It seems like only yesterday when Selena Gomez first charmed the hearts of her fans as the teenage sister in Wizards of Waverly Place. But a record deal under her belt, a very public relationship and breakup with Justin Bieber, and a case of wanting to break away from her squeaky clean Disney image has brought her and many other former Mouseketeers into hot water for overly sexualizing themselves.
Although Gomez has, for the most part, tried to keep a more regal image on the red carpet, reminiscent of the style of the Golden Age of Hollywood actresses, which sometimes many made her look older than her age, her most recent photo shoot for V Magazine has spun her image completely around again and many people are calling foul over her risque magazine spread.
Taking to her Instagram account, Gomez posted the first images from her racy photoshoot with the magazine. But with a style to make her seem significantly younger than her 22 years, critics are not taking a liking to the direction of her look.
Gomez' hair was styled with ringlet curls and her red hoop earring and polka dot red bow made her look like a teenager - but the topless shots sent a completely different message.
A photo posted by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Feb 17, 2015 at 6:58am PST
Critics have been comparing the photos to the underage seductress in Nabokov's controversial novel, Lolita. Indeed, with her doe-eyed look and sexy poses while wearing clothing and makeup purposely styled to make her appear childlike, yet overly sexual.
Other former child stars have also gone the racy route to celebrate their adulthood and femininity. Britney Spears' topless Rolling Stone cover for example was worlds away from her school girl image; and Miley Cyrus' twerking antics at the Grammy's solidified her "shock-pop" image as separate from her Hannah Montana years.
"There might not have been such a big massive outcry if she wasn't strategically styled to look like an adolescent. I'm sure people would have still raised their eyebrows like with Miley Cyrus at the beginning of her transformation, when she posed topless and there was a big outcry; but she wasn't specifically styled to look like a 12-year-old, she was just topless," said Leslie Goldman, a body image expert and women's health writer.
Gomez' V Magazine shoot is taking heat, although it is not the first time she has done a sexy photo shoot, not because of her sexuality, but because of the sexualization of a child version of herself. The styling of the spread was deliberate in its attempt to break her further away from her bubble gum child star image - but at the expense of turning a childlike image of an adult woman onto a sexual object, that many say borders of pedophilia.
In addition to the controversial topless photos, the V Magazine feature also talks about Selena Gomez' lovelife as she opened up to interviewer, actor James Franco.
