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Original poster

Would you be a Handmaid, Martha or Jezebel?

188 replies

FortunesFave · 21/06/2020 09:22

Re-watched some of the Handmaid's Tale and started thinking what I'd be if I lived in that world.

I'd be a Martha I think. I'm too old for them to choose me as a Handmaid and I think my lifestyle would ensure I got to be a Martha.

What were the criteria for Jezebels though?

OP posts:
Camomila · 21/06/2020 13:28

We got married in church before having DC so I think I'd get to stay a wife, phew!

Although, we're Catholic and I think we were seen as bad somehow. Plus DH and DC aren't white.....hmmm I think we'd have tried walking to Canada. DH jokes I come from hardy mountain folk (from the Alps), so I guess we'd have to see if we could do it.

Ouchjuststoodonlego · 21/06/2020 13:29

Oh interesting. I thought econowife but we had non religious wedding.
I'm mid 30s and have been lucky enough to fall pregnant the first month of trying twice. So I'd most likely be a handmaid.
Currently pregnant and have a dc young enough to be wanted by a high ranking family too so I guess that would count against me being able to carry on with our own family. Sad

ballsdeep · 21/06/2020 13:30

On this topic...... Does anyone know where I can watch series 3?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
CaraDune · 21/06/2020 13:30

Hmm, postmenopausal, single mother from pregnancy onwards, PhD in science, agnostic.

"Go straight to the colonies. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200."

cremuel · 21/06/2020 13:30

@AndNoneForGretchenWieners

I'd probably be a handmaid until they realised I had secondary infertility. Even though DH and I were married for 17 years, and I'm now widowed, DS was born the year before we married and I was a second wife, although no adultery involved as DH had been divorced for 10 years when we met, and his ex had been unfaithful not him. I think that would rule me out of being an econowife and I wouldn't meet the criteria for a Jezebel.
Sorry, you’re definitely guilty of adultery - gilead doesn’t recognise divorce so in their eyes your DH is still married to his first wife and you are the OW. That was June’s problem - she was married and had her child in wedlock, but because her husband had been married before and his exW was still living, it counted as adultery.

I agree that they would try out anyone with any chance of fertility as a handmaid. Even if you were guilty of egregious gilead crimes you’d still be given a turn to churn out babies for them, and would only get sent off to the colonies if you didn’t produce any.

MinorArcana · 21/06/2020 13:31

I wonder if people from the “wrong” Christian denominations would be given a chance to convert to the Gilead approved version before being banished or killed or forced to be a handmaid?

Blueemeraldagain · 21/06/2020 13:31

If I wasn’t executed/shipped off for being a teacher/educated woman, then I’d probably be a Handmaiden.
Early 30’s, not married, white, presumably fertile (never tried to be pregnant).

SayakaMurata · 21/06/2020 13:32

My DH is a senior government scientist so I think I'd be a Wife. Luckily I look good in green. Grin

cremuel · 21/06/2020 13:34

@FluffyKittensinabasket

I’ll be a Wife. DH is a senior officer in the armed forces.
Sorry, I don’t fancy your chances ... Gilead was formed by an underground religious sect that overthrew the government. I think anyone senior in the previous administration would be viewed with extreme suspicion. Your husband would have to work really had to persuade them he was totally on their side.
JorisBonson · 21/06/2020 13:36

If I had to choose I'd want to be a Martha so I could be part of the resistance.

But probably end up being a Handmaid Hmm

DCIRozHuntley · 21/06/2020 13:37

I would be an econowife I think. I shagged about a bit before DH but nothing that would be documented in any way. However I think DH would get arrested for heresy as he's quite political and then I'd become a Handmaid. I also wonder if they might set up / frame the husbands of women they thought had quite high fertility - 4 kids in 7 years and I'm still early 30s.

RaininSummer · 21/06/2020 13:37

I would def be a Martha now at least until arrested for assisting in rescue plots. When younger I guess a handmaid if they placed me before my two out of wedlock children. Either way I guess I end up hanged or in the colonies.

wizzbangfizz · 21/06/2020 13:39

I think I'd be an econowife, children born in wedlock.

1066vegan · 21/06/2020 13:40

I'm post menopausal so too old for handmaid or Jezebel.

Very limited skills as a cook so I wouldn't make the grade as a Martha.

I'm a teacher but also an atheist and not married to dp so I'd be a bad influence and not allowed anywhere near children.

Looks like it's the colonies for me.

Yester · 21/06/2020 13:43

I hope I would have escaped to Canada just before they stopped women working and dragged a kicking and screaming DH with me. Then set up the support group on the other side. My Mum came from a country ravaged by the Nazi's and lost many relatives. I wouldn't let my DC see that shit if I could help it. Otherwise I would be swinging on the wall.

wizzbangfizz · 21/06/2020 13:45

To the lady who is a nurse, only the aunts carry out basic midwifery - you wouldn't be allowed to work as no woman can.

Original poster
FortunesFave · 21/06/2020 13:47

Does still having periods mean you're a handmaid? If you're fertile? I mean...I'm in my 40s...that's too old to be a handmaid surely? They all look under 35.

OP posts:
Housewife2010 · 21/06/2020 13:48

Definitely a handmaid. Red is definitely my colour, I don't like cleaning and couldn't bear having to sleep with lots of men. At least the handmaid only has one long-term client at a time depending on her fertility.

Frazzled2207 · 21/06/2020 13:50

Econowife I’d hope. But is that theoretically allowed though? To have chosen your husband and had children and basically be allowed to continue as a family unit in some form?

If you needed to be religious though I suppose Martha (well into my 40s)

Dinosauratemydaffodils · 21/06/2020 13:54

Catholic, married but not in church.
42 with clockwork periods and my youngest was born just before I turned 41 but probably old to be a handmaid.
Hopefully I'd have seen it coming and run.

JingsMahBucket · 21/06/2020 13:54

@MinorArcana

I wonder if people from the “wrong” Christian denominations would be given a chance to convert to the Gilead approved version before being banished or killed or forced to be a handmaid?
It depends. Catholic? Likely not. Methodist? likely you would because that’s at times affiliated with being evangelical. Unitarian Universalist? Probably not because it’s too lefty.
Oldraver · 21/06/2020 13:59

I'm to old to be fertile, living in sin, dont believe in god and have a child out of wedlock. I'm also a gender traitor

Dont think I'd make it past the wall

sweetkitty · 21/06/2020 14:01

Although I’m now married all my children were born out of wedlock and I’m too old now to be a handmaiden. If I couldn’t escape to Canada I’d have been shot for critiquing the new regime.

Miriel · 21/06/2020 14:02

I'm a well-educated atheist, so I'd probably be killed. That said, I was raised very Christian so I could fake it quite well if I tried. I'm single, no children - I could try to find a sympathetic man and become an econowife, I suppose.

Councilworker · 21/06/2020 14:12

About to turn 40 with 2 kids that I got pregnant with as soon as we started trying. Married but first child was born before we got hitched and DH is Jewish too so our marriage is looking pretty expendable in Gilead. Children are 6 and 2 so young enough to be adopted.

I reckon I'd be given a chance as a handmaid for a year and then Martha'd as I'm good at cooking and sewing. i'd probably end up on the Wall though for trying to get my babies back

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