It’s got to be handed to iconic men’s magazine “Playboy,” when they get involved however indirectly in a controversy that controversy tends to get big. One example would be a recent interview they had with conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren shortly after getting booted from TheBlaze Network, wherein she vented over public perception of her as a “blonde bimbo.”
This was in connection with her pro-abortion stance which had gotten her suspended from the network. More recently a former Playboy Playmate found herself in hot water after her sharing a photo she took of a naked middle-aged woman got her criticized for “body shaming.” Since Dani Mathers had pleaded no contest to the charges in court, sentencing happened quite fast.
Community service
Dani Mathers, once the 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year, was sentenced Wednesday, May 24 to three years’ probation with mandatory 30 hours of graffiti removal community service, all for her taking a picture of a naked 71-year-old woman in a fitness gym and sharing it online. Her actions were classified as a count of invasion of privacy, a misdemeanor. Had she allowed the case to go to a trial, being found guilty would have landed her a six-month prison term.
The aged 30 ex-Playmate had dug herself deeper when she shared her covertly taken a photo on Snapchat with the caption "If I can't unsee this then you can't either," followed by a selfie of her with a shocked expression and a hand covering her mouth.
Reactions online were almost uniformly negative, accusing Mathers of “body-shaming.” She had tried to backtrack and apologize by explaining that her Snapchat share was supposed to be to only one private friend. It wasn’t enough to avoid getting charges filed, however, and her reputation was severely damaged. To wit, she had been fired from her radio show job in Los Angeles as well as barred from all fitness centers in the city.
Regret comes last
Thomas Mesereau, defense counsel for Dani Mathers, told reporters after the sentencing that the former Playboy Playmate had no idea her actions could cause this degree of backlash and wants to apologize for what had transpired.
On the other end of the case, LA City Attorney Mike Feuer considers the Mathers case as highly important due to the message of its resolution, for showing the sort of penalties a person may be slapped with by the law for thoughtless actions that could lead to an embarrassment like body-shaming.
