IT doesn’t take much to offend the moral highground of social media, and this week the Twitterati had girl band Little Mix in their firing line.

The group appeared on X Factor, the show they won in 2011, performing new single Shout Out To My Ex, wearing what have been described as provocative outfits. They had barely taken to the stage when Twitter was already starting to bristle with indignation. “Yep, Little Mix might as well be strippers”, quipped one user. “Was (sic) Little Mix running late because they seem to have come out wearing just their underwear,” tweeted another.

Since I’d rather boil my head than watch X Factor I didn’t see the girls perform on Sunday night’s results show, but I’ve since caught the footage and have mixed feelings about it.

To be honest, their costumes - thigh-high PVC boots, corsets, leather chokers, flesh-revealing bodysuits - probably wouldn’t look out of place in a raunchy club, but the overall image appeared to reflect the defiant attitude of the song. Here were four confident young women, sticking two fingers up (figuratively speaking) at ex-boyfriends they clearly feel they’re better off without. It’s the kind of girls’ night out anthem that's de rigueur for female singers.

Girl bands have always been feisty, from The Ronettes to Bananarama, Spice Girls and beyond. The idea is to inspire girls and young women to be assertive, to make their mark in the world, and not put up with rubbish boyfriends. The paradox is that girl bands often end up looking so over-styled and diva-ish they send out mixed messages to the average 12-year-old schoolgirl.

Girl groups are generally hit and miss; there have been some appalling ones over the years, (the ones who look as though they’re practising wooden dance moves in front of their bedroom mirror), and some great ones delivering impressive pop songs with polished performances. Among these I would count All Saints, Sugababes and Little Mix.

But can they be role models for adolescent girls (and also little girls, since pop is now more cynically marketed at children than ever before) when they’re strutting around dressed like cage dancers?

The online backlash for Little Mix came days after former Spice Girl Mel C, who has a young daughter, spoke out against the group’s sexy image. The singer said pop has become shallow and sexualised, and we now live in an age that is “100per cent more narcissistic” than the Spice Girls’ heyday.

Supporters of Little Mix argue that they have grown into young women since winning X Factor, and their raunchy outfits are no different from what artists such as Beyonce wear.

I just hope female artists can continue to inspire young women and encourage them to be assertive and confident, without the need to be a diva in PVC boots.

Personally, I think in terms of inspiring females you'd be hard pressed to find one more so than a young woman who changed the world the day she boarded a school bus one October day in 2012.

Malala Yousafzai , then 15, was travelling home in a northwest Pakistan region, where the Taliban was active in banning girls from school, when she was shot in the head. Not only did she make a remarkable recovery, and defy further Taliban threats to her life, she was at the centre of an international education rights movement.

Now the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate, Malala is heading to Bradford for next month's Women of the World festival.

Now that's what I call a female role model.

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