The Handmaid’s Tale; Female Prejudice

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Institution

Female prejudice is among the most prevalent theme in the film “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. Throughout the book, Atwood has brought up the gender bias issue where the males dominate the society, women being considered inferior where their human rights are exploited. In the story, the author portrays women as handmaids who are used for sexual purposes and reproduction as a way of maintaining the population in Gilead republic. The movie tale is about how women were oppressed after the United States government being conquered by the theocracy revolution. The narrative is told through a middle-aged woman, Offred who underwent the oppression being separated from her family to be a commander’s handmaid. The author has effectively used the female prejudice theme to develop the plot of the story as well as deliver his message of adverse impacts of gender inequality in the society. In the tale, Atwood argues that women are just used as original and reproduction tools, their lives are not treasured and that they are seem not having the capability of enhancing social-economic and political development in the society. In this paper, the theme of female prejudice is elaborated to a profound extent with consideration of the author’s arguments and their justification in the modern society.

Initially in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood portrays women in this particular society as sex and reproduction tools. They are treated like slugs considering the sexism conditions they are exposed to in the community. The handmaids are used by the top men in the society whose wives have been rendered infertile due to the exposure of the harmful chemical in the environment. The front-runners use the excuse of maintaining the population of Gilead which has been diminished by the toxic substances that tampered with human reproduction process (Atwood, 2006). However, this was not the right way of dealing with such an everyday threat as there were many other effective ways of maintaining high population apart from assaulting and oppressing peasant women. They would have established ways such as supporting fertile women financially and morally as a way of motivating them to bear many children instead of making them handmaids limiting their freedom as well as assassinating those who were against the authority.

The author gives an excellent example of Offred’s case after she was taken away from her husband Luke and daughter to be a handmaid of the commander. There she was restricted in her room where she did not have the right to interact with others or have time with her beloved family. She remained a ‘walking womb’ who only had the responsibility of siring to reduce the threat of declining population in the society. It is evident in the movie that there was a ceremony held where the handmaids were assigned the responsibility of having sexual intercourse with the authorized uppermost men in the presence of their wives (Jonsson, 2018). The climax of the story comes during the Offred’s third and final round of having sexual intercourse with the commander after a failure of getting pregnant two other consecutive times. It is the last chance, pregnancy failure would have proven her infertile, and the essential repercussions of being treated as unwomanly would follow. It meant she would have been taken to the colonies were had to collect toxic wastes the rest of her life until she dies.

To increase the chances of conception Joy the commander’s wife made a plan where she illegally organized for a ceremony for Offred having sexual intercourse with Nick, her husband’s Chauffer. Offred did not have an option apart from accepting the sexuality role, and she ended up having a secret relationship with Nick who gives her hopes of escaping from the superior commander home to Canada where they believed she would have freedom. The Offred’s act of trying to run away and committing suicide portrays that she was not happy about the maltreatment and to some extent, she preferred death rather than living in oppression. Many handmaids who tried to escape has been slain and hanged on the high walls as a warning to rest with the same intention. The narrator states that a sharp object was kept away from the handmaids as they could probably use them to commit suicide as a way of escaping the painful experiences they underwent in the Gilead state. In the story women such as Offred, Offwaren and Ofglen among others have been assigned names related to their supervisors’ names and forced to drop their initial name showing how powerless they are in the community. Therefore, is bright enough that in the depicted society sexism is the order of the day where women are submissive to sexuality and do not have any a say in the community.

The other argument evident in the Atwood’s film is that female’s lives are not valued in the society. They are exposed to environmental, physical and psychological conditions which makes their lives vulnerable to health complications and death. The act of being sexually abused puts them at a significant risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and at the same time, they do not have access to amenities such as hospitals and education. Psychologically, these women whose rights are exploited have the significant threat of experiencing mental disorders due to depression and stress. The act of killing and hanging those who tried to find a way out of the state portrays that the government did not value their existence and the best way was eliminating the lawbreakers (Dvorak, 2016). The protesters and those who showed signs of going against the government are taken to the colonies where they have to collect toxic wastes. The environment at these places was unconducive as the victims are given a survivability rate of approximately two years.

The author puts it clear that in the reflected Gilead society, the female power is not recognized as they are depicted as unindustrious when it comes to societal development. Throughout the story, in many instances, women as shown as men attendants and they have to live within the measures put upon by the males in the top authority. Even the few ladies who are wives to the leaders such as Joy have no rights as they cannot exercise democracy on their hands and they have to adhere to the rules of the male-dominated community. They are neither part of social-economic development nor political advancement in the Gilead State. They are made to leave their households only to go and work as handmaids and bear children for the front-runners. There are seem to have no any other value in the community apart from helping in reducing population decline.

It is true that the author’s argument in the tale is to a great extent justified today in the modern society. In an in-depth insight, these arguments illuminate that female prejudice leads to societal deprivation regarding social and moral values as well as in economic and political perspectives. Today, the female biases are not evident regarding making the handmaids and reproduction tools but through gender inequality and injustices. Many nations have fought hard to fight gender inequality, but there still exist some countries where male dominance persist up to date. The act of not giving women equal political, economic and political power can be referred to as injustice it is only that this occurs in an indirect perspective. It is in the same society where females are vulnerable to sexual abuse at the early stages either for financial gains from the financially capable individuals as well as finding job opportunities in various sectors (Atwood, 2017). This is a universal evil that prevails in the modern society, and in many instances, it leads to economy and social degradation in the nation. Female has the same potentiality in the community, and they can as well lead to sound development.

In the Atwood’s film “The Handmaid’s Tale,” female prejudice is a prevalent theme throughout the story which depicts the problematic and unconducive conditions the handmaids underwent in Gilead State. The act of oppressing women portrays social injustice which promotes gender inequality which is a threat to the community. It is right that the harmful toxic substances lead to a decline in population, but the act of killing women and harassing them meant more deterioration as at last there would women to enhance new generation development. Therefore, Female bias is a sidelining threat to the social development, and it must be eliminated in the society. It can be through enhancing democracy and educating people about the importance of granting people equal rights in a nation.

References

Atwood, M. (2006). The handmaid’s tale (Vol. 301). Everyman’s Library Classics &.

Atwood, M. (2017). Margaret Atwood on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’Means in the Age of Trump. The New York Times, 10.

Dvorak, M. (2016). Lire Margaret Atwood: the handmaid’s tale. Presses universitaires de Rennes.

Jonsson, A. (2018). Enforcing Patriarchal Values: A socialist feminist analysis of the characters of Offred and Serena Joy in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale.