish-driven cultish ideology with their wallets.”
“Go woke, go broke,” quipped another user of the valuation drop.
Some critics, however, have put Libs of TikTok’s decision to amplify the original photo from the incident on blast.
“This is an egregious breach of privacy and potentially illegal,” wrote an LGBTQ+ researcher and activist. “How can you claim to be protecting women while actively posting pictures from a locker room?”
“How does that not violate the rules on this site?” agreed someone else.
But the boycott effort—and amplification of the locker room image—nonetheless appears unlikely to let up anytime soon.
The boycott follows numerous others from conservatives, including those targeting the beer company Bud Light as well as Black Rifle Coffee.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
