Shane Gillis has been under fire after calling women who wear short-shorts to the gym wh*res on SNL. But it isn’t just Gillis who shares his opinion on what women wear.
On Oct. 10, 2026, Shane Gillis hosted the popular comedy tv show SNL. While hosting, he launched into a monologue about women’s gym clothes, critiquing the popular “booty scrunch” shorts that have become popular amongst gym girls.
His awkward segment started with him talking about how he is “fat” and needs to lose weight. This devolved into a series of jokes targeting women. After re-entering the gym supposedly after a number of years, he expressed surprise with the new trends in women’s gym clothes, saying “I didn’t know women just dress like wh*res now.” He also admitted to staring at women’s butts and being captured in multiple TikTok videos doing so.
His monologue started a wave of gym girls posting online in gym shorts and calling out Gillis, including influencers Kelly Matthews, Maia Mae, Bailey Stewart, and popular gym clothing brand Oner.
I think all women have heard it before. Whether it’s from different men online, people in real life, our friends, our schools and even our boyfriends. Cover up, or men will look at you. Cover up, or you’re a wh*re.
Well I’m sorry, but I lift heavy. And any woman knows that when you lift heavy, you sweat. Personally, if I wear sweatpants and longsleeves to the gym, I’d pass out. The important thing is that I do what’s right for me and my body.
But it isn’t about what we wear to the gym. If you love to wear sweatpants and sweatshirts to the gym, go for it! Leggings, sweatpants, T-shirts, tank tops, sports bras and gym shorts — they are all acceptable gym attire. What I have a problem with is men feeling like they can insert their opinions onto women’s choices.
When I go to the gym, I see men wearing all sorts of clothes. Loose shorts, tight shorts, T-shirts, muscle shirts, cut-offs that show off their entire pecks, or even no shirts. What I never see is women policing what they wear, even if it shows off parts of their bodies.
The gym is an inherently male space. When I go to the gym, the majority of people I see are men. When women enter a male-dominated space, it opens us up to a ton of criticism.
Male lifting culture doesn’t see feminine things as part of their protected space. Men who subscribe to this culture don’t feel like neon-coloured short-shorts fit into what they see as acceptable gym culture. That’s why you see men criticizing women who prioritize training their legs. You even see men criticizing certain exercises, especially glute exercises. These things are associated with women, and for them, these things don’t belong.
I’ve also seen arguments online that women can’t make up our minds because we criticized Syndey Sweeney’s sports ad. Sweeney starred in a sports ad which aired on Sept. 9 for Novig, a sports trading and betting app. Sweeney wore minimal to no clothing in the ad, often covering herself with just a football or some other type of sports equipment.
Sweeney’s ad achieves different harmful effects by reducing women’s efforts in sports and the gym. The ad chose not to focus on women’s muscles, blood, sweat and tears put into sports and the gym. It decided to sexualize women in sports. The ad received backlash from many professional female athletes including Olympic swimmers Ariarne Titmus and Lani Pallister and world champion boxer Skye Nicolson, among others.
But Sweeney’s add and Gillis’s comments contribute to the same rhetoric of treating women as sex objects and hyper sexualizing women. Gillis associated women’s clothes with being a wh*re as if clothes have anything to do with a woman’s sexual activity. Not only that, Gillis compared women’s clothes to fish bait that causes men to stare at their bodies.
Men and women should be more focused on strength, health, longevity and fun in weight-lifting and in sports. I prioritize strength and feeling good in the gym. Sometimes, I need a cute gym outfit to feel my best or to give myself the motivation to lift hundreds of pounds off the floor.
I choose to lift heavy, wear gym shorts and ignore men. You should too.