The country of Gilead is the United States following a massive religious revival and social upheaval. In this bleak future, women are subject to one of five positions: Wives, Econowives, Handmaids, Marthas, and Jezebels. Each position comes with it an element of a loss of self and agency, and a reduction to a piece of property.
Atwood explores well the theming of societal views of property in women. Her use of the restrictive and concealing clothing the handmaids and wives were forced to wear provides a glimpse into the general perception of religiously motivated control of women’s sexuality. The public shaming the rape victims were subject to cemented this concept. A woman who is raped isn’t being robbed of bodily autonomy and subject to a gross personal assault, she is guilty of a lack of modesty, because the only way she could drive a man to want to rape her is through a lack of modesty. One of the great tragedies this book lays bare, is that this attitude of victim blaming is prevalent, even in supposedly more evolved “western” cultures.
Offred’s foray into the Jezebel’s Club show that the over sexualization of women is, in itself, another form of creating property and ownership in women. In this case, it is reduction of women to mere objects of sexual desire, present only for the gratification of men. The sad tale of Moira in the novel presents this. Element well, where she successfully escaped her restricted life as a handmaid, but still failed to gain true bodily autonomy.
These two examples present Atwood’s criticism of the toxic “virgin/whore” dichotomy that exists in perceptions of women. A woman, in the eyes of many observers can only fit into one of those two designations, and, in the end, they are two sides of the same coin.
The element of rape made an additional appearance in the form of the poor guardian who was called a rapist by Aunt Lydia, and it gave the handmaids freedom to collectively take out all of their pent up anger on him. It is possible he did not even commit the crime for which he was accused. In the context of the scene, it didn’t matter. Guilty or not, he represented the entire system oppressing and repressing the handmaids, and they relished in the opportunity to take revenge.
This is further complicated with the understanding that all of the handmaids are victims of rape. They are forced to submit and acquiesce to sex with the commanders from whom one derives their namesake. In sex where one side is given the option to deny consent. That act is rape, state sanctioned rape.
The fact that the Commander does not relish the act, and is, himself, going about it in an act of doing his duty shows how, though this is considered a society that is patriarchal to the extreme, men suffer greatly from this view of women and sex as well.
This book is sobering and haunting, made all the more so in the fact that Atwood performed research, and everything done in the book was done by humans somewhere to other humans. The “historical notes” epilogue (that interestingly and purposefully leaves lots of questions unanswered) reflects well the way academic reflection breeds impersonal detachment to this behavior and these types of events, but they are real things that humans have done to each other and continue to do to each other.
This book should be mandatory reading to maintain the reality of the events described within.
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This book is a solid read. Very intense. Not as intense as the show but it still has a lot of information.
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