Kate posts up-close photo of Mady's legs

The up close and personal picture of Mady trying on Kate's heels sparked outrage from the moment Kate put it on her Twitter account, and now the poor child is getting attention for it on Radaronline and The Daily Mail.

The New York Times explored the issue of posting children's photos online in this revealing article from 2009. A must read.

Popular Mommy blogger Eve Vawter also wrote an excellent article about the issue on Mommyish.com, quoted in part here. We like her common sense:

"Kids try on their mom’s shoes. This happens every hour of every day in every house with kids. I did it, you did it, our kids have done it. There is nothing wrong with that. But posting a picture on the internet, of your 11-year-old’s bare legs, her toenails pedicured and painted, clad in peep-toe satin and glitter heels, it’s just plain creepy. Kate Gosselin doesn’t know every single one of her Twitter followers personally. She doesn’t know who is glancing at the photograph and saying “Cute, my kids did that” or who is uploading the photograph to some terrible child exploitation website. And by posting this picture, she is inadvertently sexualizing her 11-year-old kid.

It can be argued that child sex abusers can find any photograph of a kid “sexy.” That even the most innocent picture of a kid fully dressed and standing there can be exploited by child predators for nefarious purposes. And all though I agree there is nothing wrong with a kid trying on her mom’s high heels, looking at the picture of Mady it’s obvious to me that posting it on the internet was a bad idea. It isn’t a picture of a kid being silly and playing dress-up, it looks like a slightly menacing sexualized photograph of a girl standing, her legs apart, teetering helplessly on too-big heels in a darkened room. And Kate Gosselin didn’t need to post it, but I suppose it can also be argued that Kate Gosselin uses any excuse to exploit any of her eight children for attention and publicity, whether good or bad, to feed her gaping maw of a fame hole."