You might remember this way back in July of 2016 but former Playboy model turned fitness model Dani Mathers was in the headlines last July for posting a photo of a nude 71-year-old woman to her Snapchat account with the caption “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.” Rightfully so, Mathers was slammed online and faces serious consequences in real life as well. Since allegedly posting the photo in July, Mathers has been banned from L.A. Fitness gyms and fired from her gig at Los Angeles radio station KLOS, where she appeared as a regular on the station’s morning show.
In November, Mathers was charged with one count of invasion of privacy, which carries a sentence of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Then in February her request to have the case dismissed was denied. Fast forward to today and according to the city attorney’s office, the next court date in the case is set for May 24. She could very well go to trial and possibly go to jail.
So let’s talk about this. Where do we draw the line on body shaming? While I think what Mathers did was a massive mistake and easily the dumbest thing of her entire life, what about stand up comedians who rip on this kind of stuff all the time? In the case of Mathers it’s obvious there was malicious intent here but I think this is a very slippery slope we’re on here. On the one hand, Mathers took a photo of someone without their consent, posted it online, and wrote a horrible remark about it. On the other was she using free speech despite how despicable it was?
Like I said, what she did was wrong and should be a lesson to anyone, “keep your opinions to yourself you idiot,” but does she deserve to be prosecuted by the law? You have to realize that 20 years ago this is a non issue. Society has become super sensitive and the fact that a body shaming incident with a caption is drawing a court case speaks volumes about where we are in society.
Again, what Mathers did was wrong, but wrong enough to suffer legal consequences? I’m curious what would have happened if she didn’t write a caption and instead just posted that photo. This would probably not even be a news story. Nevertheless Mathers is certainly blackballed right now.
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