Taiwanese actress Terri Kwan has raised a storm of controversy since posting a picture of her two-year-old daughter parading around as a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model for Halloween.
You read that right. TWO. YEARS. OLD.
The tot donned a lacy white bra and panties along with the trademark Victoria’s Secret “Angel wings.” As if that wasn’t enough to oversexualize a toddler, Kwan handed her a pink lollipop to suck on to complete the look.
Needless to say, some fans were pretty riled up after the actress posted a photo of the risque get-up for her 346,000 Instagram followers.
“I have been a fan of yours for years now, before and after kids,” wrote one user. “I also never stick my nose in other parents’ business in how or how not to raise their kids. But this is wrong, this is all sorts of wrong. A toddler wearing stuff like this is just disgraceful. Please don’t do it again.”
“As a mother of two young girls, I found these photos very disturbing and uncomfortable,” added another appalled mother. “I would never ever expose my girls body like that! The cyber world has a lot of weird people out there and I would do anything to protect my children from sex predators!”
To make matters worse, the costume was for a Halloween party the child had at her NURSERY of all places.
But Kwan seemed undaunted by the criticism, asking alongside her post on Weibo (China’s equivalent to Twitter) if anyone had ever seen such a “good-looking” and “alluring” model.
Her Weibo following of 240,000 seemed to be more tolerant, with many sloughing it off as “just a costume” that shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Others even called it “cute.”
Well Weibo users, I beg to differ.
We may be inclined to believe that this kind of problem is a world away in China—but the sad truth is, it is not. It’s happening here. Right now. Under our noses. And it needs to stop.
It’s happening in nursery Halloween parties held for two-year-olds where boys too little to even process sexual desires are planted with the seed that girls are sex objects.
It’s happening in our daughters’ dance classes where 8-year-old girls are taught that shaking your money-maker in belly-baring outfits is the key to gaining attention and paving their way to the pop-star “American dream.”
