Who is Wrong in This Controversial New England Gym Issue?

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

The whole situation honestly brings up a point about a rule that no one probably ever thought would need to be considered at the gym:

Should taking pictures and videos at the gym be against the rules?

Men and Women at the Gym

It's a debate about the gym that will probably go on forever and there are multiple sides to be taken because every single side of it is true in some aspect.

There are men at the gym that act way too creepy when it comes to the women working out around them or that they make sure to work out close to because they find the woman attractive or assume that because she's in a sports bra and spandex shorts working out, she's purposely putting her body on display.

There are women at the gym who assume that because a man begins working out next to them, they're purposely getting close to them because they find them attractive and are looking for an opening to talk to them when in reality the man is simply just going to an open machine to continue his workout.

A recent video on that went viral on TikTok from a New England gym seemed to be the breaking point for social media influencer, the self-professed "CEO of Gym Positivity," Joey Swoll.

The controversy all started when the TikTok account emily_siero (which is now a private account) posted a video where, seemingly mid-workout, she showed a man at the gym who walked across the turf in the area where she was doing yoga and "threw a medicine ball three times and then left."

She wrapped up the video by sticking out her tongue while a voiceover from her said "gotta love men."

And that's where Joey Swoll stepped in with his commentary, mentioning that the woman seemed to be upset that the man in question was working out in the same area as her while doing a common exercise with his back to her, didn't try to engage her and wasn't even aware that she was taking a video of him.

Joey then went on to dissect the video before getting to his real point -- his dislike of people taking videos of other people at the gym with the purpose of posting them on social media to make fun of other gym-goers, as well as the gyms that allow it.

All before calling out the New England gym where he believes this incident happened.

So, that said, who's in the wrong? The woman who took the video, the man who worked out in the area where she was doing yoga, or Joey Swoll?