Dear Sugar:
Many years ago, I read Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. If you haven’t yet read it, the book is dark, authentic, and incredibly haunting. You will think about for WEEKS after reading it.
Many years ago, I read Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. If you haven’t yet read it, the book is dark, authentic, and incredibly haunting. You will think about for WEEKS after reading it.
Now HULU has turned the book into a show, and it’s living up
to the book. I binge watched the first
three episodes last week, and tonight we’ll watch the newest episode.
Let me be clear about the point of this post: YOU NEED TO WATCH THE SHOW.
(spoilers ahead)
The infertile couples prey upon the enslaved fertile
women. Talk about head games. One minute, Mrs. Waterford (infertile wife of
a wealthy and powerful man) is telling her handmaid Offred how she’s a miracle.
We watch Mrs. Waterford and a kitchen
servant provide Offred, who they think is pregnant, a hearty meal complete with
flowers on the table. Mrs. Water smiles
at Offred and gently commands she become part of the “clean plate club.” Asks insistently and expectantly how Offred
is feeling.
Then the next minute:
In another scene, we see Offred enter a grand room that Mrs. Waterford
is organizing, presumably for the nursery.
Mrs. Waterford is caressing Offred’s face, smiling and speaking in soft
tones. Then when Offred reveals to Mrs.
Waterford that she’s started her period, that she’s not pregnant as hoped, Mrs.
Waterford yanks Offred up the stairs, throws her on the floor of her bare-bones
bedroom, and tells her not to come out of her room, slamming the door behind
her.
You see, Mrs. Waterford can only be kind to Offred if Offred
is obedient and serves her purpose: to
conceive and have a baby for Mrs. Waterford.
Symbolic? Yes.
After all, how many hopeful parents and adoption professionals only communicate and assist women who promise to place their unborn babies for adoption? Where is the love and support if the mom opts to parent?
After all, how many hopeful parents and adoption professionals only communicate and assist women who promise to place their unborn babies for adoption? Where is the love and support if the mom opts to parent?
The abuse Offred deals with is alone incredibly disturbing: the Handmaids constantly face verbal,
emotional, and physical abuse (that damn electric wand!). But it’s all for their good. Because they should be fruitful and
multiply. They have a gift: the gift of fertility. They are expected to use it: obediently.
They shouldn't make demands. They shouldn't be human. They shouldn't have needs or wants or emotions. They are expected to be robots, only communicating about the weather, getting oranges at the market, etc. SMALL TALK. It's safe.
They shouldn't make demands. They shouldn't be human. They shouldn't have needs or wants or emotions. They are expected to be robots, only communicating about the weather, getting oranges at the market, etc. SMALL TALK. It's safe.
The Handmaids have already been stripped of everything: their own families (partners and kids), their
jobs, their homes. They’re told what is
best for them (to have babies and give them to infertile women). There’s a major imbalance of power and
prestige. What is most appalling is
taking the Handmaids away from their own children and forcing them to produce
offspring to be “gifted” to the wealthy, powerful families who cannot have
biological children.
But Offred and the other Handmaids are, of course, the
greatest victims. Being forced to have
sex with stranger-men while the wives look on, holding the Handmaids wrists
above their heads. Forced to conceive
babies. Forced to give birth. And immediately (as we saw in last week’s
episode) lose the baby to a child-starved, powerful woman.
The torture isn’t over.
We see one Handmaid, who recently birthed a healthy baby girl for her
mistress, commanded to breastfeed the baby multiple times a day. She first served as a baby factory, and now
she’s a milking machine. In one
powerful scene, we see the Handmaid begin the nursing session with annoyance,
but as soon as the baby suckles, the Handmaid strokes the baby’s face and
speaks to her about her “big brother” (which we assume is a child she lost when
the Handmaids were taken from their families).
In a later scene, we learn that
the Handmaid dangerously refers to the baby as Charlotte, the name she has
chosen, instead of the baby’s name (Angela) given to her by the “adoptive”
mother. (Ahem: naming...another BIG topic in the adoption community.)
The show deals with SO much.
Mental illness. Abuse. Rape.
Adoption. Feminism. Power.
Heartbreak. Patriarchy.
I cannot accurately convey the emotions you will face as you
watch the show or read the book. (I
encourage you to do both). But I will
tell you the show teaches those of us who adopt children everything we should
not do. Everything we should
avoid. Everything we should
reject. Everything we should call out
of the dark.
The show forces us to empathize with someone on the “other
side”: the birth mother. We see flashbacks of Offred with her friends,
family, employer. We see what her life
was before her life as a Handmaid, and we see her desperation, determination,
and anger presently. We also see
ourselves in Mrs. Waterford, who is interestingly facing desperation,
determination, and anger as well.
There are few shows and books that challenge us the way The
Handmaid’s Tale does. It takes a lot of
courage for someone to put together media that makes us look at the dark, to
peak behind the closed door.
Have you watched the show or read the book? What’s your reaction?
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