The Oppression of Women in The Handmaid’s Tale and in Modern-Day Society

My prompt:

Compare a specific section of reading to a larger historical, political, religious, or societal context. What connections can you make between what is happening in the text and what has occurred in history, politics, religion, the media, the arts world, etc.?

In chapter sixteen of The Handmaid’s Tale, describing the impersonal sex ritual between Offred, Serena Joy, and the Commander, Margaret Atwood shows how Gilead’s society completely oppresses women. Even though Serena Joy is the Commander’s Wife and should have power, she is also oppressed by the strict patriarchal rules of Gilead that say women are only valuable for birthing babies.

This sex ritual shows how both Serena Joy and Offred are treated like objects, not real people. Offred has to lie on her back naked from the waist down, with her head resting on Serena’s pubic bone. This shows how Offred is reduced to just her reproductive body parts. The men of Gilead just see the Handmaid’s as nothing more than baby makers. Offred says the Commander has sex with her “in a brisk, impersonal fashion” (page. 93-94) described this, which proves the Commander does not care about her feelings or needs at all. Offred is just something for the Commander to use for sex.

Even though Serena Joy is the Commander’s wife, she is also oppressed by Gilead’s rules. Serena has to be fully clothed during the sex ritual while Offred is half naked. This shows how wives in Gilead are supposed to be modest and pure, not sexual beings. Serena also has to hold Offred’s hand, which Offred says digs Serena’s rings into her fingers. This painful detail shows how Serena dislikes being part of this cruel ritual, even though she acts like it’s her religious duty. Atwood uses small details like the rings digging into Offred’s fingers to reveal Serena’s true feelings behind her religious act.

The quick, emotionless sex shows that the ritual is only about making babies, not intimacy or love between man and woman. Right after he finishes, the Commander “zips himself up and leaves the room promptly” (page. 94). The nonemotional language makes it clear that this is just a baby making chore for the Commander. The women’s needs and desires don’t matter at all. This applies even to Serena Joy, since the wife has to be present for the ritual but gets no intimacy or affection from the Commander.

The ritual also shows how women in Gilead have no power over their own bodies or fertility. When Offred just lies there after the sex, which is supposed to help her get pregnant, Serena orders her to “Get up and get out” (page. 94). Offred explains she is supposed to rest for ten minutes to improve her chances of conceiving but Serena doesn’t care and kicks her out anyway, showing her cruelty and lack of empathy. This scene shows that Gilead values unborn children more than the women that carry them. Women’s bodies are treated as political instruments, and the state consumes complete control of them through their political domination. The state’s entire structure, with its religious trappings and rigid political hierarchy, is built around the single goal of Gilead control of women’s reproduction. Women in general support Gilead’s existence by willingly participating in it, serving as agents of the totalitarian state. However, they are stripped of their individuality and defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Aunt Martha’s. The enforced dress codes on women serve as a marker of each role, something men in Gilead do not have to have announced. Women are forbidden to read or write, also smoking is luxary for women of Gilead, and they are not allowed to work, travel alone, or access birth control without a signed form from their partner. Pressurizing economic and personal rights, off of women evokes a lack of platforms to communicate the government’s wrongdoings, where complacency and conformity are the norm in society’s like Gilead and many other totalitarian regimes.

By examining the painful details of the impersonal sex ritual, Atwood reveals how in Gilead’s society women are oppressed and stripped of their dignity and rights. Both the Wives and the Handmaid’s are objects whose only purpose is to produce children. Atwood based Gilead’s rules on real attitudes and actions that have oppressed women throughout history. Her dystopian world of Gilead shows were sexism and control over women’s bodies could lead to if taken to the extreme. This section heavily and vividly illustrates the whole theme of the novel and the dangers of a society where women have no rights or freedoms. Even though this novel was written in 1980’s around the time of the whole Christian Born Again political movement, Atwood’s warnings about what could happen if women’s rights are taken away continues to resonate today with issues such as Roe v. Wade of, plans to ban abortion and simple health care rights to reproductive care access of women. Also in Afhganistan girls are banned from reading or studying this also reminded me on how oppressive a real country can be oppressive towards women, and how Gilead banned their reading towards women in the novel. To finish this off through all this we can how women are oppressed in society today and how they were oppressed in Gilead.

Citations:

https://novel2screen.net/2018/06/26/the-handmaids-tale-womens-power-ceremony/

The Handmaid’s Tale: Themes | SparkNotes

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/07/global-backlash-against-womens-rights