The Handmaid's Tale... a cautionary tale, or just an exaggeration?
When Margaret Atwood debuted the now classical Handmaid's Tale, it was well-received by the critics, placing it in the same category as 1984 by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley's The Brave New World. Now, almost forty years later, Hulu has picked it up and the television show is causing much debate and sensation. The primary target audience is predictably female, and it is causing much debate.
To quickly recap, Offred is a concubine in the household of a powerful figure in a dystopian America that has been overtaken by a fundamentalist group. Women have been relegated to being accessories to men's existence in this world where infertility is a huge problem (along with pollution that makes much of the landmass inhabitable). There are the Handmaids, who are basically just walking birthing tools, The Wives, who are the rightful spouses of these men, Marthas, who are the housekeepers, etc. Freedom is not allowed, and everything is strictly controlled. Including sex.
In the light of recent elections, the fact that the TV series took off may appear, at first glance, to be a precaution. Are we all headed that way? Is this the time to say enough is enough?
Or is it just an exaggeration?
It is easy to commiserate with Offred and to recount the tales of woe that we (as women) have been inflicted upon; mansplaining, being looked over, being treated as inferior, etc. There is an inherent sense of fear as we walk down the dirty alleyway at 2AM, a nervous voice asking us whether this will be our last stroll to anywhere - ever. We see the Wife as a fellow oppressor, the master as a cruel, almost crassly inconsiderate male.
But is it that easy? Aren't they all victims? I highly doubt the Wife wants to watch her husband have sex with Offred, and yet she is forced to do so. However, a quick perusal online shows me that very few - if any - has given consideration for the Wife, or the Commander.
And just what does it mean to be a woman, anyway? If you are oppressed because you are a woman (as Offred experiences), are you now a woman? What about the Commander's Wife, then? And hasn't Offred transgressed against another woman by being the Other Woman before America fell to these fundamentalists?
Where do we draw the line between a man and a woman?
Are you born a woman, or are you made a woman, in Beauvoir's parlance?
If we use statistical statements from psychology as admissible evidence in court, then should we also accept the psychological evidence that women are more emotional, or that women are worse at 3D reasoning?
What makes me a woman and not a man? If I undergo sex-change, am I a man?
To quickly recap, Offred is a concubine in the household of a powerful figure in a dystopian America that has been overtaken by a fundamentalist group. Women have been relegated to being accessories to men's existence in this world where infertility is a huge problem (along with pollution that makes much of the landmass inhabitable). There are the Handmaids, who are basically just walking birthing tools, The Wives, who are the rightful spouses of these men, Marthas, who are the housekeepers, etc. Freedom is not allowed, and everything is strictly controlled. Including sex.
In the light of recent elections, the fact that the TV series took off may appear, at first glance, to be a precaution. Are we all headed that way? Is this the time to say enough is enough?
Or is it just an exaggeration?
It is easy to commiserate with Offred and to recount the tales of woe that we (as women) have been inflicted upon; mansplaining, being looked over, being treated as inferior, etc. There is an inherent sense of fear as we walk down the dirty alleyway at 2AM, a nervous voice asking us whether this will be our last stroll to anywhere - ever. We see the Wife as a fellow oppressor, the master as a cruel, almost crassly inconsiderate male.
But is it that easy? Aren't they all victims? I highly doubt the Wife wants to watch her husband have sex with Offred, and yet she is forced to do so. However, a quick perusal online shows me that very few - if any - has given consideration for the Wife, or the Commander.
And just what does it mean to be a woman, anyway? If you are oppressed because you are a woman (as Offred experiences), are you now a woman? What about the Commander's Wife, then? And hasn't Offred transgressed against another woman by being the Other Woman before America fell to these fundamentalists?
Where do we draw the line between a man and a woman?
Are you born a woman, or are you made a woman, in Beauvoir's parlance?
If we use statistical statements from psychology as admissible evidence in court, then should we also accept the psychological evidence that women are more emotional, or that women are worse at 3D reasoning?
What makes me a woman and not a man? If I undergo sex-change, am I a man?
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