Are there any bad men in the Handmaid's Tale

The commander’s wife’s most cruel moment was talking to June’s daughter on the steps outside the school. The most horrible acts aren’t always the most violent.

The men in THT have the "freedom" of movement, e.g. they can drive. Women have to be driven. Men have access of resources: cars, bikes, jobs, money. Women can only receive what they are given. If you have nothing, and have no freedom, from a pragmatic viewpoint, you have no ability to rescue.

But despite this you see acts of compassion amongst the women at times.

If you have few choices, and access to few resources, then you have to compete to survive. It's primordial. The rules were developed by men, leaving the women to fight for scraps. And fight they will in order to access more: more status, more freedom, more comfort in order to secure better chance of survival.

AL may utterly believe in Gilead - because it has given her something (power, contol, status), which she did not have before. She will do whatever it takes to protect her interests. That is how her esteem and physical being survives. That means she will inflict heinous suffering on others. Her survival is dependent on being able to do so - there is also an absence of choice for her. She, therefore, is "rescued" by the system that simultaneously has imprisoned her gender.

It's patriarchy at it's most extreme: women can only get what men deem to give them. The men will retain the bulk of the resources and freedoms for their own survival. Trading only when necessary, and only on their terms.

Simple human economics in action.

I don’t agree with your analysis either, Pratchet.

Firstly, I agree with the majority of posters that Fred is sinister. He’s portrayed as a rapist and a zealot. What about when he raped June at Jezebel’s? That wasn’t at all ‘reluctant’. And all the other ‘nice, kind’ stuff is only about stroking his own ego. Plus, he’s one of the orchestrators of this world; of the violence, the torture, imprisonment, systematic rapes etc etc.

As for the other characters.

Serena, yes I agree she’s not a nice woman but I believe she is conflicted.

Aunt Lydia, also evil. But carrying out the orders of men.

All the other women are nice though. Rita, Emily, Janine, Moira, Alma. Even the econowife was wasn’t horrible. She was scared and (rightly) trying to protect herself and her son.

As for the nice rescuers, well, yes they were nice. But none of them were architects of Gilead, they were innocent bystanders who are now trying to help June/others. Women couldn’t possible help as they have no power, freedom or autonomy. A woman driving a van through Gilead to help with Mayday would only hinder and most certainly get everyone killed.

Battlaxe: the violence by the women. Apparently they aren't allowed to quietly menacing, even though both men and women have systems of violence to enforce their authority, only female violence is shown.

That’s the way real power v token power works, though, isn’t it? The lower ranks kick down.

I hated that sex scene too. WTF?

So the average viewer can't understand that the Lydia's are used by the men to inflict the actual violence on women so they don't have to?

I think there is definitely a torture porn element to this series, which I'm uncomfortable with. And I hated that sex scene last week - that was really poorly thought out.

Tonight was 3, I think AF.

Aunt Lydias are the ultimate collaborators.

But it's that, or off to the colonies with them - hey have no power - it's the reality of a totalitarian state. Nazism for example - when you've imprisoned, hanged, shot, enough of your political opponents, people start to behave. They find ways to survive.

June says tonight "I thought that too, once" at the comment by the econowife that she would rather die than give up her baby. People will do unsavoury things, tolerate horrific stuff, to survive. Or even benefit.

Quick question. What number episode was tonight ?

I miss the next two so need to know which episodes to catch up on

But it’s mostly Aunt Lydia or the commanders wife occasionally. And it’s aunt Lydia’s unique job to torture the handmaidens so we have to see how bad she is. Or at least how bad the regime is outside of the faux civility of the commanders homes.
The commanders homes are the face of the whole regime. They need to look beautiful and refined and the horror more hidden.

And yet despite how clever the audience is at understanding this subtle critique of the commander, when it comes to the women we apparently need to see the tasering, burning, physical sadism, punching, stoming etc.

How do you mean? The violence perpetrated ON the women? Or BY the women?

I find he's portrayed in a truly terrifying way! He's awful, creepy, controlling, manipulative, cold and brutal to his wife. I don't think he's portrayed as nice/kind at all.

y point is that he is not represented as a bad man.

But he IS. A cowardly, self-excusing one. As are most of the bad men in history.

The self-exculpatory veneer of lipstick and scrabble is transparently hypocrisy and yet more exploitation.

He grew up in modern America and was intimately involved in designing the misogynistic system of slavery. The fact he wants to dress it up with social niceties and dress offered up as a whore-doll to help him get his erections, isn’t supposed to make the viewer like him. It’s more reason to dislike him.

Oh he’s so bad. Everything is all tension when he’s on screen. Everything he says is an act. And he’s horrible to his wife too. June knows how she needs to stroke his ego, act out his fantasy, because there would be a high price to pay otherwise. He terrifies me.
His wife is more openly bad, granted, but June isn’t as terrified of her at all.

Some interesting analysis going on here.

To the 'most of the rescuers are men', I think that is in large part because they have a bit more freedom than any women there, but clearly lower down on the male hierarchy. The rest of the women, with the exception of Aunt Lydia, are pretty much controlled (even the wives are in a gilded cage). One wonders how Aunt Lydia got into that position, and retains so much freedom, she seemingly does not have any direct supervision. That would be an interesting back story.

Commander's wife was instrumental in planning the coup - but then lost all power, along with all the other women.

That part is quite interesting, isn't it? It shows how women assisting a patriarchy (or consolidation of one) really have no idea of their ranking within the system or new system, and are effectively betrayed once they have done their work. A bit like dudes on the left, and their continual betrayal of the women who help them.