The Handmaid's Tale is amazing. I can't remember the last time a brand new series with something so important to say captured my interest in the same way. I mean, I have binged other series before, but this one is relevant and timely. As well, the acting is superb and the tone is right on.
It is so heartbreaking to see how quickly women's rights eroded from the time a barista called Offred a slut, to all women losing access to their bank accounts and then their livelihoods, and then to the totalitarian regime where women are enslaved into singular roles: Handmaids, Wives, Aunts, Marthas, or Jezebels. Just like how the ancient Greeks (and then Romans) had different goddesses represent female traits because no one woman can possibly be more than one thing.
When I read the novel, the nation of Gilead seemed like a farfetched idea, but the current political climate in the US could indicate the early stages of a breakdown. How much more would it take for the current construct to crumble? The right are already trying to legislate women's bodies and reproductivity so how far is our world from Gilead?
And as a side note, it is heartening to see Canada represented as the land of the free. We welcome refugees from the regime just like we are taking Syrian refugees in real life (and used to take Underground Railroad ones). But no matter how rosy our political outlook is, things could fall as quickly as they did when Obama left office. And that is worrisome.
It is so heartbreaking to see how quickly women's rights eroded from the time a barista called Offred a slut, to all women losing access to their bank accounts and then their livelihoods, and then to the totalitarian regime where women are enslaved into singular roles: Handmaids, Wives, Aunts, Marthas, or Jezebels. Just like how the ancient Greeks (and then Romans) had different goddesses represent female traits because no one woman can possibly be more than one thing.
When I read the novel, the nation of Gilead seemed like a farfetched idea, but the current political climate in the US could indicate the early stages of a breakdown. How much more would it take for the current construct to crumble? The right are already trying to legislate women's bodies and reproductivity so how far is our world from Gilead?
And as a side note, it is heartening to see Canada represented as the land of the free. We welcome refugees from the regime just like we are taking Syrian refugees in real life (and used to take Underground Railroad ones). But no matter how rosy our political outlook is, things could fall as quickly as they did when Obama left office. And that is worrisome.
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