When Instagram Stories Go Bad
By Kelli Luu | 25 Sep, 2025

Taylor Townsend’s Chinese buffet reactions went viral, revealing how thoughtless posts can feed hurtful old stereotypes.

In today’s world what you post on social media can travel faster than a tennis serve.  This past week Taylor Townsend learned that the hard way. 

Townsend was visiting Shenzhen, China to compete at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals when she posted a series of Instagram stories sharing her opinion about the food spread at a buffet. She laughed and made comments about the sea cucumber dish being the “craziest thing” she had ever seen and that she was going to have to “talk to HR” because “eating turtle and bullfrog is WILD”. 

What I believe made these comments worse was Townsend posting another story to her page to share more of her reaction saying, “These people are literally killing frogs… bullfrogs. Aren’t those poisonous? Aren’t those the ones that be giving you warts and boils and stuff?”. 

The curious journalist in me consulted Google and learned that frogs, in fact, do not give you warts. They are actually caused by HPV which frogs and amphibians don’t carry.  So, no, we can’t get warts from touching or eating frogs. 

This myth may be a commonplace we often heard as kids, but when someone with a large following repeats these falsehoods, it feeds negative stereotypes.  People already think Asians eat crazy and wild things — dogs, bats, bullfrogs.  If we’re being real, in some parts of Asia, it’s true. Millions of people around the world eat foods which, to many outsiders, look appalling.  I truly believe Townsend’s initial reaction was natural for someone who has never been exposed to exotic foods.  But the problem isn’t her human reaction, it’s the intention to mock. 

Thoughtlessly combining mockery with myths like “frogs give you warts” stigmatizes the foods of another culture as dangerous and “gross” rather than something that’s simply not appealing to you.  It feeds the childish and boorish impulse to mock them rather than to understand their place in tradition, culture, and, dare I say it, survival.  Influencers who put the “gross” label on foods of another culture open the door for followers to dehumanize the people who eat them. 

In our globalized age celebrities need to wake up and realize that their social media posts are no longer just for friends.  They must remember that one quick comment or silly reaction can shape the way their following views an entire culture.  More importantly for the celebrity herself, thoughtless comments can permanently slap her with the label of “arrogant, narrow-minded American boor” – hardly the label an international pro athlete wants to be branded with.

When you’re on an international stage, representing your country, everything you say matters. Being yourself doesn’t mean saying the first thing that pops into your head, then acting surprised when the internet holds you accountable. 

These kinds of remarks also add to all those stereotypical jokes that the Asian community has been dealing with for several generations.  Disrespectful mockery by those who should be setting an example fuels microaggressions like those side eyes at an Asian kid’s lunchbox. 

Cultural sensitivity and awareness are signs of class in a globalized world, especially if you’re fortunate enough to be seen as a representative of your nation.  There are ways to be authentic without being thoughtless.  It’s possible to stay relatable without offending and hurting other people in the process.  The food on your plate doesn’t matter.  What matters is the respect you show or fail to show to the people serving it.