Whenever we see a 70-year-old man or woman at the gym, our first instinct is to give them major props for prioritising their health. Playboy playmate Dani Mathers, age 29, has a slightly different attitude. Last summer, she spotted a 71-year-old woman changing in a Los Angeles health club and Mathers seized the opportunity to unlawfully photograph the nude woman and post the image to Snapchat.
“If I can’t unsee this, then you can’t either," she captioned the photo. For good measure, Mathers included a selfie with a hand clasped over her mouth to further drive home the point that she was completely disgusted by the woman's body. After one of Mathers' Snapchat followers reported the image, the playmate was charged with invasion of privacy. Today, Mathers pleaded no contest to the charge and was sentenced to 30 days of community service.
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In addition to completing 30 days of graffiti removal, Mathers must pay $60 in restitution to the victim so the woman can replace her backpack, which was featured in the Snapchat post. She was also sentenced to 36 months of summary probation.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer emphasised that body-shaming has devastating effects on its victims. "This is a very important case with an extremely forceful message associated with it: That body shaming is not tolerated in our city," he said. "Body shaming can devastate its subject. People are mocked, they’re humiliated and in ways they can never fully get back.”
“[Mathers] realised she made a mistake,” her attorney Thomas Mesereau told BuzzFeed News. “Her goal was never to hurt anyone and she very much regrets what happened."
He added that the case has “been an ordeal” for Mathers. Cue the world's smallest violin.