June 08, 2016
Alana Hubbard/Mother Hubbard Photography
Kids partake in Alana Hubbard's "Walking Dead" photo shoot.
The 29-year-old New Jersey mom behind a "Walking Dead" cosplay photoshoot starring 4-year-old kids isn't the least bit sorry that Facebook puritans temporarily took exception to her "violent" reenactments of scenes on the hit AMC series.
In fact, Alana Hubbard, the Woodbridge resident behind Mother Hubbard Photography, is pretty happy to have gone viral, hit the major networks and picked up thousands upon thousands of new followers (FYI: As Hubbard notes on Facebook, the train tracks in the group photo below have been inactive since the early 20th century).
The photo shoot, which features Hubbard's kids and the children of her friends, was planned as a creative homage to the horror drama. When the gallery was posted to Facebook, some commenters bashed Hubbard for exposing children to a culture of casual violence, as if Halloween doesn't already reward the occult imagination with candy, of all things.
When one commenter posted photos of actual dead children to make some kind of point, Facebook suspended the Mother Hubbard Photography account for nearly a day. It was later restored with a disclaimer on the "Walking Dead" gallery, clearly warning of mature content and graphic violence.
Hubbard is now enjoying the limelight and sharing all kinds of content related to the photo shoot, but a minority opinion of those voicing outrage warrants some consideration.
It's understandable that people who don't watch or care about "The Walking Dead" — or who dislike the horror genre in general — might find the photo shoot personally distasteful. That's their call and they can freely disregard it.
The frothing argument that this clearly recreational and artistic project exposed these kids to true violence, however, is a prime example of the kind of willful naiveté that prevents young people from learning how to distinguish between fair and foul play, reality and fiction. Commenters who vilified Hubbard failed to observe that these kids were, you know, having tangible fun and goofing around in a way that connects with a major reference point in our culture.
By most standards, albeit in an irreverent and, at worst, lightly provocative way, that's called socialization.
Would everyone go about it this way? Definitely not. Some might fairly question whether the kids are being desensitized to weapons, but we can only hope that these parents — and all parents — have the sense to talk to their kids about safety and the dangers of the world in which we live.
If the backlash does anything positive, it will at least inspire a review of the experience these kids had. Maybe we can learn from, but mostly laugh at, what they have to say. Hubbard, for her part, is wasting no time moving on to her next project.
