For this month, based on my mother’s suggestion, I read The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. I found it to be an insightful social commentary on misogyny in America, as instead of writing in the obvious sense of the topic with a protagonist living in present day, faced by the all too real challenges that being a woman in society today could face, Atwood took another route. Instead, Atwood painted a dark and eerie picture of a dystopian future for the United States: a new, totalitarian government, called The Republic of Gilead. The hope of this new nation was to end the amount of pornography, prostitution, and violence towards women. At a glance, the idea sounds to be quite noble, and generally a positive thing for a country to strive towards
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This was because they both had the rare combination of being in power and being women. Handmaids being re-educated are taught that their only purpose is to have children, and that they exist only to please men. The thing is, they are not taught this from men, but rather from other women. These women believe that they are only there to please men, and teach other women that they should, too. In the beginning of the book, we are told that the goal of Gilead was to help end violence against women. However, we are not told how they plan on going about this. At the re-education center, women are told that their negative experiences with men are their own faults. On page 72, after young woman at the center recalls her rape, the other women chant in unison “her fault, her fault, her fault.” This is to reinforce the idea that they are there only for the benefits they bring to the lives of men, and provides, while hyperbolic, a parallel to the reality of today. While women do not directly yell that sexual assault is the victim’s fault simultaneously, it is implied. Too often our first questions are “what was she wearing?” Or “how much did she have to drink?” As if to say that these things may put the woman at fault. I think this is was Atwood was getting at, albeit in an exaggerated
This was because they both had the rare combination of being in power and being women. Handmaids being re-educated are taught that their only purpose is to have children, and that they exist only to please men. The thing is, they are not taught this from men, but rather from other women. These women believe that they are only there to please men, and teach other women that they should, too. In the beginning of the book, we are told that the goal of Gilead was to help end violence against women. However, we are not told how they plan on going about this. At the re-education center, women are told that their negative experiences with men are their own faults. On page 72, after young woman at the center recalls her rape, the other women chant in unison “her fault, her fault, her fault.” This is to reinforce the idea that they are there only for the benefits they bring to the lives of men, and provides, while hyperbolic, a parallel to the reality of today. While women do not directly yell that sexual assault is the victim’s fault simultaneously, it is implied. Too often our first questions are “what was she wearing?” Or “how much did she have to drink?” As if to say that these things may put the woman at fault. I think this is was Atwood was getting at, albeit in an exaggerated