Columnists

'The Handmaid's Tale' reminds us to safeguard gender equity

ALTHOUGH the world population reached eight billion this year, many countries struggle with declining fertility rates. How nations react to the population crisis reveals what societies value.

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985), one of my favourite novels, is a masterpiece that explores the disastrous consequences when the state becomes involved in managing family life.

In The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood imagines how the United States undergoes a terrifying transformation. Besieged by the breakdown of traditional families and widespread infertility caused by pervasive pollution, American society collapses.

It is overtaken by the Republic of Gilead, an authoritarian and patriarchal theocracy that swiftly dismantles women's rights.

To alleviate childlessness, the state decrees that women in second marriages who have given birth be arrested and repurposed as handmaids.

These women are separated from their families, stripped of their identities, and renamed.

As government property, handmaids are placed with infertile couples belonging to Gilead's new elite.

A handmaid's sole purpose is to serve as surrogate for her commander and his wife. Handmaids who are unsuccessful at bearing children are branded as Unwomen and banished.

The novel's narrator is a handmaid named Offred. Like all handmaids, Offred is anxious to save herself through pregnancy, despite the likelihood that her commander is impotent.

The threat of becoming an Unwoman means handmaids experience intense fear and shame about passing their prime. For in Gilead, a woman's destiny is dictated entirely by her reproductive ability. The novel makes powerful commentary (and condemnation) of the injustice of equating women's fertility with their social value.

It's fascinating how Gilead's elite justify the new regime's benefits.

They claim the old society was "dying of too much choice". People were forced to compete and constantly felt lonely, jealous, and dissatisfied. Women were also vulnerable to harassment.

Offred is reminded to distinguish between "freedom to and freedom from".

Previously, they had freedom to have problems. Now, Gilead gives them freedom from experiencing these worries.

In one of the novel's most powerful exchanges, Offred's commander explains that the Gileadean regime wants to make society better.

But the commander admits: "Better never means better for everyone…It always means worse, for some."

It is an unfortunate reality that one man's utopia may be someone else's nightmare.

Like prisoners, handmaids live regimented lives without freedom.

Among the novel's most moving aspects is the nostalgia Offred feels. She hungers for the normal things now denied her: going on walks, drinking coffee, wearing high heels.

She marvels that in the past, she went to college, worked, and earned her own money.

Offred mourns that girls growing up in Gilead will never know these lost liberties. To occupy herself, Offred engages in wordplay.

There are many delightful passages where Offred considers the root word for "chair", wonders why there is no female equivalent for "fraternise", ponders the differences between "lay" and "lie", and questions the origins of "may day".

In these fascinating wordplays, Atwood displays her own precocious verbal abilities and love for language. Offred's preoccupation with words arises from her longing for lost language. Gilead wages a war on words and books are outlawed.

Since only the commanders are now permitted to read and write, their word is law. The commanders can rewrite history while denying others the words needed to debate and dispute their twisted reality.

Even the narrative's trustworthiness is questionable. Offred presents multiple versions of events and admits that she embellishes her narration. This unreliability stems from her painful uncertainty.

After being separated from her husband, she invents daydreams where he has escaped, or is a prisoner, or has been executed.

Her husband's indefinite status tortures Offred as she grapples with whether to use "is" or "was" when thinking of him.

Offred's tragic experiences show the human costs when women's rights are removed. As women's liberties are fundamental human rights, denying women basic freedoms is calamitous for everyone.

Although written in 1985, The Handmaid's Tale's popularity has sharpened since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

In the debate between pro-choice and pro-life, the handmaid's red robes have become symbols representing women's oppression.

The novel ends with a surprising final chapter styled as an academic conference where scholars in the future discuss the factors that allowed the Republic of Gilead to emerge.

Similarly, in the real world, there are many places where women face inequality.

Atwood's novel is a frighteningly realistic and timeless cautionary tale to remain vigilant in safeguarding gender equity.

The writer hopes to share insights into books and films to inspire appreciation for the power of stories

Most Popular
Related Article
Says Stories