Blindness Double Standard

Finally, today’s society places a rather cruel and inhumane double standard upon women and allow server consequences to happen to the women if they step away form the standard. The topic of rape is one that comes up a lot that begs the question of whether or not women are the victims or are they to be blamed for being raped. In today’s society, “Half of all Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16” says, the Canadian Women’s Foundation. In many cases the young girls are even younger then 16 but are unable to report it. Many women are raped each day and never report the incident because society has told them that it is their fault, that the women were ‘asking’ for it, or wearing …show more content…
She is suggested to be a prostitute and the small group of them that have been placed in the ward first are aware of what she is. When the blind people are first put into the ward they use a system of walking in a line with their hands on the shoulder of the person in front of them. The man that the doctor’s wife refers to as the car thief is “placed behind the girl with dark glasses, the thief, aroused by the perfume she exuded…decided to put his hands to better use, the one caressing the nape of her neck beneath her hair, the other, openly and unceremoniously fondling her breast. She wriggled to shake him off, but he was grabbing her firmly” (Saramago 50) The car thief believes that because she sells herself to men, he too can grab at her without permission. The double standard of men being able to be involved with multiple women, but women being unable to be involved with multiple men plays a major role in why he believes that he may grab at her. The girl with the dark glasses being a prostitute gives the car thief the idea that she is open to everyone who wants her, just like society says that if a girl is continuously ‘promiscuous’ she is asking men to grab at her and that it is okay. When the girl attempts to shake him off he does not because he has no regard for her, but wants from her what he believes she owes him. In addition, throughout the novel …show more content…
Janine was one of the women that was with Offred while being trained to be a handmaid at what they called the Red Centre. She was gang raped when she was 14 and the Aunt’s make her repent for her sins and confess that it was her fault because she was asking for it, in front of all the other handmaid’s. In their society rape was a major issue before the new government stepped in and protected the women in exchange for the bodies, but those who had been raped were always blamed. Offred recalls