A couple has been accused of ‘promoting rape’ for announcing their pregnancy with a photoshoot themed around The Handmaid’s Tale.
Leah Hampton, 28, and her husband Marquis Wimberly, shared the news of their baby by posting photos of the mum-to-be wearing the red robes and white bonnet of the fictional handmaids, who in the books and TV show are forced into sexual servitude in order to repopulate the earth.
Marquis wore a suit to pose as one of the male masters of the fictional series, in one shot doing up his tie as Leah lies on the bed behind him, which people accused of being a reenactment of a rape scene from the TV show.
When Leah shared the photos on Facebook on 29 October, the post quickly received more than 4,500 shares and 15,000 comments.
People flocked to the photos to accuse the couple of ‘glorifying’ rape and call the photos ‘repugnant’. Some people commented that the photos suggest the couple’s baby is a result of rape, as that’s the case for pregnancies in the show.
One commenter wrote: ‘Do they not realise they’re literally promoting rape by doing this photoshoot?’
Another said: ‘Nothing says “I’m excited about my baby” like rape references.’
The former foster parents have spoken out about the backlash, saying they ‘don’t give a f***’ about the criticism.
Marquis said: ‘We were not expecting the negativity that came from it – not even a little bit.
‘Not just the negativity, we didn’t expect any sort of reaction outside of our friends and family. We thought maybe some friends of friends might see it but not total strangers.
‘It would be unreasonable of us to expect everyone to be in love with what we did. We knew there would be some mixed reactions but not to the level it has been.
‘I think people felt like they could shame us into removing them or into apologising.
‘But we were not going to take the post down or issue some sort of apology. That’s what we mean when we say we are unmoved.
‘I’m comfortable with what we put out there and what we did. I’m okay if some people don’t like it. I’m just not okay with people saying crazy things.’
Marquis has called out commenters for judging him and his wife as parents based only on the pregnancy announcement photoshoot.
‘Me and Leah have been foster parents in the past,’ he said. ‘I feel like we have done enough in our lives to trust our judgement.
‘Not that we can’t get things wrong but I can’t take people seriously who call into question our parenting off of a photoshoot.
‘People were saying they don’t get what kind of parents we’re going to be and then in the next breath asking Leah ‘do you need help? This is the number for a survivors’ hotline’.
‘It’s disingenuous. It makes me question whether people are actually worried or they just want us to feel ashamed.
‘The most disturbing to me was that people made this sort of connection like our photo shoot was there to portray the manner in which our child was conceived.
‘It never occurred to me that people would go that far and read into it in that way.
‘Of all the pregnancy shoots I have seen, I have never known any to offer some insight into how the couple conceived their child.
‘If we had dressed up as Bonnie and Clyde, who are real life murderers, would people assume that our child was conceived on the run and we bought our crib with bank robbery money?’
The first-time parents, who have been married for four years, were over the moon when they found out they were expecting in June.
While most of their friends and family knew about Leah’s pregnancy after the couple sent out baby shower invites at the start of October, they decided to do a social media announcement for their more distant relations.
Leah and Marquis contacted Brittany Garcia Photography, who came highly recommended by a friend, and showed her stills from The Handmaid’s Tale as she hadn’t seen the show.
The mum-to-be initially posted the pictures on Facebook so they were only visible to people on her friends list but got such a positive reaction, she decided to make the public.
Leah, who is 26 weeks pregnant, said: ‘We wanted to do a pregnancy announcement but we didn’t want the usual ‘stand around in a meadow’ kind of photos.
‘We are both fans of the show. I got Marquis hooked to it so we decided to use it as our theme.
‘Our photographer had never seen the show so Marquis showed her some pictures from the show from memorable scenes.
‘It’s clear she got a good sense of what it looks like because the photos perfectly recreate the tone. I was ecstatic when I was the photos. They’re beautiful.’
Leah’s post alongside the photos originally said: ‘Blessed Day! We are happy to announce that I am carrying the precious fruit, arriving February 2020.. Happy Halloween!’
When things quickly turned sour, Leah was shocked and says her immediate response was to start deleting the negative comments.
However, instead of trying to silence the critics, Leah instead decided to update her post with a defiant message that read: ‘Some people have been so viscerally moved by the Handmaid’s Tale that our photoshoot has upset their sensitivities.
‘They care so deeply and passionately about women that they have resorted to harassing a pregnant woman on Facebook.
‘Folks, we are UNMOVED.
‘We hope you continue to enjoy our Halloween/Baby Announcement photos and our take on the fictitious television show, The Handmaid’s Tale.
‘Not everyone will like or agree with our theme. We don’t give a f***.’
Leah has now turned off notifications for the Facebook post, but the comments continue to roll in.
The couple say the photos weren’t intended to promote or make light of rape, but to celebrate their love for the series.
Marquis said: ‘A lot of these people are crazy. This is a fictional TV show. That they’ve had that response to something that isn’t real or tied to real events doesn’t make sense to me.
‘Saying it’s fictional, our point was not to say that there isn’t an important message in the show or to downplay or make light of people’s connections with the show and their own experiences.
‘The show does a good job of getting those issues talked about. We do get that. But that doesn’t make it any less fictitious.
‘We felt like we were displaying our connection with the show. We like it so much, we wanted to really capture it.
‘Maybe people think that content should be protected or it’s sanctified or off limits.
‘We felt like people dress up as both real and fictional characters all the time and we didn’t feel this was off limits.’
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