Does The Selena Gomez V Magazine Topless Cover Go Too Far?

After Kim Kardashian’s multiple nude shoots, you’d think it would take a lot for a magazine cover to shock us.

But V Magazine’s Spring 2015 issue has managed it with a controversial shoot starring pop star Selena Gomez.

The 22-year-old singer appears to be modeled after a beauty pageant contestant in the topless shoot, making her look much younger than her years.

Looking like something you would find on ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’, Selena’s baby face has been accented by childish accessories like a cowboy hat and bows in her hair.

This Lolita-style make-up juxtaposed against numerous topless shots makes for a set of rather unsettling images.

Add to that the very obvious Photoshopping – her denim shorts look as if they have been painted on – and it’s no wonder the cover has got people buzzing on social media.

This jailbait-as-sexy trope is nothing new – look at Britney Spears’ first video back in 1998 – but when we’re actually infantalising adult women to make them look underage, it takes this disturbing trend to an even more unbelievable level.

The images have provoked many outlets to decry the former ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ star is well and truly shedding her Disney image, but does she have to look like a tween to do that?

Beautiful as Selena is, surely it’s up to magazines like V to respect her as a grown woman instead of trying to shoehorn her into this creepy sexual mould that defines her only as attractive in relation to how young she looks.

What do you think of the shoot? Let us know on Twitter.

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