A British strength coach faced criticism online after filming herself working out at a popular Bali gym and complaining that the men around her were “intentionally” ignoring her.
Danica Kennedy, 37, a British fitness and breath work coach based in the digital nomad hub of Canggu, shared a clip on TikTok doing an unusual mobility exercise.
In the clip, she’s bent over in a deep stretch, balancing on the tips of her toes – a move she called “opening her toes”.
She captioned the footage: “POV: you’re just trying to open your toes but the gym bros are confused.”
Kennedy also added on-screen text that said “flabbergasted” and “side-eyes,” referring to three men working out in the background who gave her brief looks before returning to their routines.
But she seemed to take issue with the fact that they weren’t giving her more attention.
‘So bitchy’
Instead of thinking the men were simply focused on their own training, Kennedy explained in the comments that she believed the lack of attention was a deliberate act to make her feel uncomfortable.
When one commenter pointed out that no one was looking at her, she replied, “That’s my point. Trying too hard not to look. I could feel the awkwardness”.
She later added, “Get me out of Canggu, the men are so bitchy”.
Video blows up
The clip quickly went viral for the wrong reasons, catching the attention of Joey Swoll, an American content creator known for criticizing “toxic” gym culture.
Swoll called the clip “absolutely ridiculous”.
“She seems irritated because she thinks what she’s doing is so impressive everyone in the gym should be watching, to the point where she claims they were trying so hard not to look,” he said.
Man in background speaks out
One of the men in the background of the clip was Australian calisthenics coach Matt Butterworth.
Speaking to news.com.au, he said he was surprised to find himself at the center of the controversy as he was simply “minding his business”.
“My immediate reaction was that I just thought I was in the background of a video. Someone sent it to me like, ‘Oh, that’s you.’ I thought, ‘Oh, cool,’” he said.
“And then I looked at the caption, and I was like, ‘Wait, she’s calling me out here.’ It was really strange. I thought she was maybe just confused, so I commented on the video saying, ‘That was me, definitely wasn’t side-eyeing, I was just in my own head. Good luck with the training.’”
But the woman responded to Butterworth, claiming he was making her feel uncomfortable by intentionally not looking at her.
“You were clearly going out of your way to not look my way. We women pick up on everything,” Kennedy replied.
Butterworth responded: “I’m sorry, but the level of entitlement here and reaching is a bit much.”
‘Toxic’
Mr Butterworth explained that he was at the gym between work calls and was “completely in his own world” and not trying to make her feel uncomfortable.
He criticised the “fabricated” nature of social media content that depends on creating fake conflict for views.
“I think the biggest issue at the moment is that people will just post stuff online, clearly knowing that it’s not the case, but they’ll just create a scenario just purely to go viral,” he said.
“I think a lot of people are probably fed up with the filming culture. It can be ridiculously toxic.”
Gym etiquette
As a coach who also creates content, Mr Butterworth said there’s a basic level of etiquette that was overlooked in this case.
“If I’m going to be filming and I know people are in the background, I would just be like, ‘Sorry guys, I’m just filming there, is that all good?’ You’ve just got to have some consideration for the people around you,” he said.
Kennedy has since deleted the video following the backlash.
News.com.au has reached out to her for comment.
