What The Handmaid's Tale Means To Me, As A Feminist.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid's Tale in 1985.

Via popsugar.com

The Handmaid's Tale follows the activities of Offred, a handmaid in Gilead. Gilead is the near-future United States. Gilead came to be after the U.S. was overthrown by a religious group. The women in Gilead are wives, marthas, or handmaids. The handmaids are some of the only women left fertile, so they have been assigned wives and commanders to serve as concubines. Offred, like the others, still remembers her life before Gilead and struggles to survive through it all.

I first read the novel in 2014. I was a junior in high school, I pretty much had no idea what I was going to do college-wise or with my life. I had always been into reading, though. I found The Handmaid's Tale listed under books which had been banned in schools. Being the outspoken person I am, who doesn't like being told what to do, this list of books was perfect for me.

The description of The Handmaid's Tale was just so wild. I hadn't really known what feminism was before reading it, but I was immediately drawn to this story about women who were being oppressed. I think a lot of young women would be, as well. I did because, until the year before, my parents hadn't been divorced. Up until that point, myself and my siblings had struggled so much to have our own lives and freedom under an oppressive parent. After the divorce, was the start of me feeling like my own person. I was so optimistic about the future and what I would all build from it. I never wanted to go back to anything else. So, of course, I loved the ideas and themes in The Handmaid's Tale.

Feminism

Via the-handmaids-tale.wikia.com

The novel resonated with me so much. I had never read anything like it. My exposure to women in literature was next to nothing in school. The books outside of that I read or that were popular all had women doing similar things (with the exception of one of my all time favorites, Lyra in The Golden Compass). The women in these books were focused on love and not much else, but the women in Margaret Atwood's world had problems, struggles, and they were trying to survive in a world set against them. These characters were more real than those in other stories, even though they were in a fictive world.

Reading the novel had me shook, honestly. The plot is just so possible. Events happening seemed to support just how possible it all was/still is. I kept talking about the book, but not all of my friends knew what I was talking about. I kept it glued to me while I was reading it and the only person who recognized it was my British Literature teacher. She told me her daughter met a neighbor of Atwood's at a Shakespeare festival their family went to in Canada. I told her how inspired I was by Atwood's novels and varying endeavors I saw tweets from her about. Of course, she noted that the girl they met had described Atwood as "eccentric". That didn't disinterest me because, as you may know, well behaved women rarely make history. So, just like any 17 year-old would have, I went to the internet. The internet is how I found feminism.

Since diving into feminism then to now, I've noticed a common experience. A lot of other people had also had feminist perspectives and opinions before they found feminism. When they did find it, feminism became more of a label for the way they were already thinking and a connection to people with similar thoughts.

For me, feminism brought be to more feminism. I had little ideas and thoughts, but then there was so much more than I had ever realized. My favorite part, was then finding other authors writing with feminist themes (Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, bell hooks).

So what then?

Flash forward to now, after going through the indecisive college student phase, I am a Women and Gender Studies major. I study some of the most interesting topics and do work I'm actually passionate about. Also yes, that's me in the bottom right of the picture headed to the Women's March on Washington after a bus ride all the way from Indiana (hence the disheveled appearance).

The Handmaid's Tale was my catalyst. I didn't get deterred by the loud, false feminists online either; instead, I looked for the real thing. No misandry, no exclusion. My feminism in and out of the classroom is intersectional.

The Hulu adaptation.

Hulu / Via vulture.com

As a follower of the @MargaretAtwood twitter account, I heard about the adaptation as soon as it became real. I could not contain my excitement. As many booklovers will tell you, the movie is never as good as the book. Personally, I'm always all in on both for better or for worse. If there was one thing I thought the general public would benefit from, it was this show.

I purchased my Hulu subscription at the start of April. The date had been in my calendar for I don't know how long. Then the week of members of the cast get interviewed and everything went down hill.

In the interview, Elisabeth Moss (Offred) said, “It’s not a feminist story — it’s a human story, because women’s rights are human rights”. Words cannot describe my rage. I was overreacting all over the place. It was horrible timing as well, my Psychology of Women had a class discussion over whether feminism should change its name right after. I defended feminism until I was blue in the face. I also didn't even watch the show, I had my Hulu account and everything, but I wouldn't watch it.

Why? Because if you don't know, women (along with every other marginalized group) live a lifetime where things are taken away from them. Women still are discouraged to do so much because the gender stereotypes in our society run so deep psychologically. Even more, feminism has a history of women taking things away from other women. White women took the fight for suffrage from Ida B. Wells and black women. Feminists tried to exclude trans women and sex workers. Modern feminism, as a whole but not always individually, is striving for intersectionality and raising each other's voices up. So, of course, myself and others felt very strongly that this was just another instance of women internalizing misogyny and taking something from other women.

Blesssed because Samira Wiley lives and breathes.

Via screenhype.com

Samira Wiley plays Moira in The Handmaid's Tale. You might also recognize her as Pousee in OITNB.

Wiley was the first cast member to outright say when asked about the show being feminist, "Absolutely, I do [think it is]. I think that it’s plain and simple. It’s very self-explanatory in the book. It can’t really be labeled as anything else". As soon as I saw this interview in articles a few days later, I was relieved. The book which I had such an emotional tie to had been validated as what I knew it to be. While Moss later made clarifications to her initial statement and Atwood posted an article to support the feminism in the series, Wiley's statement was what I needed to be able to buy into the show again. There are so many possible reasons for the initial, confusing comments. At the end of the day, though, the last demographic to distance the show from was its most passionate one. The feminists.

Is the show that good?

Gail @awkwardtheabby

RT if you only worry about reproductive rights in America everyday

03:27 AM - 02 May 2017

Yes, it's that good and so was the book.

The Handmaid's Tale is just so relevant. I think one of the biggest unforeseen attractions to the show will be its timeliness. As a native of Indiana, I always saw the potential Gilead-like value system in Mike Pence. Words cannot even begin to describe the anguish of Indiana democrats when he became the vice presidential candidate. I thought for sure that Hillary would win too. When she didn't I thought, "Wow, hopefully we'll still have uncensored television/internet access by the time The Handmaid's Tale drops on Hulu".

Thank goodness, we did. As our world leans into a dystopian future, I hope more people watch and wake up to it all. It feels like America has become shameless in the devaluation of women and minorities. I still hope embracing intersectionality will unite our voices in a way that's loud enough for D.C. to hear.

While you're at it all, spend some time with Netflix's Dear White People and keeping tuning in to The Handmaid's Tale on Wednesdays. Just remember, these shows might help enlighten us but we also need to stay tuned in to our current events.

Resist and Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.