'Handmaids Tale' Wedding Photo Is Causing Serious Backlash Online

A Canadian couple’s fairytale wedding is going viral for all the wrong reasons. Just a month [...]

By Allison Schonter

A Canadian couple's fairytale wedding is going viral for all the wrong reasons. Just a month after the couple tied the knot in Cambridge, Ontario, their Handmaid's Tale-inspired wedding photo is receiving major backlash. Snapped by married photographers Shawn Van Daele and Clint Russell, the photo of the newlyweds locked in a kiss is set amid the backdrop of the infamous "hanging wall" in the Margaret Atwood novel-turned-Hulu series.

"Praise be! Kendra and Torsten are married!" the photographers captioned the since-deleted photo. "If there's any 'The Handmaid's Tale' fans out there, you'll know most of it is filmed in Cambridge! So, as fans of the show, it only seemed fitting for there to be some Handmaids in K&T's wedding photos along the 'hanging wall' in Mill Race Park!"

Fans familiar with the Hulu series, set in the dystopian society of Gilead in which fertile women are ritualistically raped as the human population dwindles, know that the "hanging wall" is the very location where the bodies of executed men and women who have disobeyed the law, including LGBTQ+ people, dubbed "gender traitors," are displayed.

Those who saw the wedding photo criticized the decision to pay homage to such a horrific aspect of the series.

"How did anyone involved in this, including the photographers, think this was a good idea?" one person wrote, according to Yahoo Style. "Like, do y'all even know what the book and show was about? What is wrong with you?"

"The tone deafness of referencing a show where women are literal property in wedding photos is pretty damn bad," another added. "he tone deafness of taking photos of a heterosexual wedding in front of the wall that in the show is where they leave people who commit 'crimes' such as homosexuality to hang on display as a warning to others is astounding."

"They're obviously not fans of the show if they thought this was a good idea," added a third.

While Van Daele and Russell defended the image on Facebook, stating that those sitting behind computers writing backlash are "missing the opportunity to think for themselves, to educate themselves and become ENGAGED ACTIVISTS," they further explained the reasoning behind the image when speaking to Vulture. Van Daele claimed that the "image and entire show touches on the oppression faced by the gay community, women, and many other minority groups," adding that it was "very personal."

"It wasn't a focused shoot that it was what we went out to do. We were doing their wedding photos. This is one photo of thousands that are not Handmaid's related. It was a nod to the show as they were married where it was filmed," he added. "The couple as well as ourselves are HUGE fans of the TV show and, obviously, first, the book. Anyone who would put out an image like this without understanding what it implies has bigger problems than upset people on social media. I knew when creating the image that it would possibly upset people, but that's sort of the point … to WAKE PEOPLE UP.

The image, both on Instagram and Facebook, has since been deleted after the photographers initially disabled comments.

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