Real-World Instances of Patriarchal Extremism As Seen in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

by Sofia Chandler-Freed

My presentation analyzes The Handmaid's Tale through a feminist lens focused on applications. Although the book, is a dystopia, a huge number of the patriarchal and other extremist policies that the Republic of Gilead enforces can also be found in the world today.

Overview
Slavery Domestic Sexual Prostitution Surrogate motherhood Social norms and laws Maintaining honor Restrictions on personal liberty

The most basic and striking aspect of the Republic of Gilead is its slave society revolving around gender roles. Some consequences of this model are also found in modern society. Around the world, but mostly in developing nations, young women are deceived into becoming prostitutes or domestic servants as the only path out of poverty.

Domestic Slavery
"Cora might come in, from somewhere else in the house, carrying her bottle of lemon oil and her duster, and Rita would make coffee ... and we would sit at Rita's kitchen table, which is not Rita's any more than my table is mine, and we would talk, about aches and pains, illnesses, our feet, our backs, all the different kinds of mischief that our bodies, like unruly children, can get into." (Atwood 2) "Aina's boss gave her a list of words: yes, thank you, hello, goodbye. These were the only words that Aina, then aged 18, had the right to say. Her day began at 6 a.m.: she prepared breakfast for the family's two children, then did the ironing, vacuuming, laundry, washing up, gardening and cooking. Her day ended at midnight. Aina ate the family's leftover food; she slept on the tiles in the bathroom floor." (UNODC "Domestic 'service' or domestic slavery?")

Although today slavery is not as government-sanctioned or institutionalized as in the Republic of Gilead, there exists a massive underground human trafficking industry. UN estimates 1.75 million slaves. Cora and Rita are Marthas, or domestic slaves. They prepare food, raise children, clean, and perform other household duties. Econowives also perform such duties to an even greater degree, that can be even closer to some of today's norms. Today, young women are coerced into domestic slavery under the name of a "good job" and an opportunity to finance their studies or send money home to their families. The second quote is from a United Nations article on domestic service--or slavery, and gives the experience of Aina, a teenager from Madagascar who was told that she would earn a good wage from a decent job in Europe, so that she could complete her college education and reach her dreams of becoming a nurse. If someone would read the quote? After two years of these conditions, a neighbor reported a seeing a "young, thin girl who didn't speak" in the garden." and called the authorities. Aina's "employers" were arrested and fined She called the authorities. Aina's "employers" were given a six-month suspended prison sentence and fined 4,500 (about $5,800). THIS WAS IN 2009.

Sexual Slavery
"My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose." (Atwood 16)

In the first quote, Offred describes the cold, involuntary sex scene with the commander. She doesn't want to be there, but she didn't sign up for it. She simply copesthe same as thousands of women around the world. The video shows a teenager who was forced into sexual slavery. Women are forced into sexual slavery and other human trafficking for many reason including: A promise of a good job in another country A false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation Being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, boyfriends Being kidnapped by traffickers" It is more common and more accepted than you would think.

Prostitution
"The women are sitting, lounging, strolling, leaning against one another. There are men mingled with them, a lot of men, but in their dark uniforms or suits, so similar to one another, they form only a kind of background. ... Some of them have on outfits like mine, feathers and glister, cut high up the thighs, low over the breasts. ... All wear make-up, and I realize how unaccustomed I've become to seeing it, on women, because their eyes look too big to me, too dark and shimmering, their mouths too red, too wet, blooddipped and glistening; or, on the other hand, too clownish." (Atwood 37) "With the pimps out of view in nearby motels, the girls cruise the dozens of rigs lined up in sprawling lots set away from the general parking. "You see the girls going from truck to truck," says Steven Maldonado, 48, a St. Louis-based trucker who prefers to park at rest areas to avoid the hassle of truck stop prostitutes. "I've had them knock on my door every 20 minutes when I'm trying to sleep for the night." When police or security hired by truck stop operators clamp down, the pimps simply move down the interstate. " ("Nightmare at the Truck Stop")

This quote comes from chapter 37 in section 10, "Jezebel's" in which Offred goes with the commander to Jezebel's club and notices the prostitutes. This is not very different from some of today's scenes, often with young girls in the business lucrative for their pimps, but not always for the workers. In fact, the average age for a prostitute starting out in San Francisco in 1996 was 14, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle from that year. Many prostitutes are runaway teens. In fact, 1/3 of runaways are forced into prostitution. In The Handmaid's Tale, some women are given the option of prostitution as an alternative to living in the colonies. While the state is based on slavery, and the scene at Jezebel's edges well into "tacky", prostitution still shows to be a lucrative business and absolutely not outlandish in Gilead or in today's world, even right here in Berkeley.

Surrogate Motherhood
"We stand between Janine and the bed, so she won't have to see this. Someone gives her a drink of grape juice, I hope there's wine in it, she's still having the pains, for the afterbirth, she's crying helplessly, burnt-out miserable tears. Nevertheless we are jubilant, it's a victory, for all of us. We've done it. She'll be allowed to nurse the baby, for a few months, they believe in mother's milk. After that she'll be transferred, to see if she can do it again, with someone else who needs a turn. But she'll never be sent to the Colonies, she'll never be declared Unwoman. "That is her reward." (Atwood 21) "I guess I have been feeling sorry for myself. I wish I had someone to talk to. ... I have the impression that Annie is purposely ignoring my emotions and needs for her own. I perceive I am putting them out by asking for any help. Today my physical misery is compounded by my apprehension for my children, and for the anguish I feel about you. I don't know if I would make this decision again, even if I knew I could handle the emotions." ("Shellie" from Fertility Stories)

Surrogate motherhood is one of the pillars of Gilead's society. Handmaid's entire purpose of being is surrogate motherhood; they are "walking wombs". We can see in the first quote that the ordeal is extremely trying on women. Janine has to be shielded from seeing the Wives naming the baby and fussing and feasting over the birth while Janine cries over the pain from labor and from having her baby taken away. She's miserable, not enraptured like a mother would normally be. The trials of surrogate motherhood are also seen in the second quote, which comes from the diary of a Shellie, a woman who was a paid surrogate mother for a woman an ovarian cyst that left her unable to have children. She feels like she is not being valued as a person, and is tried physically and emotionally, just like all of the Handmaid's in Atwood's novel.

Honor and Social Norms

"'Here,' he says to me, 'have a drag.' No preliminaries, he knows why I'm here. To get knocked up, to get in trouble, up the pole, those were all names for it once. I take the cigarette from him, draw deeply in, hand it back. Our fingers hardly touch. ... Still, what does he think, why doesn't he say something? Maybe he thinks I've been slutting around, at Jezebel's, with the Commander or more. It annoys me that I'm even worrying about what he thinks. Let's be practical." (Atwood 40) "A woman subjected to rape brings shame to her family just as she would when engaging in a consensual relationship. "A woman raped shames the community and dishonors the man", according to Nafisa Shah-it does not dishonor the rapist." ("Women in the Muslim World")

Here, Offred is worrying about Nick's opinion on something she was forced to do. Going to Jezebel's was not here personal decision, and she has not been "slutting around". Still, many women find themselves judged and blame themselves for situations they really could not have escaped. A woman who has been raped could be given capital punishment in an honor-killing especially in tribal sects in the Arab world, and in south asia. Women's families often blame them or reject them for what was never their fault in the first place.

Restrictions on Liberty
"We aren't allowed to go there except in twos. This is supposed to be for our protection, though the notion is absurd: we are well protected already. The truth is that she is my spy, as I am hers. If either of us slips through the net because of something that happens on one of our daily walks, the other will be accountable." (Atwood 2) "If women are allowed to get behind the wheel, said academics from the Majlis al-Ifta' al-A'ala council, Saudi Arabia would see a 'surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.'" ("Saudi female driving ban prevents prostitution", Global Post)

In Gilead, women are banned from walking alone. They are trapped all day in their rooms and under constant surveillance at any time they are let out on errands. This prevents the women from escaping, engaging in any illicit activities, expressing themselves, or communicating openly. Life is much the same for women in Saudi Arabia even today. They are required to never be alone with any man who is not their blood or milk relative. A way of getting around this, is to breast-feed full-grown men (such as taxi drivers) or employers, which is disgusting and much more vulgar than talking to a man or paying a cab driver for safe transportation. Additionally, they are not allowed to drive, for reasons including: 1. Driving a car involves uncovering the face which is considered obligatory for women to cover in Saudi. 2. Driving a car may lead women to go out of the house more often. 3. Driving a car may lead women to have interaction with non-mahram males, for example at traffic accidents. 4. Women driving cars may lead to overcrowding the streets and many young men may be deprived of the opportunity to drive. 5. Driving would be the first step in an erosion of traditional values, such as gender segregation. However, scholars argue that this is a protector of morality in the country. Despite that, Saudi Arabia is a destination for human trafficking victims from around the Middle East. And the grounds for driving creating a surge in homosexuality remain touchy.

"There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from." (Atwood 5)

I thought I would close my presentation with this quote from the Handmaid's Tale: *QUOTE*. It expresses some of the manipulative rhetoric that pimps and legislators and some clergy use to subjugate and exploit women. Preying on runaways is easy: they want freedom from home, independence, safety: who would refuse a man offering a job, shelter, and sometimes even love? It's an easy path to take, and is as accepted in real life by people who could be our peers as young students as it is in dystopian fiction. There are countless more correlations between the novel and our culture and the condition of women around the worldnot to mention in the past. Atwood's novel begs: what about the future? Well, we'll see. Thank you for your time.