The Handmaid's Tale written by Margaret Atwood
Thus far I have been a gentle feminist. I believe in equal rights for men and women, but I've never had to fight for them. I grew up learning about the fights for women's right to own property, women's suffarage, women storming the workforce, and equal pay, but at the time I entered into the picture these larger battles were fought and won. Misogony still lingers, and people still fight for feminism, but I never contemplated what it might be like to live before the women's movement. When it would have been unthinkable for me to own a car, apartment, live on my own, and have employment to pay for it all. There was no cause to imagine the suprisingly recent past where these things would be impossible. Then I read The Handmaid's Tale where I was plunged into a world where that is exactly the case.
Offred wasn't always called Offred. In the days before the decline fertility rates thrust the world into a crisis and a new societal structure emerged, Offred was a normal woman. She worked, had a bank account, and ownership over her belongings and herself. Those were the old days. Now Offred, all women, and all men had specific roles that disallowed deviations. There are commanders who were the men with high status, the wives dressed all in blue, Marthas wearing green and doing household chores, and more. Offred is a Handmaiden. The handmaidens wear all red with winged white hats, and they are the society's most important commodity because they are the few fertile women left. Offred and the rest of the handmaidens have no name of their own because they are defined by the commander they are forced to serve, making Offred nothing more than of-Fred. Her real name is never divulged. Handmaidens are the surrogates for the commanders and their wives with the name taken from the Bible:
Genesis 30 1-3
30 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
As part of a monthly ritual, the handmaid lays on a bed with her head resting on the wife's lap while the man attempts to impregnate the handmaid. Handmaidens are rotated through the commanders with the hopes that she will provide offspring to them, but the women have no autonomy of their own.
This is a classic book and well worth the read, but it's intense. It would have been just one thing to see women stripped of rights, but due to the fact that history is riddled with periods of women having little to no rights, reading about the quick reversal of decades of women's rights movements provided a cold clammy fear that made me clutch my keys and wallet for fear of a retrograde equality. Just the chapter where Offred in a flashback goes to buy a coffee and her credit card is declined, she's unable to reach the bank, and then all the women in her office are fired, will send chills down your spine. So, if you want a story to make you bless the names of famous feminists like Susan B. Anthony for the rights women have today, then read on.
