Muscles are not exclusively for men. Australian fitness influencer Chyanne Weatherby knows this, and often shares photos of herself flexing her muscles. But she recently decided to take a stance after some followers commented that she looked “manly.” In a side-by-side photo, Weatherby posed in a dress on the left and in her underwear on the right. On the first picture, she wrote, “Not manly,” and over the second, she wrote, “Still not manly.”

"Whack me in a dress and you wouldn’t even think I lift,” she wrote. "So many people are so quick to judge a woman based on her flexed posed.. but I can guarantee that they’re probably the same type of person who’d cat call or stare at her while she’s walking down the street.”

This isn't the first time that Weatherby, who runs the popular Instagram @aus_fitmum, posted this image: In February, she shared the same photos with a more detailed caption about her body image.

“I’m sick of people feeling as if they can comment on my body saying I look manly,” she wrote then. “Lifting weights will not make you manly. It will make you shapely! What people don’t understand is the amount of effort it takes to look how I do! I flex in my photos because it shows off my muscles, it doesn’t mean I walk around looking like that all day long.”

Aesthetics aside, there’s no reason to associate muscle tone and sex. Both men and women can (and should!) strengthen and tone their bodies. The benefits of weightlifting range from boosting your metabolism to improving sleep.

It’s encouraging that Weatherby is using her platform to promote wellness and self love. For her, self care involves hitting the gym. We believe that any healthy way you find stress relief or some form of self-improvement deserves a thumbs up—not judgmental comments.