To ask what position you think you’d have in the handmaids tale society?

[Econowifeonabudget]

Been rewatching recently and the whole society is so alien to me. I struggle to understand how their economy functions given that they don’t appear to have widespread internet access, manufacturing, consumerism being the norm, exports etc. However, it did make me wonder what would happen if the handmades tale society existed in the modern day UK. I would guess I’d be an econowife given I’ve never committed any of the major ‘sins’ that might make me a handmaid but myself and DH are certainly not rich, powerful or religious. My guess is that many on mumsnet would be commanders wives. I know a few individuals in real life who would revel in being aunts and commanders respectively (shudder). Aibu to ask what position you think you’d have in the Handmaids tale society?

I would be a hand maid, for certain. My fertility record would seal my fate.

Colonies for me. Good thread to read thanks

Econowife probably. Married with two dc but not religious so would have to fake it. Either that or possibly an aunt as I'm a hcp by background and can deliver a baby if necessary, unless they executed me for being both an academic and a feminist. Dh has a manual job so definitely not a commander's wife and I'm now too old to be a handmaid

I have a child out of wedlock so probably a handmaiden? Horrible thought.

I cant quite remember the rules.

Married mother of 3 and still of childbearing age - but first two dc were born before our marriage and dh has had the snip.

So I'm guessing he'd be on the wall and I'd be a handmaid?

Oh shit yeah, I wouldnt be an econowife because DH has had the snip

That's a shame

I hope I’d have seen it coming and have gone, else I’d be shipped off to the colonies..

I could probably sell myself as an aunt mind you, but I don’t think I’d have figured that out in time, nor could I live with myself.

I have no domestic skills and past childbearing age and both me and my partner are divorced so no other options.

Married then had children so probably Econowife. I don't think DH would rank as a commander.

I haven't read or watched it since 2020 and the pace with which society changed and bought in to it was horribly remniscent of the pace of change in The Handmaid's Tale. When I first read it during A-levels, it was the most chilling distopia I studied, because it was the most plausible.

I remember shuffling socially distanced around a rather bare Aldi after queuing to get in thinking of the supermarket scenes in the series.

A handmaid, depending on upper age. I have a good childbearing history and regular periods. Otherwise a Martha as I can cook and keep house.

@Temporaryanonymity

Thank you, I like that!

I think that’s OK, he just has to toil at something while you look after the house.

Unless he fucks up of course, then it’s the colonies for you.

DH would be a Commander, assuming we hadn’t got out beforehand.

I’d be a Commander’s wife till they found out about the abortion and the atheism and other opinions. Then the Wall, I guess, or the Colonies, and DH would either be disgraced or would sweet talk the right people and get a new 17 year old bride.

Also people wouldn't likely have seen it coming. It happens incredibly quickly when it happens, but prior to that the drip drip drip of women's rights eroding. Naive to think you would see it and leave in time to not get caught, I think. Emily and her wife are very intelligent and capable but Emily does not make it out. The flashback in the series of the children of Adam taking over the capitol- seems it happens extremely quickly.

Younger me would have been a handmaid. I was a rebel and got pregnant easily so that would be my life. I'm perimenopausal now do I'd probably be an aunt. I like to think I'd be a nice one.

Ok good, I'm sure he could toil.

Martha with luck
colonies if not

I’m mid forties and an unmarried mother. I suspect I might be too old for a handmaid now but perhaps they would use us up until after the menopause had happened? I don’t think women deemed immoral would be allowed to be Aunts and definitely not wives so I suppose I would be a Martha or sent to the colonies.

I always wondered how women could makes recipes, knit clothes etc without being allowed to read, especially if they didn’t have all those traditional practical skills in the before times.

I’m very outspoken in my pro-choice, fuck the patriarchy views, and have a direct debit donation set up to BPAS, so if by some miracle I didn’t go on the wall I reckon I’d be a Martha or econowife, probably getting too old to be considered a good Handmaid and as a diabetic they probably wouldn’t want me to be one.

Commanders wife or a Martha as not able to bear children without science 🧬 support if we hadn't made it out to Canada 🍁 in time

We are Jewish and would refuse to convert so would probably join DH's sisters in israel before making our way back to my home country (apparently Jewish people were called sons of Jacob and had to convert or go to Israel). .

Though historically when people said stuff like that , it probably meant death...

Commanders wife but I’d be very unhappy about it and like to think I’d be working with mayday and that my “commander” would also be on the same side given we have 2 DDs

Interested in the posters saying they'd be commanders' wives. My reading is that the commanders are, if not actual founders of, at least fully signed up to Gilead and very involved in the running of it. Do you see your husbands in that category?! Or have I misread how men end up as commanders?

For me, econowife I think. One marriage, two children. No dastardly past!

In any extreme patriarchal regime, including real-life ones right now, I'd be considered low value and seditious. So it's the colonies for me, and now I'm dead.

I’ve definitely thought about this.

I think I’d be a Commander’s wife. I suspect that dh would survive and thrive anywhere. In RL I exert a strong moral influence on him and have caused him to think more deeply about some issues and to see the world slightly differently than he did before he met me. But in a culture with zero respect for women, I can imagine that our dynamic would be very, very different. And there’s a distinct possibility that I’d end up on the wall.

I was raised as a good girl and religious. I didn’t fully awaken to my sexuality until I met dh but I might just be too sexual to be a good wife. And I struggle to keep my opinions to myself.

But I wasn’t an obvious choice of partner for dh either - our backgrounds are mismatched. Would he buck family and societal expectations or even have stayed single long enough to meet me? It very much depends what stage of life we were in.

I’ve also thought about what our lives would be like in different regimes and periods in history and it can be unsettling. Power dynamics are funny things.

Colonies I’d imagine, 39, divorced, had a child with a divorced man