Shane Gillis Has Broken Leftists' Brains

The joke was simple enough: Shane Gillis, hosting Saturday Night Live, said he hadn't been to the gym in so long he "didn't know women just dress like whores now." The response online was immediate and furious. TikTokers, comedians, and commentators accused him of misogyny, of perpetuating rape culture, of being lazy and unfunny. Amala Ekpunobi, in this episode, walks through the backlash and argues that the outrage reveals something the critics will not admit: women often dress at the gym to be seen and found attractive, and the refusal to acknowledge that basic truth is what makes the response so deranged.

The Joke and the Denial

Ekpunobi is careful to clarify what Gillis actually said. He said women dress like whores—not that they are whores. But the critics, she argues, immediately proved his point. One woman posted a TikTok in what Ekpunobi describes as "something that shouldn't even be considered a sports bra" and shorts "hiked all the way up your ass cheeks," shaking her body for the camera, to protest being called a whore. Another gym influencer posted in what Ekpunobi calls "whore shorts" that "could function as a tourniquet on your thighs." The joke landed because it described something real.