I was going to write about something totally different. Then I watched the first two episodes of the new Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale, and...wow.
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I read Margaret Atwood’s book when it came out in the 80’s. The 1990 film missed the mark on a couple of key points. The new series is blowing me away; it’s powerful, subtle, and all too believable.
The basic setup: A fundamentalist regime has taken over what used to be the United States. Simultaneously, there’s a huge epidemic of infertility and deadly birth defects. Their solution is that women like June (Offred), who has already borne a healthy child, are kept as handmaids. She is required to have sex once a month with her Commander, in order to bear children that will be raised by him and his wife. Some things that jumped out at me:
Identity theft. The handmaids aren’t allowed to use their real names. In the book, there’s a crucial moment where the narrator is called by her real name, but we never learn what it is. She’s called Offred, literally property of Fred. and she’s treated as a non-person in other ways (like when the wives talk about handmaids as if she wasn’t standing right there).
Gaslighting. The characters are constantly made to say or agree to things that clearly aren’t so. In the book, it’s not even permissible to say that a man is sterile; there are only fertile or barren women. There’s a chilling scene in handmaid training, where one woman describes how she was gang-raped, and the others are required to chant that it was her fault. Later, when the same handmaid is in labor, the Commander’s wife mimics the labor pains, and the birth itself is on a two-tiered birthing chair with the wife sitting above the handmaid. The rulers continually try to blur the line between fake news and reality, get people to not trust their lying eyes.
Complicity. The Commander’s wife, absurdly named Serena Joy, was a Phyllis Schalfly type before the revolution. So now, in theory, she’s gotten exactly when she wanted: a world where women are in their “proper place.” Similarly, there’s “Aunt” Lydia, the woman in charge of training handmaids. She gets a few perks in exchange for taking part in the wholesale oppression of women.
Normalization. Aunt Lydia observes that “ordinary” is just whatever you’re used to. Normalizing objectification, violence, fanaticism, exploitation….where else have I heard about that lately?
On to Top Comments!
From Angela Marx:
This comment by Mr Meat in this story by Jen Hayden.
It was the first Dr Seuss pun I think I've ever seen done quite so well.
From greenbird:
this is for you, and you, and you …
all of you on WALL STREET.
(thanks, durr ... ya broke my hard drive.)
(was that a boar in your pocket ?)
bird
[Note from Tara: comment is a memorable pictorial by durrati.]
Highlights:
Too late to rec, but Laura G highlighted a great comment by Tsultrim in anna19876’s diary Why are so many male journalists ganging up on Chelsea Clinton on Twitter?
Top mojo, courtesy of mik:
Picture quilt, courtesy of jotter: