Furiosa's 'Patriarchy In Offred'

In contrast to Offred, Furiosa does not accept her patriarchy’s rule. Immortan Joe’s rule does not necessarily oppress women as a whole like the Republic of Gilead. Most of the people under his rule are peasant men and women. These peasants, while treated horribly through Immortan Joe’s inhumane control of the freshwater supply, seem to be treated equally. However, Immortan Joe does treat his five wives as property. Furiosa does not stand for this, and she actually fights back. Furiosa was born in the Green Place within a tribe of women before her mother was killed, and she was kidnapped to live under Immortan Joe. Under the patriarchy, Furiosa is shaped to be a warrior. She is forced to compete with men for power under Immortan Joe’s ruthless control. She thus abandons her feminine qualities for stereotypical male qualities. She does not care as much about her appearance as a woman in a …show more content…
The vast power of Immortan Joe and the society he created imprints a sense of dominance over Furiosa. She does not initially try to kill Immortan Joe or to somehow give the people access to water, but she aims to run away. Her plan in is to simply take the Wives, run away to the Green Place, and live happily away from the patriarchy. Even after she learns that the Green Place is gone and that she has nowhere to go, her plan is to continue running away. She tells Max, “If we leave the Rig here, and load the motorcycles up with as much as we can, we can maybe ride for 160 days” (Mad Max: Fury Road). Her society has made her believe that the patriarchy is too strong to overcome, and she would rather run away for five months looking for something in an empty desert. It isn’t until Max proposes a plan to fight back that she considers the possibility of an end to the patriarchy. It is Max’s input that finally gives Furiosa something the patriarchy aimed to steal from its people,