A father-of-three who proudly posed with his two daughters before their homecoming dance has found himself embroiled in a heated debate after fellow parents shamed the girls for their choice of attire.
Florida-based news anchor Matt Austin has now launched an explosive tirade at the parents who branded his daughters' dresses "provocative" and "inappropriate", firing back a stern response to those who undermined his parenting.
Austin, who works as an anchor for the Orlando outlet News 6, shared the snap on his official Facebook earlier this month. It shows him standing between his two daughters, both of whom have their brown hair styled in loose waves. One is wearing a silky pink mini dress with nude heels, while the other is wearing what appears to be a black, faux leather ensemble with matching pumps.
"My daughters look a little too good on homecoming night. Believe it or not, they're even more beautiful on the inside," the proud dad captioned the pic, which was shared on October 9.
But the sweet sentiment was quickly soured as people began criticising his daughters' choice of outfits, with several calling the short dresses "inappropriate", "provocative" and "immodest". Others said they wouldn't allow their daughters to leave the house in such ensembles, admonishing Austin's parenting style.
"Honestly, I would not let them go anywhere dressed like that," one woman wrote, with a man adding: "It is also the responsibility of the parents to teach their children the difference between immodesty and modesty."
One woman even likened the girls' outfits to 'call girls' or sex workers, writing: "These outfits these girls are wearing are exactly what 'call girls' wear... I think if these young ladies knew this they might pick something else more classy, this is where it's the parents job to educate them and help guide them."
"It's also the parent's job to make sure their daughters don't dress like a, well... like that," another said.
Other responses included: "I don't think I would be dressed like that around my father and he would be okay with that", "those girls are too young to be dressing provocatively, they should have respect for themselves", and "so sad that parents think it's okay to send young ladies out with everything showing".
"I have two grown and married daughters. These outfits are not prom appropriate, those are what women wear to clubs when they are single looking for some action," another weighed in.
The onslaught of disparaging comments proved too much for Austin, who took to TikTok to furiously condemn the response and issue a strong message to his critics, pointing out that it's also a parent's responsibility not to raise "perverts".
"So 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 in a video to his 76,000 followers, before showing multiple examples of the insulting and derogatory comments they had received.
"One thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like, 'Oh these girls need to dress so they don't distract the boys', or even worse, ''They're dressing in a way in which they're asking for it'.
"Let's get something crystal clear now; it's not my daughter's job to make sure your son is focused in school, it's 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."
Although Austin conceded that if he had a say in the matter, he would've probably picked different outfits for his girls, he added that he wants his daughters to have the freedom to express themselves and make their own decisions.
"Now let's be clear, those outfits are not the ones I would choose for my daughters to leave the house - if it were up to me it would be 24/7 snuggies. But if I start dictating what my daughters wear, I'm going to teach them three things," he continued.
"A, they'll start to hate me for arbitrary rules. B, they'll start to lie to me, or C, maybe even worse, that it's okay for a man to tell them what to wear because they look too good - and that ain't happening, Karen.
"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. Now that's what I call trashy."
Austin's rant quickly proved to be a hit, with floods of viewers praising the dad for his mindset and applauding his message.
At the time of writing, the video has amassed more than 5.3 million views and 1.1 millon likes.
"I wish everyone could have this mindset," one viewer responded, with another writing: "You are an amazing dad raising amazing strong girls... it's rough out here for us females."
"Yes! I raised three daughters and feel exactly the same. They are not responsible for a man's thoughts," a third added, with a fourth weighing in: "Boy mom here - it's my job to teach my son that he needs to respect women."
"Thank you for supporting women," another said simply.
Others took to the Facebook post in question to praise Austin's parenting and shower his girls with compliments, in a bid to outweigh the negative commentary.
Austin was so grateful for the overwhelmingly positive feedback that he shared a second video late last week, thanking his viewers for the outpouring of support.
"I realised this thing was going viral and I got freaked out thinking, 'I'm going to embarrass my daughters all over again'. But then this happened," he said in the clip.
"When I looked in the comments section I found thousands of you telling my daughters how beautiful they are. I try to tell them every day, but I think it hits different when they read the comments. Also, thousands more said that I'm a good dad.
"We might not know each other, but that's pretty much the best compliment you could ever give me.
"So I just wanted to say thank you for doing something I never thought the internet could do - which is make me feel better."