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  Discussion of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

  I'm posting a copy of a note that I posted to another book group, because I am very much interested in seeing what other feminists think about this!
  
  Re: The Handmaid's Tale
  
  I also liked this book VERY much, as I have most of Atwood's writing. Oryx and Crake is one of my top favorites also. And like Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale is so creative and unusual. I did disagree with the premise, though. This is not a criticism of the book - it inspired me to think, and that is high praise! And I respect Atwood's hypothesis as to what would happen if feminists and ultra-conservative women worked together to fight for cultural change.
  
  But I don't think that's what would happen. I think Atwood has based her vision on a premise that both the feminists and the ultra-conservative women have an innate dislike of men, and especially of sex. I can't speak for the ultra-conservatives, but I can certainly say that this is not at all the case for feminists! The feminist case against pornography is about the degradation of women in it, not about a repression of sex. Being anti-porn is not at all the same as being anti-sex. In fact, I believe that a person who truly appreciates sex has a certain awe for it, a respect for it's sacredness (not necessarily in a religious sense, but as the most intimate and meaningful of human interactions.) And that such an awe and respect leads to a rejection of porn as the degrading of the act of sex, because porn excises the intimacy and power and meaning from it, the bonding that it creates between individual human beings.
  
  Secondly, in a purely practical sense, feminists object to porn because of its proven correlation with rape, violence against women, and child molestation.
  
  And if that is the case, then feminists may indeed be willing to work together with ultra-conservatives in a battle to outlaw pornography. But I think that it would end there. No way would most of the feminists I know be willing to outlaw sex itself! I don't know as many ultra-conservative women, but the ones I do know are highly sexual women, and they wouldn't wish for that, either.
  
  So I don't agree with Margaret Atwood at all, that women getting together to eliminate porn would result in the type of society that she portrays. But I applaud her for all of the thought she has put into the subject, and especially for her originality in creating the world of The Handmaid's Tale.
  
  What do you think? Do you think that a strong female solidarity against porn would lead to something like The Handmaid's Tale?
  

  ghost of a rose started this discussion 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  khabira 

  Hi Rose
  Well, I have to say that I read this 2 million years ago in my very sexually active phase. LOL I never felt this had to do with porn, either pro or con. I think it has to do with misogyny. The pure hatred of women and the fear of women and the reflex that fear creates. The reflex is to control and depersonalize. The wives are unemotionalized robots who look good and do as they are told. The key here is the lack of emotion. What they are given in trade for this a home, food, safety. Nothing happens to them they don't understand. It is predictable, so therefore it is safe. Sex is not allowed for them because it causes emotion, feelings, passions. Emotions do not lead to obedience.
  The other half of the women are not and never will be wives. They are breeders and have proven their fertility. They are brought in to lie between the legs of the wife and be the vessel that the husband deposits his sperm into. Genesis does say to be fruitful and repopulate the earth. What is the thread that connects these women? It is the lack of love, the lack of freedom , it is the despair that surely must fill their souls. One is a dish and one is a beautiful pot. All are owned and controlled and hated.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Meghan G 

  Hi Rose...thanks so much for starting this thread!
  
  If I might ask...at what point did you see that Atwood's hypothesis was the blending of feminism and ultra-conservativism? The book seems to present a purely ultra-religious-conservative regime with little feminist influence. The lesbian character was driven underground before she was caught, and Offred's mother was sent to the Colonies as punishment for her activism in the feminist movement. In one fell swoop the women lose their jobs and their access to money. Finally, one of the bodies hanging in the square belongs to a doctor who Offred believes probably performed abortions--not that all feminists support abortion, but it is a major part of the movement.
  
  The one scene that I recall where porn is dealt with is in the Academy (I forget what they actually call it) where the Aunts show slides of porn to show how women had been degraded in the Beforetime. While the scene is vicious, it sticks out for me because of one quote that I keep with me at all times: "Before you had freedom to, now you have freedom from;" signifying that all of these restrictions were in place to PROTECT the women, rather than suppress them. Again, this does not strike me as aligning with feminist principles at all.
  
  On another note, there is a small faction of the feminist movement that actually supports porn, both for the enjoyment of the women viewing it and for the expression of sexuality for the women in it. I don't agree with this point of view, but it's there, and in the book "Female Chauvinist Pigs" (which is on my shelf) the author points to this schism as the beginning of the stall of the movement.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  She 

  Like khabira, I read this book not quite 2 mill years ago, but at least a couple of decades. My daughter read it several years ago and has since become an Atwood groupie. What I remember about it is the obvious mysogyny, the color codes of the classes, sex for breeding sans pleasure and choice, and the desire for freedom from it all. Wasn't this supposed to be an allegory of another famous fable?

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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