“Modern Family” actress, Sarah Hyland and her fiancé, Wells Adams are receiving backlash over a recent photo Hyland posted on her Instagram.
Hyland posted a group photo booth photo featuring herself, Adams, and a few friends. Matt Shively is seen grabbing Ashley Newborough’s breast as Adams does the same to Hyland. This is what caused many Instagram viewers to be outraged, citing the #MeToo movement.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4dBoO7lYsg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Hyland captions the photo, “We take wedding photo booths very seriously… #mcm to the men who love and treat their ladies like queens 👸🏻 💕.“ The caption, along with the actions of Shively and Adams, is what caused this photo to be so controversial.
Many users felt offended by this photo and left comments criticizing it. They believed that this was nonconsensual and was not appropriate. They left a series of comments similar to the ones below:
“Like queens = like objects? The dissolution of patriarchal gender relations can’t come soon enough,” one user wrote.
“In times of gender balance and women’s rights and respect, we still see pics like this… we are not moving forward with such mentalities,” another user said.
“This just sends the wrong message,” another user commented.
In refutation, there were also many users who were quick to jump to Hyland’s defense:
“You all realize this is her fiancé right? there’s an extremely large difference between your fiancé grabbing your boob for a photobooth pic in a lighthearted and CONSENSUAL way – and a man treating a woman like “an object”, one user clapped back.
“People are getting so overly sensitive when this is literally just a photo of people having a good a– time WITH THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS WHERE THERE WAS CONSENT,” said another user.
“Hmm if she’s the one posting the pic and marrying that man this photo has no comparison to the #MeToo campaign,” commented another user.
Hyland and Wells have been dating since 2017, and recently got engaged in October.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3uopIRlNlr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3pS5uwlcaE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Neither one has responded to the harsh criticism they have received, but from the looks of it, this just seems like a playful group photo. Everyone seems to be consenting to the poses they made and are having a fun time together.