The Handmaids Tale is a science-fiction dystonia written in the early 1980's by one Margaret Atwood. It has since become a movie, and an international sensation as a Hulu series featuring Elizabeth Moss as June (Offred.) We're in season two right now with a promise of season three, and many viewers are clutching their pearls and crying "torture porn" when they intentionally view harrowing material that is based entirely on real life. Many are announcing they shan't view "women being tortured for the sake of entertainment" anymore. That's a might fine high horse. One of Atwood's rules for writing the book, and a continued rule for writing the show (which she was consulted on) was that nothing could be used that had not already occurred or wasn't currently occurring in some place in society, somewhere in the world, whether historical or modern. That's why in the book, cops don't fire at protesters with guns, and in the show, they do. Things have regressed since Atwood wrote the book.
The rise of the religious right in response to feminism brought on such cults that still exist today such as the "Quiverfull Movement." These people warp scripture to use women as incubators in order to have as many kids as possible so as to have a "quiver full" in God's army. Doesn't sound too far off from Gilead's Sons of Jacob militarized cult. In fact, if the movement were to blossom further...well. You've seen the show. And you can read one woman's account of living in this cult here https://theestablishment.co/i-grew-up-in-a-fundamentalist-cult-the-handmaids-tale-was-my-reality-fae2f77263d9
In fact, as the current 45's Administration keeps rolling back women's rights, we are in danger of being forced incubators once more lest desperate women resort again to the wire coat hanger.
But no, viewers are a bit more concerned with writing opinion pieces about "where are the fat women" and "where are the celebrities" in the show rather than focusing on the reality of it. You don't get to be a fat sex slave. You don't get to be a celebrity sex slave. You get out or you don't.
The show uses the concept of a fertility crisis as a way to enslave women. Current groups like ISIS should be an eye-opener to how this show is very much a display of the real world and not some form of torture porn made for sadists. Isis members rape captive women in places like Iran and Syria to mass-produce indoctrinated soldiers and more women who will be indoctrinated to be fine and dandy with this, but unlike Nick's child-bride Eden who fully believes in the Sons of Jacob cult and is totally cool with being banged through a hole in the sheet because her parents taught her that's normal.
Millennials choosing not to have kids because of income inequality is a fact being distorted as we speak to strike fear of our own fertility crisis, when indeed low birth rates are not the same as low fertility rates.
One the show, we see Ofglen (Emily) subjected to female genital mutilation once the regime discovers she's a lesbian - but still fertile. This happens all over the world to "prevent female sexual desire." As Aunt Lydia says to Emily, "You will no longer want what you cannot have." And no, I'm not just pointing fingers at the Middle East. This happens in England. It can be found in the US.
And on the topic of the fabulous character Emily, who is forced to see her lover hanged, let me remind you that gays have been hanged in the past, murdered, imprisoned, and even now are being put in concentration camps in Chechnya. And that's not even to mention the pink triangles of the Holocaust. But poor pitiful you for being "forced" to think about this by a show you paid to watch.
Priests are hanged in the books and novel. Anyone who shows political difference of opinion is killed. "Unwomen" and "Unmen" are forced to do fruitless work in the Colonies, much like concentration camps. Atwood was also inspired by puritanical law, which was the ruthless beginning of our colonization in the US. Suicide bombing that Gilead deserved but that the Handmaids didn't and even in death, stripped of their real names. (Ever see old headstones that just say "wife of Some Guy?") Stonings still happen. Handmaids existed. Eyes removed, hands cut off - that's all real, so buckle the fuck up.
And I'd keep going into detail but the new episode is coming on and we'll be witnessing a scene taken from the concept of drowning witches, but rather than a river or a well, it'll be a pool. I'll let you do your own research. As a horror author I cannot understand the concept of consuming media one cannot emotionally handle and then whining about it all over the internet as if the writers personally victimized you. One day, you'll be awake, and you'll have no choice, and it won't be a show. It sure as hell isn't for the children being ripped away from their parents at our boarders. Praised be, bitches.
Jessica Endsley
The rise of the religious right in response to feminism brought on such cults that still exist today such as the "Quiverfull Movement." These people warp scripture to use women as incubators in order to have as many kids as possible so as to have a "quiver full" in God's army. Doesn't sound too far off from Gilead's Sons of Jacob militarized cult. In fact, if the movement were to blossom further...well. You've seen the show. And you can read one woman's account of living in this cult here https://theestablishment.co/i-grew-up-in-a-fundamentalist-cult-the-handmaids-tale-was-my-reality-fae2f77263d9
In fact, as the current 45's Administration keeps rolling back women's rights, we are in danger of being forced incubators once more lest desperate women resort again to the wire coat hanger.
But no, viewers are a bit more concerned with writing opinion pieces about "where are the fat women" and "where are the celebrities" in the show rather than focusing on the reality of it. You don't get to be a fat sex slave. You don't get to be a celebrity sex slave. You get out or you don't.
The show uses the concept of a fertility crisis as a way to enslave women. Current groups like ISIS should be an eye-opener to how this show is very much a display of the real world and not some form of torture porn made for sadists. Isis members rape captive women in places like Iran and Syria to mass-produce indoctrinated soldiers and more women who will be indoctrinated to be fine and dandy with this, but unlike Nick's child-bride Eden who fully believes in the Sons of Jacob cult and is totally cool with being banged through a hole in the sheet because her parents taught her that's normal.
Millennials choosing not to have kids because of income inequality is a fact being distorted as we speak to strike fear of our own fertility crisis, when indeed low birth rates are not the same as low fertility rates.
One the show, we see Ofglen (Emily) subjected to female genital mutilation once the regime discovers she's a lesbian - but still fertile. This happens all over the world to "prevent female sexual desire." As Aunt Lydia says to Emily, "You will no longer want what you cannot have." And no, I'm not just pointing fingers at the Middle East. This happens in England. It can be found in the US.
And on the topic of the fabulous character Emily, who is forced to see her lover hanged, let me remind you that gays have been hanged in the past, murdered, imprisoned, and even now are being put in concentration camps in Chechnya. And that's not even to mention the pink triangles of the Holocaust. But poor pitiful you for being "forced" to think about this by a show you paid to watch.
Priests are hanged in the books and novel. Anyone who shows political difference of opinion is killed. "Unwomen" and "Unmen" are forced to do fruitless work in the Colonies, much like concentration camps. Atwood was also inspired by puritanical law, which was the ruthless beginning of our colonization in the US. Suicide bombing that Gilead deserved but that the Handmaids didn't and even in death, stripped of their real names. (Ever see old headstones that just say "wife of Some Guy?") Stonings still happen. Handmaids existed. Eyes removed, hands cut off - that's all real, so buckle the fuck up.
And I'd keep going into detail but the new episode is coming on and we'll be witnessing a scene taken from the concept of drowning witches, but rather than a river or a well, it'll be a pool. I'll let you do your own research. As a horror author I cannot understand the concept of consuming media one cannot emotionally handle and then whining about it all over the internet as if the writers personally victimized you. One day, you'll be awake, and you'll have no choice, and it won't be a show. It sure as hell isn't for the children being ripped away from their parents at our boarders. Praised be, bitches.
Jessica Endsley
