Reporter Goes Viral For Annihilating Trolls Criticizing His Teen Daughters’ Homecoming Dresses

Earlier this month, Orlando news anchor Matt Austin shared a photo (above) with his two girls — one of whom is a high school senior, the other a freshman — headed to the same school dance.

“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 photo, which apparently set off an online firestorm.

In a TikTok video he post a few days later (below), Austin shared some of the negative responses flooding the original post, a post he said he initially considered “pretty innocuous.”

“You would be shocked at some of the comments,” he said, before reading a few of them. “I wouldn’t let them go anywhere dressed like that,” read one. Another said, “They should have respect for themselves,” while another he highlighter added, “So sad that parents think it’s okay to send young ladies out with everything show.”

Feeling both angry at the criticism and a bit “guilty” — per ClickOrlando — that he opened his daughters up to it in the first place, he decided to hit back, hard.

“One thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like, ‘These girls need to dress so they don’t distract the boys.’ Or even worse, ‘They’re dressing a way in which they’re asking for it,'” he began in the video.

“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. It’s your job to not raise a pervert with no self control,” he passionately continued.

“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’d be 24/7 Snuggies,” joked Austin, “But if I start dictating what my daughters wear, I’m going to teach them three things. 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. That ain’t happening, Karen!”

He concluded his video with one last, epic burn toward all the haters.

“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.”

Since he posted it on October 11th, the video has been viewed nearly 5.5 million times, garnering 1.2 million likes and 37,000 comments — most of which praise him for being an excellent father and calling the two young women beautiful.

In a followup video, he wanted to thank all the commenters for their kind words, admitting he was “a little ragey” in his previous post.

“After I posted that response … and my nostrils went down to normal size … I realized this thing is going viral and I got freaked out thinking I’m going to embarrass my daughters all over again,” he said.

“But then saw all the great comments,” he continued, saying that seeing so many of them calling him “a good dad” was “the best compliment you could ever give me.”