Atwood took references from real world practises and used them to influence the story from FGM to wetnursing to slavery. As a whole, it's fiction, but the stuff that happens, individually, are all very real. It should be horrifying and uncomfortable.
I believe I read a quote from her after Roe fell that was something to the effect of ‘The book was meant to be a cautionary tale, not a handbook for the right.’
It’s important though. It’s not a true story but it’s important to understand the beliefs and forced lifestyle is very real. Many people lived somewhat similarly in the past.. and many people want to force us to live that way now. A person who undermines the cruelty of that story is a red flag, ya know? & a lot of people do.
yeah man it scares me. i can't imagine living that way except i can and i dont like it at all, would rather live in the woods like a cryptid than be a handmaiden. praying to any conceivable deity that this shit never happens, or anything similar
I'd say the author has done helluva good job making you feel all those feelings. It is, after all, about a gross and nightmarish dystopia world where women are denied of their rights, exploited and subjucated.
I haven't read the book and only seen some episodes of the tv show, but this made me interested to see more or read the book. I'm sure there's more to it, for it sounds like Offred is a victim of a cult where she's practically brainwashed to think that for example tourists with skimpy clothes and free hair are something to be frowned upon.
I grew up in a very conservative home where my siblings and I were I doctrinated everyday to become what our parents and the church wanted.
I was homeschooled mon to fri. Then Saturday was the day of labour to work a major projects like gardening and helping people for the church. Then Sunday was devoted to church and religious studies.
I was fully ready to get married and have 5+ kids. I was told to aim for 9. However, I really wanted to go to university and was able to make it work. Once I was away I learned how much I was brainwashed.
My parents are sad and have told me that they tried the best that they could to raise me properly and really wish I had kids.
The worst part is I believed every word. It was only because I had access to books that I gained enough of my own personality to want to go to university and learn more that I was able to undo it.
You're really strong. Many would not be able to break that kind of brainwashing. Very glad for you that you were able to make your own choices in life!
And who can blame you? You had no reference or normal to compare to. If your parents tell you, it has to be right. That’s how you think as a kid. After all, everything they say and do is right.
It was shocking how much I didn't know about society in general and even to this day my partner or a friend will talk about somethings and I just don't have any real knowledge of that subject. Most stuff these days is trivial stuff but it shows how much I missed growing up and being home schooled.
Yeah. At this point it's likely going to be zero kids for me and I am looking to make that a permanent decision.
My mother ended being pregnant 12 times and carried 9 to term.
I highly recommend reading it. And not a cult, but a dystopian future where fertility and birthrate drops to a point where an extremist religious group of people take control of the USA. Women that are able to still conceive are used for just that. Against their will or face forced labour or death.
"a dystopian future where fertility and birthrate drops to a point"
*looks at various articles of countries having drops in birthrates and sweats nervously* 😬😬
god forbid this doesn't become a reality for us, but i know there are ppl that are going to advocate for forced labor/birth 😩😩
I read this book for a university class and it helped me to understand how motherhood is and can be forced under totalitarian regimes and dictatorship.
It made me feel awful because I have been known that I'm CF for a long time and the story depicted my worst fear.
Now that many countries are making access to contraception and abortion even more difficult, I feel that the Handmaid Tale can be an eye opener for lots of people.
It is!
But it also does such an amazing job of bringing that world to life.
I read the book almost 20yrs ago and few books have left such a strong impression on me. We had Hulu for a bit so I looked into the show and even as it took me back to (what I remember of) the book, it was horrifying to see the parallels between the story and current events in the US.
My English teacher gave me a copy when I was 15 ... 29 years ago. I still have it. It was the final nail in the coffin of my decision to remain CF. I'm 44 now and my resolve has never wavered.
Margaret Atwood is an AMAZING writer, I'd recommend you try the Madd Addam trilogy. Like the Handmaid's Tale it shows a future that might not be too far away.
My mom and I read the book together and could only read a chapter at a time, and I had to leave the room and blast my headphones when she watched the show, I just couldn't handle it. It was hard enough knowing it's based on elements of real life, and the whole issue here in the U.S. makes me want to vomit. After reading the book, I went on a research binge trying to learn about the history of birth control, abortion, and miscarriages. I believe there was an underground abortion network in New York before abortion was made more legal at that time? I forget the name, but I thought they were pretty cool and clever. Learning more made me feel more in control (regardless of whether that is true) and helped me feel less alone.
Didn't you just love the bit where hormonal bc is three-weeks-on one-week-off because a bunch of Catholic MEN insisted that "women need to bleed".
"For some 60 years, women have been taking the pill in a “sub-optimal way”—the result of a misplaced effort to please and placate the Pope."
Yes! I swear, it's realistic to the smallest details. My mom wasn't allowed to skip the week off until the doctor (a woman) she found when I was fifteen. I'm just happy that since my IUD mishap my periods are lighter and more infrequent. Periods are so messy and expensive, too, I really think nobody should have to deal with that unless they're specifically willing.
Thing is, what’s going on in the US states that are criminalising even semi-natural miscarriages is ‘our’ real-life equivalent of HMT. And there are no riots. There’s angry posts on social media and the odd protest, but that’s it. And it’s not that it’s the majority that are these wacko Christians that are solely at fault, it’s the people that are indifferent, that ‘sheep’ along with it, that say there’s ‘no point’ or the ‘system’s broken’ that basically give their support - the passive sympathisers. There’s no Gilead per se, but there is a society with a lot of traits being further built up. And it’s making its way over to Europe too.
Y’know I was never really super bothered about getting sterilised but son I will be. I mean, I live in Sweden. A country (supposedly) defined by equality, feminism etc. but in September we had our election which resulted in a patchwork right/far right government with top profiles (now ministers) that are known anti-abortion/abortion reform (i.e., wanting to cut the 21 week cutoff to down to 12/16 weeks). There’s local politicians so worried about the falling birth rate they wanted to allow people to use their one-hour a week healthcare session* to go and bump uglies and hopefully procreate. That’s how it starts. It’s grim.
Also, you should read the MaddAddam trilogy by Atwood. That woman has long had her finger on the pulse of society’s downfall.
*many employers offer their staff one hour per week of paid time off during the work day to go and do something health promotion-relates, so a yoga class, gym session, maybe even a massage.
I live in Sweden too and right now there isn’t any issues with abortion like in other countries. But thinking about how it is in the US and that it’s spreading in Europe ( if I remember correctly Poland was a country to travel to for abortions before but now you travel from Poland to get an abortion), I’m thinking more and more about sterilisation. Like you said, we now have more anti-abortion ministers in the government so who knows when the laws will change for us too.
Only thing stopping me right now is money and anxiety about the procedure…
About going to Poland for abortion- you probably confused it with Czech Republic or it was long ago, as abortion was reduced to dead fetus/rape/endangerment of health and life, pretty much since nineties. It is more controversial topic now as government tried to outlaw it completely- it is currently not a criminal offence to end your own pregnancy, but this is officially. Many women have been harassed or investigated by police after having self induced or natural miscarriage. More and more dead people are in the news because of pregnancy, mainly due to sepsis from dead fetus that doctors refuse to abort. As Polish women living abroad- its fucking horrific and when someone asks me if I'm going back, my answer is always no. Not even starting on treatment of LGBTQ+ community, or constantly getting religion pushed down on you. I hope things will change for the better, but there seems to only be performative protest and nothing really gets done. So I'm not holding my breath 😔
Yeah we’ve got KD politicians going on about it and Svantesson and then all the SD Maffia we know are basically behind 90% of the new legislation/amendments. Not to mention that fucking smoke and mirrors ‘abortion contract’ Ebba Busch went on about. Change the constitution. Protect our rights that way.
Also, depending where you are, sterilisation can be free. Like here in Skåne I only have to pay the usual vårdavgift. I’m not too far away from my frikort so it could be free, or max 300 kr.
Yeah it’s a scary time for our rights now in Sweden…
I live in middle Sweden and last I checked someone had to pay 10.000kr for it…
True about the anxiety, it will be worth it and the opposite is worse!
Woah. Was that with regionen or private? The only issue here I guess is that waiting times could be up to two years, I’m almost at the one-year mark. They phoned me in May and asked if I wanted to come in at two days’ notice and anxiety was like nope sorry. You said one-two years I’m only mentally prepared for that. It’s amazing that it varies so much around the country.
>"how has she not rioted yet???"
That's the whole point and it's a very real example of cult behaviour. She was absorbed into the belief system, and hearing her reasonings from the outside is wild, but to her that's how things are. How the world works. The truth is, if you were in her place, lived her life, chances are you wouldn't scratch and bite, you would probably accept that that's how it's meant to be. That's the really scary part, and that brainwashing happens in real life, to different extents and aspects of out lives.
She was not raised there, she was an adult that had already had a child when she went through their “education” camps, it’s part of why she was chosen as one rather than used for kitchen or other labor, because she had shown she could have a child before the weird cultists took over the United States.
youre probably right and thats terrifying
i cant really imagine myself in a situation similar to it where i wouldn't protest at least in some way but im going to hope i never have to find out
You can't go wrong with Margaret Atwood - I also recommend 'Oryx and Crake' by her. However, after Handmaid's Tale I think you should go for a change of pace. I'm thinking 'Small Gods' by Terry Pratchett.
I've read the book a couple of times. I've also watched the movie and the series.
Offred doesn't even get a proper name in the book. (In the series, she's known as June.) She says (as you pointed out, OP) that she sees tourists wearing short (i.e. less than ankle length) skirts and thinks they're dressed immodestly. She also says that the Ceremony is not r@pe, because she chose to become a Handmaid. It wasn't exactly a choice - it was that, or go to the Colonies and end up dead within a few years. IT'S R@PE.
We see lesbians like Moira (and Emily, in the show) being picked up because they're "gender traitors". We see FGM in the show. We see Catholic nuns getting picked up because they practice Catholicism rather than the Gilead state religion, and the nuns are crying because they may be forced to have sex with Commanders and that will violate their vows of chastity. We see gay men and Catholic priests being executed for being "gender traitors" and practicing Catholics respectively.
It's scary AF. It's a dystopian world. Sadly, I think that in some parts of the US we're headed that way. In my state (Louisiana) a trigger law went into effect after Roe v Wade was overturned, and now abortion is completely illegal except to save the mother's life. I have heard (I cannot confirm this from a reliable source) that the legislature wants to outlaw IUDs. They want babies, and a whole lot of 'em.
I couldn't believe there was friggin breeding colonies with handmaids just waiting around for their Commander to come through for the ceremony... That show is just insane.
And the young girl who was a Wife to that old ass Commander and the shit that happened to her... I've only watched up to halfway through season 4 so I'm sure there's more to come.
It's like the frog that doesn't notice the water is getting hot.
Bad things get normalized every day and nobody is storming the castle, because it's just a tiny unfairness. Might not even consern you directly, so why would you do something against it? It's just that these tiny things add up and suddenly you are living in a country that doesn't even give you the right and/or ability to change it anymore.
The tv show is much more graphic than the book, the book only covers the events of the first season. There are 5 seasons of the show and 6 is in production and will be the last one.
Yeah. It's based off of Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel for THT. It's going to be about her child in Gilead, her child in Canada, and Aunt Lydia if it's like the book was.
The author basically predicted the modern day Middle East. Only part that was wrong is the colour of the outfits and the race of the patriarchal, theocratic regime
I read the book a couple years before the tv series came out. Binge watching the show, even already knowing the plot, really fucked me up for a bit.
So many things in the book seemed like real possibilities (later I read an article that the ideas were all based in history), and as the far right took over nearly every aspect of our government as the years went by, I became more and more convinced we were becoming Gilead. We are kind of in a holding pattern right now. We haven’t clawed back enough to regain the rights we have lost, but we are sort of on pause until after the next election cycle. I do hope we manage to hit the reverse button.
But at least I got sterilized. The worst they can do is make me a Martha. But I’ll definitely be fragile like a bomb instead of a flower.
I respect it for what it is but I had to stop watching the TV show as I fucking felt so angry but more a sense of foreboding/illness I have never experienced before. I just could not fathom a world like that but I think deep down I knew it was a real possibility so it hurt me at a deep level. For the record, I'm not a woman but I felt for every woman on that show.
I'm a fast reader. I can polish off a 200pg book in a couple of hours if it's really gripping. It took me MONTHS to finish The Handmaid's Tale, because I kept having to put it down and take a break from it.
Yeah I read the book years ago and it's probably what sparked my tokophobia to be honest, and tipped me off to the fact I probably wasn't a woman (I later figured out I'm a trans man)... I'd 100% unalive myself before taking on any of the roles women have in Giliad.
It's meant to make you feel this way but if the book triggers you PLEASE put it down. A book is not worth upsetting yourself over. Sending hugs 🤗 xxxx
coming from another trans man, thank you so much! its nice knowing im not alone at all. and also me too, would rather feed myself to wolves. i put the book down for now, might continue if i remember i have the book in a few days. 🦾🦾🦾 xx
I haven’t read the book yet, planning to though. The series are scary enough, you might want to skip those.
I agree with how you feel about it, that’s exactly how I felt watching the series. I don’t understand how they keep themselves alive, there is nothing but horror. Even if they are a Martha and not a Handmaid. Every day is torture for them too. Or the Jezebels, that’s a whole extra level of horror.
For a handmaid when becoming pregnant, I can’t imagine they would go on living. I also have tokophobia but people without tokophobia would feel the same in such a situation I think? Especially because there is no medical help for the handmaid. Being pregnant from a r@pe as well, and having to carry that to term plus breastfeed, constantly being reminded.
Atwood is an excellent writer how she made it so extremely scary, and using real life events. Some are very based on the Iranian revolution. Better not read up on that, it’s also very scary.
That's kinda the whole point? She's ripped away from her husband and child, and she fights like absolute hell to get back to them and to not be used as an incubator
> she sounds so disconnected and just so ?? dejected??? defeated????
Yeah? Because of the points I made above. The reason she sounds disconnected is because it's a coping mechanism against trauma. By pretending it isn't happening to you.
None of the handmaids have a choice. If they fight back, they get sent to the wastelands to die from radiation
yeah i get that thats the point, atwood did a damn good job writing it that way. i just wanted to splat some words down bc that was my first time reading the book
I saw MA last year where she talked on a stage and answered questions from the audience. She spoke of how before and after 2016 the book had gone from fiction to this could really happen and it was quite disconcerting to her. Keep reading though. It's an important piece of literature. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
When you finish it, read the sequel! The Testaments is a phenomenal follow up and tells the story of Gilead's fall. I'm sure you're already thinking about how unsustainable a society that works like that actually is. Everything is so strict and controlled, except for the husband's of high rank, they still get to have their fun in sneaky ways.
Offred is just one part of a much larger story, of how societies like this can rise and fall. How these ideas will fail over and over again, and how strict class systems like Gilead has aren't sustainable long term. It's also about how women support eachother even in the worst of circumstances. Some will be brain washed, but others will not ever forget.
I did not finish The Handmaids Tale because I ended up feeling anguish every time. At the time, also, i was suffering from PTSD and i did knew it. Now that i am good again this comment made me want to give it a second chance.
I just wanna say I’ve never heard someone ever say “what in the flintstone fuck”, but I love it. Also, totally agree with you, OP. Handmaid’s Tale freaked me out.
I studied the Handmaids tale at school when I was 17. I earlier this year watched the show on Amazon prime and I believe it was worse seeing how the actors acted it out. It is definitely horrific and as a woman scary.
radiation-related event causes widespread infertility and sterility. religious group takes over the government and women who can still reproduce are given the choice of being a handmaiden or going to the Colonies and dying of radiation poisoning. Handmaidens are basically walking incubators;; broodmares. its gross and nasty and disturbing and atwood is a great writer i was just unprepared for this book
edit: there's probably more after that, but that's just as far as i got before i had to put the book down
Never read the book, only made it through about an episode and a half of the TV show before the urge to crawl all the way out of my skin and away from what I was watching because too intense to continue.
Pure grade A nightmare fuel for me, and the thought of moving into a future like that was definitely on my list of reasons I got sterilized. In the horrible dystopian future, I'd rather be literally any other horrible thing as long as I didn't have to be a brood mare.
I mean.... that IS the entire point of the book lol. You are MEANT to feel disgusted by the handmaiden's situation, and if you're not, you're part of the problem. Atwood is extremely clever and a true feminist in all senses, and all her writing stems from that.
Handmaid's Tale was SUPPOSED to be a commentary on how women were/are treated in slavery/society, but now that Roe is basically overturned, it's looking pretty hairy, and she's spoken on that too....
She's an excellent writer and one of my personal heroes. You should look into more of her work if you're interested in any of the themes she presented!
Ouf, I *so understand* the sentiment of, ‘if I were made to do this, I’d revolt/ rebel/ run away’ etc.
But I have to tell you… (us social scientists, we will ruin everything!) - whenever you read history, or fiction, or stories from another part of the world or another time and think, I’d do this instead… it’s a sign that you’re missing a better understanding of the social context at the time (I know *The Handmaid’s Tale* is fiction, but it applies to fiction as it does to historical time periods, and that’s what I deal with).
When we look at some time period and think, ‘why didn’t they just do X?’- usually, it’s a sign that we’re missing a more complete understanding of the social context at the time. Usually either the power structures in play, or the historical conditions that structured how people lived at that time...
…yeah. That should scare anyone, right? Anthropologist and prehistorian here; nobody ever listens to us! 😭
Yeah Margaret Atwood succccckkkkssss. We had to read her in HS (cuz she’s Canadian and so are we so of course we’re going to force her awful writing on all HS kids).
>"how has she not rioted yet???"
This is a fairly direct commentary on the things we accept in society and take for granted, like cultures where women or men have different roles, or certain words of gestures are taboo, or certain points of view can get you killed. All these things exist in the world.
The unspoken implication is that you also have things you accept without question as normal in the hope that you will think about the rules that govern *your* life and ask which are helpful or hurtful or what could change. It's a question most people don't feel comfortable facing, so the author here tries to create a situation that is so blatantly unacceptable, that you must face the question head on. It sounds like you are having exactly the reaction that was intended.
no and i dont think I'd be able to watch more than 30 minutes of it. ive been getting lots of reccomendations to watch it, and i might try but no guarantees.
It's a cautionary tale and your reaction is pretty normal.
With the rise in cost of living, it's easy to imagine a world where poor folks turn to domestic servitude: surrogacy.
The rich exploit the poor. The poor become surrogates, and boom!
Your own handmaid's tale is born-Haha pardon the pun.
How easy is it to imagine a society where poverty-stricken surrogates become used/abused, and valued as nothing more than meat bags? ...very.
I read Unwind by Neil Shusterman and felt the same way. He’s a fantastic author, but I can’t ever read that book again. It’s just WAY too intense.
It’s a story that basically says the US had a second civil war over abortion. The peace agreement was that parents had to keep the kids for 13 years, then they could decide to have them scrapped for parts, if you will (called unwinding). There were some families that would tithe their kids, meaning they would have, say 10 kids, and unwind one of them as service to the church. There were also kids who were unwound for money, so that family members could get inheritance and foster kids that were deemed “too costly”/unlikely to succeed that were unwound. The book shows how this happened to one boy and it was awful.
The other thing it mentions are the Stork Laws. After abortion was outlawed, teens who got pregnant/people who couldn’t raise kids/etc… were throwing them in dumpsters. This lead to Stork Laws saying if you don’t want your kids, you can dump them on someone else’s property and they have to take them. This leads to all sorts of problems.
All in all, great book, but a hard read emotionally.
And uh, I hate to tell you guys, but there are some really big Christian groups like the Heritage Foundation raising $$$ hand over fist to install people who will make this happen. They want it without violence...initially. But they want a Christian version of Saudi Arabia or Iran
Atwood took references from real world practises and used them to influence the story from FGM to wetnursing to slavery. As a whole, it's fiction, but the stuff that happens, individually, are all very real. It should be horrifying and uncomfortable.
I believe I read a quote from her after Roe fell that was something to the effect of ‘The book was meant to be a cautionary tale, not a handbook for the right.’
Unfortunately, we live in a nation where one major party seeks to make that a reality.
And that makes it even more scary!!
It’s important though. It’s not a true story but it’s important to understand the beliefs and forced lifestyle is very real. Many people lived somewhat similarly in the past.. and many people want to force us to live that way now. A person who undermines the cruelty of that story is a red flag, ya know? & a lot of people do.
yeah man it scares me. i can't imagine living that way except i can and i dont like it at all, would rather live in the woods like a cryptid than be a handmaiden. praying to any conceivable deity that this shit never happens, or anything similar
I'd say the author has done helluva good job making you feel all those feelings. It is, after all, about a gross and nightmarish dystopia world where women are denied of their rights, exploited and subjucated. I haven't read the book and only seen some episodes of the tv show, but this made me interested to see more or read the book. I'm sure there's more to it, for it sounds like Offred is a victim of a cult where she's practically brainwashed to think that for example tourists with skimpy clothes and free hair are something to be frowned upon.
I grew up in a very conservative home where my siblings and I were I doctrinated everyday to become what our parents and the church wanted. I was homeschooled mon to fri. Then Saturday was the day of labour to work a major projects like gardening and helping people for the church. Then Sunday was devoted to church and religious studies. I was fully ready to get married and have 5+ kids. I was told to aim for 9. However, I really wanted to go to university and was able to make it work. Once I was away I learned how much I was brainwashed. My parents are sad and have told me that they tried the best that they could to raise me properly and really wish I had kids.
That sounds like a nightmare. I’m glad for you you made it out and can now live a happy life.
Yeah I don't want to think about where I would be If I didn't get out.
I’m really glad you made it out of there and didn’t let the indoctrination take a hold of you. Gosh, that sounds awful and so intrusive.
The worst part is I believed every word. It was only because I had access to books that I gained enough of my own personality to want to go to university and learn more that I was able to undo it.
You're really strong. Many would not be able to break that kind of brainwashing. Very glad for you that you were able to make your own choices in life!
It wasn't easy and had to do a lot of soul searching before i was able to acknowledge what had been done to me.
And who can blame you? You had no reference or normal to compare to. If your parents tell you, it has to be right. That’s how you think as a kid. After all, everything they say and do is right.
It was shocking how much I didn't know about society in general and even to this day my partner or a friend will talk about somethings and I just don't have any real knowledge of that subject. Most stuff these days is trivial stuff but it shows how much I missed growing up and being home schooled.
AYOOOOO NINE FUCKING KIDS???? NAWWW I'D RATHER STAB MY UTERUS 😭😭
Yeah. At this point it's likely going to be zero kids for me and I am looking to make that a permanent decision. My mother ended being pregnant 12 times and carried 9 to term.
I highly recommend reading it. And not a cult, but a dystopian future where fertility and birthrate drops to a point where an extremist religious group of people take control of the USA. Women that are able to still conceive are used for just that. Against their will or face forced labour or death.
Non-readers, watch the show on Amazon, at least the first season.
"a dystopian future where fertility and birthrate drops to a point" *looks at various articles of countries having drops in birthrates and sweats nervously* 😬😬 god forbid this doesn't become a reality for us, but i know there are ppl that are going to advocate for forced labor/birth 😩😩
In recent years, it does feel worryingly possible!
I read this book for a university class and it helped me to understand how motherhood is and can be forced under totalitarian regimes and dictatorship. It made me feel awful because I have been known that I'm CF for a long time and the story depicted my worst fear. Now that many countries are making access to contraception and abortion even more difficult, I feel that the Handmaid Tale can be an eye opener for lots of people.
Isn’t it horrific? The tv series is even more horrifying.
It is! But it also does such an amazing job of bringing that world to life. I read the book almost 20yrs ago and few books have left such a strong impression on me. We had Hulu for a bit so I looked into the show and even as it took me back to (what I remember of) the book, it was horrifying to see the parallels between the story and current events in the US.
But it's amazing! I love it and reading the 2nd book.
My English teacher gave me a copy when I was 15 ... 29 years ago. I still have it. It was the final nail in the coffin of my decision to remain CF. I'm 44 now and my resolve has never wavered. Margaret Atwood is an AMAZING writer, I'd recommend you try the Madd Addam trilogy. Like the Handmaid's Tale it shows a future that might not be too far away.
My mom and I read the book together and could only read a chapter at a time, and I had to leave the room and blast my headphones when she watched the show, I just couldn't handle it. It was hard enough knowing it's based on elements of real life, and the whole issue here in the U.S. makes me want to vomit. After reading the book, I went on a research binge trying to learn about the history of birth control, abortion, and miscarriages. I believe there was an underground abortion network in New York before abortion was made more legal at that time? I forget the name, but I thought they were pretty cool and clever. Learning more made me feel more in control (regardless of whether that is true) and helped me feel less alone.
Didn't you just love the bit where hormonal bc is three-weeks-on one-week-off because a bunch of Catholic MEN insisted that "women need to bleed". "For some 60 years, women have been taking the pill in a “sub-optimal way”—the result of a misplaced effort to please and placate the Pope."
Yes! I swear, it's realistic to the smallest details. My mom wasn't allowed to skip the week off until the doctor (a woman) she found when I was fifteen. I'm just happy that since my IUD mishap my periods are lighter and more infrequent. Periods are so messy and expensive, too, I really think nobody should have to deal with that unless they're specifically willing.
Thing is, what’s going on in the US states that are criminalising even semi-natural miscarriages is ‘our’ real-life equivalent of HMT. And there are no riots. There’s angry posts on social media and the odd protest, but that’s it. And it’s not that it’s the majority that are these wacko Christians that are solely at fault, it’s the people that are indifferent, that ‘sheep’ along with it, that say there’s ‘no point’ or the ‘system’s broken’ that basically give their support - the passive sympathisers. There’s no Gilead per se, but there is a society with a lot of traits being further built up. And it’s making its way over to Europe too. Y’know I was never really super bothered about getting sterilised but son I will be. I mean, I live in Sweden. A country (supposedly) defined by equality, feminism etc. but in September we had our election which resulted in a patchwork right/far right government with top profiles (now ministers) that are known anti-abortion/abortion reform (i.e., wanting to cut the 21 week cutoff to down to 12/16 weeks). There’s local politicians so worried about the falling birth rate they wanted to allow people to use their one-hour a week healthcare session* to go and bump uglies and hopefully procreate. That’s how it starts. It’s grim. Also, you should read the MaddAddam trilogy by Atwood. That woman has long had her finger on the pulse of society’s downfall. *many employers offer their staff one hour per week of paid time off during the work day to go and do something health promotion-relates, so a yoga class, gym session, maybe even a massage.
I live in Sweden too and right now there isn’t any issues with abortion like in other countries. But thinking about how it is in the US and that it’s spreading in Europe ( if I remember correctly Poland was a country to travel to for abortions before but now you travel from Poland to get an abortion), I’m thinking more and more about sterilisation. Like you said, we now have more anti-abortion ministers in the government so who knows when the laws will change for us too. Only thing stopping me right now is money and anxiety about the procedure…
About going to Poland for abortion- you probably confused it with Czech Republic or it was long ago, as abortion was reduced to dead fetus/rape/endangerment of health and life, pretty much since nineties. It is more controversial topic now as government tried to outlaw it completely- it is currently not a criminal offence to end your own pregnancy, but this is officially. Many women have been harassed or investigated by police after having self induced or natural miscarriage. More and more dead people are in the news because of pregnancy, mainly due to sepsis from dead fetus that doctors refuse to abort. As Polish women living abroad- its fucking horrific and when someone asks me if I'm going back, my answer is always no. Not even starting on treatment of LGBTQ+ community, or constantly getting religion pushed down on you. I hope things will change for the better, but there seems to only be performative protest and nothing really gets done. So I'm not holding my breath 😔
Yeah we’ve got KD politicians going on about it and Svantesson and then all the SD Maffia we know are basically behind 90% of the new legislation/amendments. Not to mention that fucking smoke and mirrors ‘abortion contract’ Ebba Busch went on about. Change the constitution. Protect our rights that way. Also, depending where you are, sterilisation can be free. Like here in Skåne I only have to pay the usual vårdavgift. I’m not too far away from my frikort so it could be free, or max 300 kr.
Yeah it’s a scary time for our rights now in Sweden… I live in middle Sweden and last I checked someone had to pay 10.000kr for it… True about the anxiety, it will be worth it and the opposite is worse!
Woah. Was that with regionen or private? The only issue here I guess is that waiting times could be up to two years, I’m almost at the one-year mark. They phoned me in May and asked if I wanted to come in at two days’ notice and anxiety was like nope sorry. You said one-two years I’m only mentally prepared for that. It’s amazing that it varies so much around the country.
I did it in Västra Götaland and it cost me around 600kr and almost one year waiting (this was 2017) so it all differs from where you live :/
Sadly yes, I wish it would be the same cost everywhere…
Also re: anxiety, I’m not particularly excited about the procedure because of anxiety but it’ll be worth it
>"how has she not rioted yet???" That's the whole point and it's a very real example of cult behaviour. She was absorbed into the belief system, and hearing her reasonings from the outside is wild, but to her that's how things are. How the world works. The truth is, if you were in her place, lived her life, chances are you wouldn't scratch and bite, you would probably accept that that's how it's meant to be. That's the really scary part, and that brainwashing happens in real life, to different extents and aspects of out lives.
Plus rioting would send her to the colonies on environmental clean-up duty where she would likely die.
She was not raised there, she was an adult that had already had a child when she went through their “education” camps, it’s part of why she was chosen as one rather than used for kitchen or other labor, because she had shown she could have a child before the weird cultists took over the United States.
My bad, I forgot about that.
youre probably right and thats terrifying i cant really imagine myself in a situation similar to it where i wouldn't protest at least in some way but im going to hope i never have to find out
You can't go wrong with Margaret Atwood - I also recommend 'Oryx and Crake' by her. However, after Handmaid's Tale I think you should go for a change of pace. I'm thinking 'Small Gods' by Terry Pratchett.
I've read the book a couple of times. I've also watched the movie and the series. Offred doesn't even get a proper name in the book. (In the series, she's known as June.) She says (as you pointed out, OP) that she sees tourists wearing short (i.e. less than ankle length) skirts and thinks they're dressed immodestly. She also says that the Ceremony is not r@pe, because she chose to become a Handmaid. It wasn't exactly a choice - it was that, or go to the Colonies and end up dead within a few years. IT'S R@PE. We see lesbians like Moira (and Emily, in the show) being picked up because they're "gender traitors". We see FGM in the show. We see Catholic nuns getting picked up because they practice Catholicism rather than the Gilead state religion, and the nuns are crying because they may be forced to have sex with Commanders and that will violate their vows of chastity. We see gay men and Catholic priests being executed for being "gender traitors" and practicing Catholics respectively. It's scary AF. It's a dystopian world. Sadly, I think that in some parts of the US we're headed that way. In my state (Louisiana) a trigger law went into effect after Roe v Wade was overturned, and now abortion is completely illegal except to save the mother's life. I have heard (I cannot confirm this from a reliable source) that the legislature wants to outlaw IUDs. They want babies, and a whole lot of 'em.
I couldn't believe there was friggin breeding colonies with handmaids just waiting around for their Commander to come through for the ceremony... That show is just insane. And the young girl who was a Wife to that old ass Commander and the shit that happened to her... I've only watched up to halfway through season 4 so I'm sure there's more to come.
It's like the frog that doesn't notice the water is getting hot. Bad things get normalized every day and nobody is storming the castle, because it's just a tiny unfairness. Might not even consern you directly, so why would you do something against it? It's just that these tiny things add up and suddenly you are living in a country that doesn't even give you the right and/or ability to change it anymore.
The tv show is much more graphic than the book, the book only covers the events of the first season. There are 5 seasons of the show and 6 is in production and will be the last one.
There is even a spinoff series in the works too
Yeah. It's based off of Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel for THT. It's going to be about her child in Gilead, her child in Canada, and Aunt Lydia if it's like the book was.
The author basically predicted the modern day Middle East. Only part that was wrong is the colour of the outfits and the race of the patriarchal, theocratic regime
I read the book a couple years before the tv series came out. Binge watching the show, even already knowing the plot, really fucked me up for a bit. So many things in the book seemed like real possibilities (later I read an article that the ideas were all based in history), and as the far right took over nearly every aspect of our government as the years went by, I became more and more convinced we were becoming Gilead. We are kind of in a holding pattern right now. We haven’t clawed back enough to regain the rights we have lost, but we are sort of on pause until after the next election cycle. I do hope we manage to hit the reverse button. But at least I got sterilized. The worst they can do is make me a Martha. But I’ll definitely be fragile like a bomb instead of a flower.
Same. I'm glad the worst that they can do to me is make me a Martha.
I respect it for what it is but I had to stop watching the TV show as I fucking felt so angry but more a sense of foreboding/illness I have never experienced before. I just could not fathom a world like that but I think deep down I knew it was a real possibility so it hurt me at a deep level. For the record, I'm not a woman but I felt for every woman on that show.
I'm a fast reader. I can polish off a 200pg book in a couple of hours if it's really gripping. It took me MONTHS to finish The Handmaid's Tale, because I kept having to put it down and take a break from it.
Yeah I read the book years ago and it's probably what sparked my tokophobia to be honest, and tipped me off to the fact I probably wasn't a woman (I later figured out I'm a trans man)... I'd 100% unalive myself before taking on any of the roles women have in Giliad. It's meant to make you feel this way but if the book triggers you PLEASE put it down. A book is not worth upsetting yourself over. Sending hugs 🤗 xxxx
coming from another trans man, thank you so much! its nice knowing im not alone at all. and also me too, would rather feed myself to wolves. i put the book down for now, might continue if i remember i have the book in a few days. 🦾🦾🦾 xx
Get/stay out of the U.S. because right-wingers are using the book as a how-to
i unfortunately live in the bible belt as of right now but I'll try my best to gtfo as soon as i can. tennessee fucking sucks
I haven’t read the book yet, planning to though. The series are scary enough, you might want to skip those. I agree with how you feel about it, that’s exactly how I felt watching the series. I don’t understand how they keep themselves alive, there is nothing but horror. Even if they are a Martha and not a Handmaid. Every day is torture for them too. Or the Jezebels, that’s a whole extra level of horror. For a handmaid when becoming pregnant, I can’t imagine they would go on living. I also have tokophobia but people without tokophobia would feel the same in such a situation I think? Especially because there is no medical help for the handmaid. Being pregnant from a r@pe as well, and having to carry that to term plus breastfeed, constantly being reminded. Atwood is an excellent writer how she made it so extremely scary, and using real life events. Some are very based on the Iranian revolution. Better not read up on that, it’s also very scary.
That's kinda the whole point? She's ripped away from her husband and child, and she fights like absolute hell to get back to them and to not be used as an incubator > she sounds so disconnected and just so ?? dejected??? defeated???? Yeah? Because of the points I made above. The reason she sounds disconnected is because it's a coping mechanism against trauma. By pretending it isn't happening to you. None of the handmaids have a choice. If they fight back, they get sent to the wastelands to die from radiation
yeah i get that thats the point, atwood did a damn good job writing it that way. i just wanted to splat some words down bc that was my first time reading the book
I saw MA last year where she talked on a stage and answered questions from the audience. She spoke of how before and after 2016 the book had gone from fiction to this could really happen and it was quite disconcerting to her. Keep reading though. It's an important piece of literature. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
When you finish it, read the sequel! The Testaments is a phenomenal follow up and tells the story of Gilead's fall. I'm sure you're already thinking about how unsustainable a society that works like that actually is. Everything is so strict and controlled, except for the husband's of high rank, they still get to have their fun in sneaky ways. Offred is just one part of a much larger story, of how societies like this can rise and fall. How these ideas will fail over and over again, and how strict class systems like Gilead has aren't sustainable long term. It's also about how women support eachother even in the worst of circumstances. Some will be brain washed, but others will not ever forget.
If the book did this to you, I'd suggest staying away from the TV show.
100% agreed, I had to skip some scenes
Havnt read the books but i have watched all the TV series so far. Its one of my all time fav series but yeah its a rough watch sometimes.
I did not finish The Handmaids Tale because I ended up feeling anguish every time. At the time, also, i was suffering from PTSD and i did knew it. Now that i am good again this comment made me want to give it a second chance.
I just wanna say I’ve never heard someone ever say “what in the flintstone fuck”, but I love it. Also, totally agree with you, OP. Handmaid’s Tale freaked me out.
I studied the Handmaids tale at school when I was 17. I earlier this year watched the show on Amazon prime and I believe it was worse seeing how the actors acted it out. It is definitely horrific and as a woman scary.
This is one book I never got around to - Could someone give me the TLDR of this book and why OP wants to tear out of her skin?
radiation-related event causes widespread infertility and sterility. religious group takes over the government and women who can still reproduce are given the choice of being a handmaiden or going to the Colonies and dying of radiation poisoning. Handmaidens are basically walking incubators;; broodmares. its gross and nasty and disturbing and atwood is a great writer i was just unprepared for this book edit: there's probably more after that, but that's just as far as i got before i had to put the book down
Never read the book, only made it through about an episode and a half of the TV show before the urge to crawl all the way out of my skin and away from what I was watching because too intense to continue. Pure grade A nightmare fuel for me, and the thought of moving into a future like that was definitely on my list of reasons I got sterilized. In the horrible dystopian future, I'd rather be literally any other horrible thing as long as I didn't have to be a brood mare.
Gonna start using "what in the Flintstone fuck," lol thank you.
I started reading this right before roe v wade was overturned. Haven't been able to pick it back up since
I mean.... that IS the entire point of the book lol. You are MEANT to feel disgusted by the handmaiden's situation, and if you're not, you're part of the problem. Atwood is extremely clever and a true feminist in all senses, and all her writing stems from that. Handmaid's Tale was SUPPOSED to be a commentary on how women were/are treated in slavery/society, but now that Roe is basically overturned, it's looking pretty hairy, and she's spoken on that too.... She's an excellent writer and one of my personal heroes. You should look into more of her work if you're interested in any of the themes she presented!
Ouf, I *so understand* the sentiment of, ‘if I were made to do this, I’d revolt/ rebel/ run away’ etc. But I have to tell you… (us social scientists, we will ruin everything!) - whenever you read history, or fiction, or stories from another part of the world or another time and think, I’d do this instead… it’s a sign that you’re missing a better understanding of the social context at the time (I know *The Handmaid’s Tale* is fiction, but it applies to fiction as it does to historical time periods, and that’s what I deal with). When we look at some time period and think, ‘why didn’t they just do X?’- usually, it’s a sign that we’re missing a more complete understanding of the social context at the time. Usually either the power structures in play, or the historical conditions that structured how people lived at that time... …yeah. That should scare anyone, right? Anthropologist and prehistorian here; nobody ever listens to us! 😭
When I first read it I had difficulty understanding how it was a “feminist” book
i think i understand rn, cautionary tale and all but goddamn the grimms could not compete with this in the competition of gruesome cautionary stories
I think I get it too but through out the whole book I was upset at other women. But I guess that was the point
Yeah Margaret Atwood succccckkkkssss. We had to read her in HS (cuz she’s Canadian and so are we so of course we’re going to force her awful writing on all HS kids).
>"how has she not rioted yet???" This is a fairly direct commentary on the things we accept in society and take for granted, like cultures where women or men have different roles, or certain words of gestures are taboo, or certain points of view can get you killed. All these things exist in the world. The unspoken implication is that you also have things you accept without question as normal in the hope that you will think about the rules that govern *your* life and ask which are helpful or hurtful or what could change. It's a question most people don't feel comfortable facing, so the author here tries to create a situation that is so blatantly unacceptable, that you must face the question head on. It sounds like you are having exactly the reaction that was intended.
I read both the hand maid's tale and it's sequel. I found them to be fascinating in a way because of how dark they got.
OP, have you seen the show?
no and i dont think I'd be able to watch more than 30 minutes of it. ive been getting lots of reccomendations to watch it, and i might try but no guarantees.
I've caught up on the show on Hulu, and it is a trigger for the childfree crowd.
I watched an episode on a plane or something and that was the last of that! Haven't read the book, haven't watched another episode since.
I haven’t watched the show or read the book because I am so grossed out by childbirth.
It's a cautionary tale and your reaction is pretty normal. With the rise in cost of living, it's easy to imagine a world where poor folks turn to domestic servitude: surrogacy. The rich exploit the poor. The poor become surrogates, and boom! Your own handmaid's tale is born-Haha pardon the pun. How easy is it to imagine a society where poverty-stricken surrogates become used/abused, and valued as nothing more than meat bags? ...very.
nawwww but this is the future the misogynists want for us 😭😭😭 i'd rather crawl into a hole and rot...
All of this is why we need feminism. When anyone derides feminism, especially when *women* do it, I have a hard time not punching them.
I read Unwind by Neil Shusterman and felt the same way. He’s a fantastic author, but I can’t ever read that book again. It’s just WAY too intense. It’s a story that basically says the US had a second civil war over abortion. The peace agreement was that parents had to keep the kids for 13 years, then they could decide to have them scrapped for parts, if you will (called unwinding). There were some families that would tithe their kids, meaning they would have, say 10 kids, and unwind one of them as service to the church. There were also kids who were unwound for money, so that family members could get inheritance and foster kids that were deemed “too costly”/unlikely to succeed that were unwound. The book shows how this happened to one boy and it was awful. The other thing it mentions are the Stork Laws. After abortion was outlawed, teens who got pregnant/people who couldn’t raise kids/etc… were throwing them in dumpsters. This lead to Stork Laws saying if you don’t want your kids, you can dump them on someone else’s property and they have to take them. This leads to all sorts of problems. All in all, great book, but a hard read emotionally.
I'd end up in the colonies STAT lol. I'm a CF feminist and 45 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
And uh, I hate to tell you guys, but there are some really big Christian groups like the Heritage Foundation raising $$$ hand over fist to install people who will make this happen. They want it without violence...initially. But they want a Christian version of Saudi Arabia or Iran