A Florida dad was in “total shock” after a photo of his daughters going to homecoming turned into a viral moment.
Matt Austin, a news anchor in Orlando, shared a photo on Facebook last month of him with his two teenage daughters before they left for their high school homecoming.
“My daughters look a little too good on homecoming night. Believe it or not, they’re even more beautiful on the inside,” he captioned the shot.
Austin’s post garnered more than one thousand comments, with many from users who called out the journalist for approving his daughters’ dresses.
“Sorry my daughters would never leave the house looking for sale,” one comment read, while another read, “So sad that parents think it’s ok to send the young ladies out with everything showing!”
Matt Austin decided to film a TikTok in response to the backlash he received, calling out “Karens taking aim at teen daughters’ Homecoming dresses.”
“It was a total shock — to me, the outfits weren’t controversial,” Austin told Today Parents. “I wondered, ‘What makes a bad dress?’ and ‘Why are people policing me?’ And ‘Why is it okay to talk about someone’s children like this?'”
Matt Austin began his TikTok telling viewers that he “put up what I thought was an innocuous post about my daughters looking beautiful for homecoming” before sharing some of the critical comments he received.
“The one thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like, ‘Well, these girls need to dress so they don’t distract the boys,’ ” he said. “Or even worse: ‘They’re dressing a way in which they’re asking for it.’ “
“Let’s get something crystal clear now. It’s not my daughters’ job to make sure your son is focused in school. Also not her job to dress hideous enough to where your son doesn’t assault her,” he added. “It’s your job to not raise a pervert with no self-control.”
The dad explained that the dresses “would not have been the outfits I would’ve chosen for my daughters to leave the house,” teasing he would’ve picked “24/7 Snuggies.”
