Thanks to the undeniable power of social media, this pic of a cutie-baby complete with cheek-piercing has become quite a talking point over the last few days.

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Enedina Vance shared the photo on Facebook just last week with the accompanying words:

"So I got the baby girl's dimple pierced!! ? ? ? ? ? ?

"It looks so cute, right?!! I just know she's gonna love it!! She'll thank me when she's older lol If she decides she doesn't like it, she can just take it out, no big deal ??

I'm the parent, she is MY CHILD, I will do whatever I want!! I make all of her decisions until she's 18, I made her, I own her!! I don't need anyone's permission, I think it's better, cuter, & I prefer her to have her dimple pierced. Its NOT abuse!! If it was, it would be illegal, but it's not. People pierce their babies everyday, this is no different ? ?

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"MY BABY, MY CHOICE!! PARENT'S CHOICE, PARENT'S RIGHTS!! Don't judge my parenting, we all raise our kids differently, it's none of your business anyway!!

"#BodilyIntegrity, #MyBodyMyChoice, #HumanRights, #ChildrensRights,#Intactivism, #IntactGeneration #sarcasm"

The picture was shared more than 2,000 times and mum Enedina confirms she even got hate mail from people who thought the pic was real (it's NOT).

The clues that it was all a fake – apart from the cheek-piercing itself, which is pretty extreme for a baby, right? – was Enedina's hasthtags at the end, especially #sarcasm.

Enedina was in fact using the pretty far-out (Photoshopped) photo as a message against 'altering' your child through things like ear-piercing and circumcision.

Defending what she did she wrote:

"Wow, so as (hopefully) everyone knows, my last post was FAKE. I photoshopped that picture of the baby to look like I had her dimple pierced. It is in fact PHOTOSHOPPED. And according to many, many, MANY posts & comments, it was a very bad & obvious photoshopped attempt on my part lol And yet, hundreds of people ACTUALLY believed it as real!!

"Many thanks to everyone who understood & caught on to what my post was actually about. I truly appreciate all of you sharing, commenting, & explaining my post lol And I'd like to give a special shout out to all of your teachers for teaching you how to completely read a passage in its entirety; unfortunately, that's not a strong point for some lol.

"... I seriously can not believe how many people missed that this was purely satirical, I actually used the hashtag #sarcasm lol yet people were still threatening to beat me to death, call child protective services, & take away my children lol I even explained within the comments that this was fake, that I edited the photo, & that I'm actually an intactivist & someone responded with 'well I know what I saw!' She was referring back to the doctored photo after I had just told her it was fake lol yeah, seriously!!

"In a way, I'm glad people responded the way they did. I didn't take any of their comments, anger, or hate to heart. They were, in their own way, try to protect my baby.

"However, I'm disappointed that it didn't really go much further than that. Once they were made aware of what my post was actually about, they just said oh & went on their way.

"Others dismissed the connection between the dimple piercing & genital cutting & felt it necessary to attempt to explain why they cut their child. Its ironic that they were ready to beat me to death over my excuses for piercing my baby, but then they used the same EXACT excuse to justify cutting their baby lol.

"Why so hypocritical?? How is it so triggering, so enraging to see my baby with a pierced dimple, but actually knowing a baby is being strapped down & forcibly having his most sensitive & innervative portion of his penis amputated, seems perfectly ok??

"How can society threaten death over one, but encourage & support the other? Piercing is bad, but cutting is accepted as the norm?

"... Thanks again to everyone who shared, commented, & participated on my post. It's been a great day, even with the illiterates, overall I think we made a positive impact! We definitely planted quite a few seeds!!"

Wow, there is a lot of food for thought there, right? ? ? ?

What do you think?

We do see what Enedina was trying to do, for sure – and she's certainly got her message out there.

But what do you think of her shock tactics? We have to say: we're not sure ear-piercing and cheek-piercing are 100% comparative but what about her points on circumcision? Is that comparable to cheek-piercing?

Tell us your thoughts on this whole debate in the comments below or over on Facebook

Pic: Enedina Vance on Facebook

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Authors

Tara BreathnachContent Editor and Social Media Producer

Tara is mum to 1 daughter, Bodhi Rae, and has worked as Content Editor and Social Media Producer at MadeForMums since 2015

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