The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood, as interviewed by The New York Times last week:

In 1985, you published “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a much-discussed classic set in a future in which the U.S. government has come to be controlled by right-wing fundamentalists. Do you feel you anticipated the likes of Sarah Palin? Ha. You can order action figures of her now.

'Dying Amazon' by Franz von Stuck, 1905

Do you own any? No, I am afraid of what the actions would be. Read the book by Antonia Fraser called “The Warrior Queens .” You will see that no woman ruler has been successful if she has been an advocate for women at large. Not one, ever. It’s the Thatcher model, which is, “All women should stay home and take care of their babies except me.”

On the other hand, Palin is tapping into Madonna iconography by appearing in public with her infant. The Virgin Mary was known for being modest and demure. She is not a gun-toting mama. I’m sorry.

Can't top that snark.

Comments

[Catherine]

I OWN that Antonia Fraser book.
It should be dropped off on doorsteps everywhere -it's amazing.

[Antonia]

So do I own it, plus some of her other books.

[dog lover]

Oh, what a painting that is, Antonia, that accompanies your words. Except apparently the artist didn't read the whole myth about Amazons, that they cut off one breast to make room to pull back their arrows. I'm sure you also know that paintings of dying and dead women were a favourite subject for the pre-Raphaelite painters of the late 1900s. Rosetti even painted a series of portraits of his mistress while she was dying of cancer I believe. The one of a drened Ophelia was a great favourite as well. Yup, nothing like a dead or dying woman to convey the idea of complete submission. Can't get better than dead.

[dog lover]

Sorry, didn't edit properly. That would be "drowned" Ophelia. LOL

[dog lover]

Oh heavens to Betsy, I need an editor badly. That would be late 1800s not 1900s. Sorry.

[MgS]

I've been saying for years that if people want to understand what the dominionists would like to foster in both Canada and the US, go read "The Handmaid's Tale".

Atwood wasn't planning on writing prophecy, but I have to wonder if that isn't what she wrote.

[Antonia]

Agreed.

Now read this: http://www.truthout.org/093008R

''If you've ever read Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," you will recall the key role that was played by the women assigned to be the "Aunts." The story revolves around a futuristic American society in which fundamentalist Christians install a gender-based caste system where each woman is assigned a specific societal function. It is a commentary on the dangerous erasing of the line between church and state in the contemporary United States. The merging of religion and government is carried out by a group of older, white male "commanders" whose propaganda demands that citizens be constantly terrorized into submission and obedience. The resulting regime is Atwood's vision of the worst-case scenario: an American police-state theocracy where every woman's identity is reduced to her sexual attributes, and each is assigned to a category based on her physical qualifications. Subtle references to racist philosophy are mixed into the literalist religious rhetoric.

''The attractive young women of reproductive age are the "handmaids"; the attractive but infertile middle-age women are the "wives"; the dark-skinned women of any age are domestic servants, and so on. All women are forbidden from reading or writing. The country is renamed the Republic of Gilead, a reference to the biblical homeland of the patriarchs. And the Aunts - who are middle-aged white women of some previous prestige and education - are especially sinister characters. The primary job of the Aunts is to keep the handmaids (the childbearers) subservient. They go about this by convincing the handmaids that they are powerless and can only contribute to society when they fulfill their God-given responsibility to serve the commanders. The Aunts' job, put simply, is to exploit other women by keeping them submissive and telling them that it's for the good of all (and even more insidiously, that in obeying, the handmaids "empower" themselves.) What makes the Aunts so remarkable is their collective failure to realize that they are simply being used by the commanders to keep other women in line, and their willingness - glee, even - at doing so is simultaneously sad and terrifying. So what compels the Aunts to become traitors to both their sex and their country? First, they believe that their contribution to the repressive social order is righteous, and second, they've found that under this rigid system of social control, they have the illusion of a tiny bit of power.

''Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is the Gileadian "Aunt" manifested...''

[The Stygian and His Shemitish Dogs]

For a horror story from a time after feminists have taken over, try Robert MccCammon's Bethany's Sin.
Sin is fairly quick read and has an interesting slant on the legend of the Amazon women and their hostile relationship with men. Some of the descriptions of this are downright brutal. It's a good horror story with some very creepy moments.

[dog lover]

Haven't any of you fine fellas figured out what's so horrifying to you about the legend of Amazons? A society of women without men? Strong women? No wonder most prefer the dead or the dying. As I said, you can't be more submissive or supine for that matter than that. Look at all the female angels flying around. Oh wait, angels are not supposed to have any gender, right? Then how come they're all wearing dresses?

By the way, you may be interested in knowing, Stygian fella, that the legend of the Amazons was at its height during the Renaissance period in England when Queen Elizabeth 1st was on the throne ordering all those male courtiers about and they couldn't do a darn thing about it since she really did have the ability to chop off their heads, an upward displacement if I ever saw one. LOL. You need to get out more, Stygian, methinks, and take our dear Johnny with you.

[Antonia]

I think some guys are also upset by the thought of one-breasted women. LOL.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

Clark Ashton Smith has another dystopian fantasy about a place ruled by women, where men are kept down psychologically.

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/185/the-root-of-ampoi

the Black Abbot of Puthuum has a nice feminist twist at the end.

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/15/the-black-abbot-of-puthuum

and for our Esteemed and Beautiful Moderator

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/translations/greek/

[dog lover]

Stygian: In that genre I assume you haven't read Marge Piercy, possibly the best of them all.

[The Stygian and His Shemitish dogs]

No, I haven't. Which of her stories would you recommennd?