Slovak MP after attack on the appearance of the President's underage daughter: bullying by the media! Behind the post about Emma Čaputová
Around lunchtime yesterday, a huge whirlwind swept through the Slovak media and political space. Tomáš Taraba (42), a local MP, founder and chairman of the political party ŽIVOT - Narodná strana (which aims, among other things, to ban abortions and criticises the so-called promotion of gender ideology), decided to go public with a controversial post. Along with a photo (according to Slovak media, it was purposely unflattering and enlarged) of 17-year-old Emma Čaputová, who was part of the Fashion Live 2021 fashion show, he posted on his wall an obviously scathing remark: "After yesterday we know that we have a new top model in Slovakia. "This is rather hypocritical coming from a man who presents himself on his political party's website as a father of five children and who wants Slovakia to be a good place to live, where children and their parents should feel that they are free to develop their gifts, talents and abilities and feel supported in doing so.
Emma, according to the official opinion of designer Hanečka, passed the standard casting. She deserved the position and was not put there by any favouritism. She is said to have handled her role professionally and contributed to the high artistic experience of the event. According to the administrators of the instagram page bratislavafashion.live, the adult MP's attack on the minor was really very inappropriate, and was certainly aimed primarily at her mother, namely the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová. They completely distanced themselves from this speech by Tomáš Taraba - they considered it absolutely unacceptable - and called on the politician to apologise.
Emma has thus clearly become a prominent face of this social event for her qualities. Beauty is not defined by anything or anyone, and this short-haired model with a mole on her face simply charmed the organisers and designers who decided to put their trust in her. It's a wonder that they needed to defend this move at all. So far, there has been no need to publicly explain the participation of any of the selected models or other workers. People on social media often react indignantly and share a similar view to the one already mentioned above, namely that Tarabo probably wasn't after Emma at all, but her mother, and the whole dispute is being driven by political reasons and stems from a difference of opinion.
Of course, President Zuzana Čaputová did not take kindly to the public snide remarks about her daughter. She called on her profile for her children to be left out of everything she is otherwise prepared to face as a politician. That one of her daughters is being dragged into the controversy, she called it a political day. She was met with understanding, support and mostly positive feedback. "The difference between a genius and a fool is that a genius knows his limits. - Alexandre Dumas. The MP is like the universe," responded one commenter. And others, including politicians and celebrities, joined in. Miroslav Žák said: 'MP Taraba is a political bottom and beautifully represents the neo-Nazis and fascists from which he emerged. We must all together condemn such behaviour and not give him media space, because that is all he cares about."
The whole case is already being followed not only by the public, but also by the police of the Slovak Republic, who have stated, and even capitalized, "ATTACK ON A YOUNG PERSON INCITES HATE AND CHICANE." Along with information that the state is trying to act preventively in schools to prevent the emergence of (cyber)bullying, she said that in this case, certain boundaries were clearly crossed, where a person who should be a high authority figure had submitted a teenage girl to lynching for her appearance. Irrespective of her background - i.e. the fact that she is the daughter of the most powerful woman in Slovakia - this behaviour is an example of cyberbullying, which is intolerable not only in the online space.
Reactions and comments are piling up under Taraba's post. Although there are those who have directly or indirectly supported Taraba, most of the responses are in support of Emma, for whom the current situation must be very unpleasant. For example, Andrej Stancik responded directly below the post, "From a master of rounding up roll prices and an expert on the battle of Vienna against the Arabs, this is another shot across the bow. This time, you're bullying a 17-year-old girl and throwing her under the thumb of an aggressive 'alternative'. Congratulations." And he's far from the only one who finds the humiliation of a child beyond the pale.
After a veritable avalanche came down on Tarabo's head, he decided to respond with a video about three and a half minutes long in which he tried to explain what actually happened.
Ironically, he described the media massage that he is certainly undergoing now as bullying against him. He then revealed to the whole world that he said he had done nothing wrong: He merely shared a photo from a fashion show attended by the daughter of the President of Slovakia and added an announcement sentence which (he said) was not intended to say anything other than that the Republic has a new model, which in his opinion is simply a statement of fact and he himself would not be offended if someone shared, for example, information that his son is good at hockey.
However, the criticism did not end under the explanatory video and people did not believe the politician's neutral stance for the most part. Still, there were those who sympathized with him and considered his shouting into the darkness directed at Emma Čaputová as a harmless post, which was apparently only meant to inform viewers that she is a model. For example, Ms Katarina Novosadova told her favourite MP that he was misunderstood and kept her fingers crossed for him. However, there were also those who went a bit overboard in their support for Tomáš Taraba. Marián Žigor wrote publicly: "You have my support, Mr. MP! You wrote the truth. Just a bare fact - that we have a new model in Slovakia. Nothing else. And don't mind those liberal sluts!" he became angry and clearly crossed the boundaries of decent behaviour, not least towards the head of state and her family. There were those who decided to argue about whether the underage girl was beautiful. Žena, jež na Facebooku vystupuje jako Zuz Anna, napisala: "Keby ten naditelby bol nad fotkou krásneho dziewčaťa, příspěvekku by nikto nevenoval viac than 5 sekúnd a šli by surfovat ďalej. It's just that everyone here sees the contradiction and the less they want to admit it, the more they turn the aggression against you."
It's incredible how much hate a 17-year-old girl's decision to attend a show and join the modeling world can trigger. Even if it is not the offspring of a prominent figure, attacks on appearance are completely outside the realm of acceptable behaviour and there is no justification for them. The positive thing about this whole affair is at least the huge mass of people who were willing to stand up and stand up for the victim. Bullying is not okay in any space, not even the cyber one!
