Popular Twitch streamer Jessica Fernandez has rendered an apology for referring to a man who tried helping her out at the gym as a ‘feral weirdo’. What’s wrong with a man trying to help you out in the gym?
Some of these influencers are complicated and dramatic, which is why they hardly get good people around them. The Daily Mail got more;
An influencer has apologized after a video of her branding a man who tried to help her at the gym a ‘weirdo’ sparked a slew of backlash online, with her calling it a ‘gross mistake’ and admitting that she ‘blew their interaction out of proportion.’ Popular Twitch streamer Jessica Fernandez posted the controversial video to TikTok last week and it showed her preparing to lift weights when she noticed a man behind her was looking at her.
She called the man ‘feral’ and said he made her feel like ‘a piece of meat,’ and when he offered to put a plate on her dumbbell for her, she told her followers she wanted to ‘rip his [penis] out of his socket so he could never reproduce again.’
The video quickly went viral, and it launched a fierce response from viewers who said Jessica ‘was not a victim’ and that the man was simply trying to help her. Now, she has issued a lengthy apology, admitting that the fellow gym-goer ‘didn’t do anything wrong’ and that she ‘feels sick to her stomach with guilt’ after realizing ‘how damaging’ her claims ‘could have been for him.’
‘I want to apologize sincerely to the man at the gym where this all started. He didn’t do anything wrong to me and I blew our interaction out of proportion,’ the streamer, who has more than 625,000 followers on TikTok, wrote in a statement shared to her Twitter.
‘When I first posted the video I felt I was completely in the right and I felt I was making a good attempt to connect and relate to my female audience who may have dealt with uncomfortable situations at the gym. ‘And now, after reading literally thousands of comments about me, the situation and the man in question it truly opened my eyes to how damaging this could have been for him.’
Jessica added that she was grateful that people ‘called her out’ because it has now given her ‘the chance to learn from her mistake.’
In the video, which has since been deleted, Jessica joked that ‘natural selection should take the man out,’ but now, she called her comments ‘far from tasteful and funny.’ She added that her actions were ‘extremely immature’ and admitted to ‘making light of a situation that should be taken a lot more seriously.’ She said she now looks back on the video and ‘cringes,’ and hailed the negative response as a ‘wakeup call’ for her.
‘It took literally thousands of people displaying their distaste for the way I acted for me to realize this in full effect,’ she continued. While Jessica noted that the ‘man at the gym did nothing damaging,’ she explained that ‘felt threatened in the situation’ because had ‘suffered from sexual assault and sexual harassment’ in the past.
‘I reacted by trying to cope with it in probably the worst way possible,’ she added. ‘My past isn’t an excuse or a justification for what I did but it is something I want to personally and professionally address with a therapist in the future. Because I don’t want to, and will never, hurt anyone ever again in this way.’
Flip to the next page to watch the viral video…
