Praise Be: This Sexy Handmaid's Tale Costume Got Pulled After Backlash

With Halloween just around the corner, retailers are unveiling costumes that, as usual, reflect varying degrees of creativity and cringe-worthiness. One company in particular—Yandy—has made a yearly tradition out of offending people with its inventory. Over the years they've sold an offensive pregnant Kylie Jenner, an inappropriate Eleven from Stranger Things, and a "seductive squaw"—just to name a few.

And, of course, 2018 is no different. Yandy's already received backlash for its "sexy" Handmaid's Tale–inspired costume. So much so, in fact, that the retailer has since removed it from the site.

The $65 "Brave Red Maiden" costume, described on yandy.com as "a red minidress, a matching cloak with an attached hood, and a white bonnet headpiece," mimics the robes worn by the characters on Hulu's adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel. Naturally, this received a volley of criticism from Twitter users, who accused Yandy of sexualizing subject matter that is represents the oppression of women.

"Over the last few hours, it has become obvious that [the costume] is being seen as a symbol of women’s oppression, rather than empowerment. This is unfortunate as it was not our intention on any level," the company said in a statement posted on its social media accounts. "Our initial inspiration to create the piece was through witnessing its use in recent months as a powerful protest image."

To many, the costume was a gross way to capitalize on what has become a symbol of women's rights and protest. Recently, a group of women wore red robes to stand against a series of antiabortion bills in Texas. In June several "handmaids" also showed up to a demonstration at the U. S. Capitol in support of Planned Parenthood.

"Our society doesn't take the rape of real women seriously, why should they take the rape of fictional women seriously?" one user wrote on Twitter.

Others called for social media users to show the same frustration with other insensitive Halloween costumes from sites like Yandy. "Now that you've gotten the costume based on a fictional dystopia removed, can y'all muster up enough backlash to do something about the site's entire 'Indian Costumes' section?" a user wrote.

The "Brave Red Maiden" may be no more, but we doubt this will be the last Halloween controversy—it's only September, after all.