Image Source: Getty / Paul Archuleta [1]

Model and Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers [2], 29, is facing backlash after sharing a photo to Snapchat that ridicules a fellow gym-goer's body. While at LA Fitness in Los Angeles, Mathers took an unsolicited photo of a woman changing in the locker room. She captioned the photo with, "If I can't unsee this then you can't either." Moments later, Mathers shared a selfie reacting to the photo with her hand placed on her mouth, presumably in shock or disgust.

The egregious photo has since been shared by The Daily Mail [3] and various other sources and has thus sparked a pretty enraged conversation. First of all, taken without the woman's knowledge, the photo is absolutely unacceptable and — quite frankly — illegal.

On an ideological level, however, it also discourages people from going to the gym, working out, and just living their lives out of fear that an onlooker should mock them. It is body shaming at its worst.

After receiving criticism on social media, Mathers deleted the snaps and issued a public apology . . . also on Snapchat. In the video available on The Daily Mail [4], she simultaneously apologized while also claiming that her intentions were not to publicly share the photo. So, she still meant to body shame the woman, but she only meant to send it to her friend? She said,

"I just wanted to acknowledge a photo that I accidentally posted on Snapchat earlier today and let you guys know that that was absolutely wrong, and not what I meant to do. I have chosen to do what I do for a living because I love the female body and I know that body shaming is wrong and that's not what I'm about, that's not the type of person that I am. That photo was taken to be a personal conversation with a girlfriend, and because I am new to Snapchat, I didn't realize that I had posted it and that was a huge mistake."

Since the whole incident, Mathers has deleted all of her social media accounts apart from her Facebook page. According to TMZ [5], LA Fitness has filed a police report against Mathers for violating the gym-goer's privacy. A spokesperson for the gym told TMZ [6], "Her behavior is appalling and puts every member's privacy at risk. We have handled this internally and also notified the police."