"Perfect"

In The Handmaid’s Tale, By. Margaret Atwood. Atwood explores a lot of different real-world issues. The way she perceives body image and the way she shows it through her characters is what initially caught my attention because she does it uniquely. I was also able to connect this back to myself, the things that I have experienced, and the things that I see happening in my community. Not just affecting me but how it also affects the people around me.

Body Image is an issue that presents itself in The Handmaid’s Tale as well as in my own life. We are first introduced to this topic in chapter 13 of the book. The main character Offred is self-reflecting on her own life, while she has some “alone” time in the bathroom while she is taking a bath. She begins to carefully examine her body, studying the little imperfections and even remembering what her body has previously looked like in the past. This quote, I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will” (pg.95) interests me a lot. Considering the circumstances that she is facing and what has become her reality. As we know a Handmaid’s only job is to carry the child and then give birth. Nothing more and nothing less. She uses the word “used” referring to the fact that she thought that the only reason for her body was to be used, to be used as an instrument. Her body has been used not for herself but for others at a cost, the cost of love and lust. She doesn’t know anything other than using her body to get what she wants or just to make other people happy, and sadly, this has become her reality in the “new” life that she is now living.

People’s perception of your physical appearance affects some drastically while others aren’t as affected by it so much. In my own life and the things that I have seen in my community the type of body you have is heavily based on how others view you or how you want others to view you. A lot of the normal body imperfections are looked as if they shouldn’t be there and if your body has them your are not ‘perfect’ and there is something wrong. I have once struggled with the idea that my body needs to be perfect to feel pretty or accepted. It took some time for me to learn that there is no ‘perfect’ body and that in fact, my body is perfect just the way it is. This journey was not short at all, learning and getting to know your body for what it is and loving it for the way it is takes some time. As a little girl that was something hard for me to understand, knowing that it is okay to be a little chunky and have a little bit of stretch marks on my body because it’s normal. Everyone is not the same, therefore they aren’t gonna look the same. Learning not to worry about what others think learning not to want to look like them and being content with the way I looked and appear to others. Social media also plays a role in what “you should” look like and what “you shouldn’t” look like. It paints a false reality of what is deemed perfect and what is not, therefore influencing younger girls or just anyone in general to “fix” something that doesn’t need fixing. Atwood does it again with this quote, “Now the flesh rearranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object.” She conveys the idea of how a woman’s body changes from its original shape as a result of childbirth. “Flesh rearranges itself” meaning her body, the flesh has taken another form as the result of childbirth. It makes sense because Offred’s body is used to bear children and as we know she has already had a child, a child with Luke. This sense of a “mommy body” is also pretty relevant in the real world, it’s pretty evident that once you give birth your body is changed forever and it’s never gonna go back to its original state. This idea then leads some moms to go and get their bodies done to achieve something that was there that isn’t now. Some of them do it for themselves to make themselves feel a little bit better about their appearance while very few just leave their bodies as is, and they just grow to love their new body.