Picture yourself at the gym, going through your regular workout routine, when you catch sight of a woman across the room. You can't seem to look away, until she becomes fed up and approaches you to ask you to stop. It may seem like you're in the wrong. However, there's a twist: what if you were actually blind this whole time?
It's not unusual for men to stare at women at the gym, which can lead women to believe that any man who happens to glance their way is being creepy. This assumption isn't always fair, as shown in a recent Reddit post where a blind man shared his own experience of being misjudged.
The now-viral post caused a stir online after a blind man shared his experience of being wrongly accused of staring at a woman in the gym, describing how he had to show his ID card from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind to prove he wasn’t staring at her.
The video captioned “...to be BLIND” brings attention to only one struggle that blind people may face when working out at the gym – simply trying to work out and maintain their fitness can provoke negative reactions from other gym members.
“I’m blind,” the man starts the video by stating.
He says that he was at the gym one time and was just standing there doing tricep pushdown exercises.
And since he can't see, he just kind of stares off into space while doing his thing at the gym. Even sighted people have moments of staring off into space at the gym – it's perfectly normal.
Then, halfway through a set, he started hearing footsteps that seemed like they were coming in his direction, “getting closer and closer and closer.'"
He then learned who was getting closer to him when all of a sudden, one woman was right up in his face and seemed upset as she said, “I didn’t come here to be stared at!”
The guy was like “Huh!” as he couldn't even see the woman, let alone stare at her.
“I’m sorry, I’m blind,” he told her, as any person in his situation would have responded.
Despite his explanation that he was unable to see or stare at her, she kept saying “stop staring at me!”
The woman then stormed off and returned with the manager a few minutes later to address the issue of a blind man “staring” at her.
To explain himself to the manager, he had to reach into his wallet and pull out an ID card from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, and then say, “I’m blind, I wasn’t staring at anybody.”
He chuckled as he recalled the response he received from the manager: “Okay, but you still can’t make other gym members uncomfortable, by looking at them.”
Finally, he ends the video with a big laugh that perfectly captures the irony of the entire situation.
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The comment section was a blend of surprise, humor, advice, and respect for the blind guy.
The post quickly received thousands of comments from people sharing their own thoughts on the sarcastic scenario, with the top comment humorously proposing a solution that might work for the woman and the manager, “Just say if you see them you'll look away in the future.”
One commenter expressed disbelief at how both the woman and the manager failed to grasp the concept of blindness, stating, “It's insane that 2 people were collectively unable to understand what being blind means,”
Another one pointed out that what happened at the gym was a violation of the ADA. “Someone should educate that gym about the Americans with Disabilities Act,” they wrote.
Some viewers thought that the guy dealt with the situation well, writing, “at least he’s being a good sport about it, aside from how terrible it is.”
While discussing the incident, a few Redditors couldn't help but comment on the blind man's unique voice, with one commenting, “dude got a perfect radio voice.”
In true Reddit fashion, one user made a joke about the situation, writing, “Tell me you were working out at a Planet Fitness without telling me you were working out at a Planet Fitness.”
Ultimately, the woman in this scenario may have had a valid reason for being angry with a blind man for "staring" at her (as women often experience this type of behavior from men at the gym), but everyone seems to agree that it’s unreasonable to still be angry with him even after he provided proof of his blindness.
Source: Reddit
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