Feminism is a controversial topic that originated in the late 1700s. It is the advocacy of women’s rights in hopes of equality of the sexes. Misogyny also plays a very important role in the story in comparison to feminist problems. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the idea for the creation of Gilead originates from many feminist issues arising in the time of the book’s publication. In “‘Just a Backlash’: Margaret Atwood, Feminism, and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’,” Shirley Neuman states that “... the gains women had achieved during the previous decade had come under attack from several directions…. The debate about freedom of choice for women flipped over into court rulings about rights and freedoms. The Equal Rights Amendment died” (860). The setting of the
…show more content…
Living in such a dystopia, everyone goes by a precise schedule. Especially for the women, this routine limits what rights and freedoms they have available to them. Their only use is to bear children for the rest of the society. This type of government forces society to believe by manipulating what once was real, was never actually in existence. This mostly refers to the historical events that took place before a totalitarian government took over Gilead. This is a government that takes extreme actions to use women as objects for pornographic display. Atwood describes a Handmaid’s body during intercourse as a dissection. In “‘Into the Memory Hole’: Totalitarianism and Mal d’Archive in Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale” written by Theo Finigan, the author states that “This symbolic dissection--the cutting of the Hand-maid--acts as synecdochic figure for Gilead’s domination of women’s bodies more generally” (440). Gilead’s totalitarian type of government also invades the privacy of the women. The antipodal claim of being a utopia for women, the government requires regulation and inspects most aspects of their lives. Finigan also states that If the Handmaids’ compulsory monthly physical exams are one of the means the regime uses to regulate its subjects’ relation to time, the fact that these tests are fundamentally concerned with interpreting physiological processes also suggests that the body—or, more especially, its interior—is a key site of totalitarian surveillance (Finigan
Living in such a dystopia, everyone goes by a precise schedule. Especially for the women, this routine limits what rights and freedoms they have available to them. Their only use is to bear children for the rest of the society. This type of government forces society to believe by manipulating what once was real, was never actually in existence. This mostly refers to the historical events that took place before a totalitarian government took over Gilead. This is a government that takes extreme actions to use women as objects for pornographic display. Atwood describes a Handmaid’s body during intercourse as a dissection. In “‘Into the Memory Hole’: Totalitarianism and Mal d’Archive in Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale” written by Theo Finigan, the author states that “This symbolic dissection--the cutting of the Hand-maid--acts as synecdochic figure for Gilead’s domination of women’s bodies more generally” (440). Gilead’s totalitarian type of government also invades the privacy of the women. The antipodal claim of being a utopia for women, the government requires regulation and inspects most aspects of their lives. Finigan also states that If the Handmaids’ compulsory monthly physical exams are one of the means the regime uses to regulate its subjects’ relation to time, the fact that these tests are fundamentally concerned with interpreting physiological processes also suggests that the body—or, more especially, its interior—is a key site of totalitarian surveillance (Finigan