An Orlando news anchor is going viral on TikTok for defending his daughters’ homecoming dance outfits.
News 6 anchor Matt Austin shared a photo of his two daughters dressed for a homecoming dance to Facebook earlier this month. In response to criticism of the way his kids were dressed in the comments, Austin made a TikTok telling nosy naysayers to mind their own.
“I put up what I thought was a pretty innocuous post about my daughters looking beautiful for homecoming but you would be shocked at some of the comments,” he said.
Austin said the comments ranged from saying his daughters should be ashamed to saying they were dressed too provocatively to be around other high-schoolers.
@flnewsman A dad responds to Karens taking aim at teen daughters’ Homecoming dresses. #fashiontiktok #parentsoftiktok –#fypシ #hoco ♬ original sound – mattja83
“Let’s get something crystal clear here. It’s not my daughter’s job to make sure your son is focused in school,” he said. “Also not her job to dress hideous enough to where your son doesn’t assault her. It’s your job to not raise a pervert with no self-control.”
Austin admitted that he wouldn’t have picked the outfits himself, but said that dictating what his teenaged daughter can wear can only lead to negative outcomes of resentment, lying and a belief that it’s okay for men to tell them what they can wear.
“But you know what would really disappoint me? If my girls grew up to be the kind of adult who goes on social media and demeans a teen’s appearance on her father’s Facebook page,” he said. “That’s what I call trashy.”
The post has subsequently exploded as news outlets across the globe have shared Austin’s words. The video has been liked more than 1.4 million times. Austin called the attention “the craziest whirlwind [he’s] ever experienced” in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.
Austin added that the story will die down quickly, but he hopes his daughters remember that he’s always going to be in their corner.
“I understand the reality that this is a viral story that will be here today and gone tomorrow, he said, :What I want is for my three daughters to look at the video and be like, ‘That man’s gonna stand up for me. He’s gonna have my back to internet trolls or to anybody who ever comes for me.’”