Lesson of bodies gets lost

Today, news from suburban South Africa, courtesy of one of my besties who is a regular at gym.

- JENNIE RIDYARD

Her bulletin came via WhatsApp, enraged: “At gym this morning a white lady approached me while I was doing my hair and said to me that she is sick of dealing with this and nodded over her shoulder, so I looked and it was a large black lady and a skinny black lady busy dressing.”

For context, my friend (white, in her 50s) was in the open-plan women’s changing room, just out the shower and dressed herself.

What was the trouble, she wondered, a few options going through her head: had the lady had an altercation with these women?

Or... what? Was it nudity? Obesity? Skinniness? Blackness?

Turns out it was all the above.