We all know that social media influencers are always a subject of discussion and criticisms. A lot of people watch their every move, from the things they wear, people they date and to the places they go—their lives are now an open book to the public. While they enjoy the benefits of fame and money, they also need to brace themselves from other people’s opinions and disapproval.
In this day and age where people of all ages use social media, to be an influencer also means to be a responsible one because a picture, a video, or a post can have either a positive or negative impact to the general public.
Recently, social media sensation, singer, and actress, Donnalyn Bartolome was criticized for her ‘utterly disturbing’ birthday photoshoot. It is due to her baby-themed photoshoot where she is portraying herself as a sexy infant.
Donnalyn draws flak over ‘sexy baby’ photoshoot
In other shots, the 27-year old social media sensation was wearing diapers with a bib as her sole top and a onesie as she made provocative milk bottle sucking motions. It received different reactions from netizens across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Some netizens say that it can influence child sexualization and that she is “feeding the fantasies of pedophiles'' calling out Bartolome for her photos considering her reach and huge platform with 15 million followers on Facebook, 2.1million on Twitter, 6.8million on Instagram, and 9.2million subscribers on Youtube.
With this, Bartolome took down her post and posted an apology addressing the issue on her social media accounts.
— Donnalyn (@DJBDonna) July 10, 2022
Donna took steps to correct her mistake and apologized, stating that “It was an honest mistake” and that "it was never [her] intention to enable one of the most horrifying acts here on Earth."
What can we learn from this?
Netizens admired how Donnalyn addressed the situation and for hearing out her followers.
Instead of justifying the baby-theme photoshoot, Donnalyn listened to the explanation of the netizens on why they thought that the baby-themed photoshoot was a bad idea, and admitted that she had overlooked the consequences of her photoshoot, and apologized.
This is what accountability looks like, you accept that you have done something wrong, you humbly and sincerely apologize, you understand that the situation is your responsibility, you do not blame others for your mistakes, and most importantly, you make an effort to make things right.
Truly, “with great power comes great responsibility”. What we post and comment online are our responsibility to ourselves and to the people that can see it, especially the young ones. If we are given a platform, we should use it responsibly and for a good cause. This issue made us realize that our mistakes are ours alone to correct and that accountability also means acceptance and courage. This is how it should be done.
