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?

The economy works similar to former communist countries, the novel was based on early 80's Romania (which is my home country, incidentally) - so you are probably at least a little aware how sustainable that was 😂

I would probably be dead/a refugee if lucky enough to get out early. Otherwise most likely made a handmaid and killed at the training stage because I'm gobby 😂

I rather wonder what would happen to my children. Both were conceived through IVF - would they be considered “valid” children in Gilead? Horrible thought

I would be a Martha or more likely already on the wall. I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut

A lot of it did happen in Iran when the shah was deposed.
Religious zealots took over and impaired women's lives especially.
An awful lot of people did get out.

We're fairly well off, but not religious - but could probably "play along with it" for a while helping as many people as we could along the way.

OP - The Testaments (the sequel) is also a really good read.

Oh they’d be fine! Gilead came about because almost everyone became infertile and there was a fear the country would literally die out. So Gilead was about essentially enslaving all the fertile women and forcing them to birth as many children by as many fathers (commanders) as possible. So to Gilead all children were wanted. Sadly, girls born of fertile mums, would be made Handmaids and the boys commanders as chances are they’d be fertile too.

They even sent out missionaries called Pearl Girls to lure fertile young women from other countries to go to Gilead…

As a 33 year old lesbian with no kids I reckon I would be straight to the colonies!

If we didn't clear out first/in time i'd be an econowife, married before having children (still little), both first/only marriages to each other, seemingly quite fertile but I suspect we would pretend to be trying for more children as we don't want any more and we'd have to fake being religious.

Probably a dead ex handmaid.
I've had a termination. However i've also had a lot of miscarriages so i'd doubtless have been blamed/gone bonkers. I'd also kill anyone who tried to remove my kids from me so i wouldn't stand a chance.

I'm passed childbearing age which I did badly and out of wedlock. Also a gender traitor and gobby

No chance for me

I have a full set of Martha skills (I'd perhaps not make the grade on the cleaning but if my life depended on it, I'd learn) but I suspect I'd be an aunt or on the wall. It's the leadership skills that would be deadly, could I really keep my head down and my mouth shut for the rest of my life?

Whatever position I was given I would definitely have been active in the resistance. Like to think I would have gone down fighting

Skills wise I'm a Martha. I had one DC but now in peri menopause. I'm not authoritative enough to be an Aunt.

But I think we would have fled in time. Back when the first cases of covid hitting Europe I was already stocking up on tins and pasta (didn't think about the toilet paper though, dammit!) at DH's suggestion. So when the first panic hit the supermarkets we were grand.

My DB is a full on OFRS so he would have seen it coming a while back and likely I'd have hedged my bets and prepped a bit, once DH started to think that we should go, I'd be ready to go right away.

If our economy collapsed, we wouldn't be too bad I think. We've sufficient land to plant our own fruit and veg, and ILs have livestock so we could trade. So we'd have fruit and veg, eggs, meat and dairy, so we would probably be ok. Assuming the government didn't take it all off us!

I’d be on the Wall most likely.

Failing that I’d be getting very very angry in the Colonies and would be summoning my inner core of June.

I would be on the wall as a doctor who prescribed contraception and had referred women for abortions.

Also had an affair and got divorced...

I think this too, @PinkPlantCase.

The early scenes with June and Moira, seeing the changes and then with cashless society, men telling them to coverup, etc, didn't hit home.

Even when June was told to leave her job (because she was a woman), didn't prompt them to leave (if I recall correctly).

Anyone who has had a child outside marriage or married a man who was married before would be a handmaid.

I expect young women from 'poor' backgrounds would also be made handmaids in order to make as many babies as possible. Young women from rich and powerful families would be wives to commanders.

Econowives would be women already married pre-Gilead , as long as it was the first marriage for both of them.

Unmarried women past childbearing age would be marthas. If they were from rich and powerful families they may be an aunt.

Nah, you would be forced to be a handmaid like poor Emily

I'm a cleaner so would probably be a Martha as too old to bear children now. 20 years ago I would have been a Jezebel!

I’m past childbearing age, so handmaiden is out. But I’ve had 4 births and healthy DCs, so that would get me some credit to become a Martha, instead of shipping me to the colonies. I’m a good cook and had a management job, so I might be useful as a Martha to a Commander. But I’ve got a postgraduate degree and I’m an atheist, lefty rebel, so if I was a Martha, I’d be part of the Underground Railroad smuggling handmaidens to Canada and putting poisonous mushrooms in the soup of nasty Wives.

How were the Jezebels chosen I wonder?

Obviously they would have been attractive to the commanders, and deemed immoral I suppose, but were they also definitely infertile? Surely they wanted as many handmaids as possible so they wouldn’t have wasted potential handmaids, fertile women who haven’t begun menopause, on Jezebels. They would have needed a lot of handmaids too, but could have managed with a smaller number of Jezebels because Jezebels could service many men in a short space of time but handmaids can only service one man for a year or more.

Post menopause women wouldn’t be wanted as Jezebels because they wouldn’t be attractive to men anymore. I imagine that once Jezebels are no longer attractive to men they are sent off to the colonies, nothing else can be done with them unless there are other roles in Jezebel house which they could take on, some might be able to do that. They could never mix with wider Gilead society.

Menopausal handmaids might become assistants to Aunts of handmaids the oppressed often become the oppressors after all, and they are fully integrated into that system. I don’t think they could become Marthas, unless doing that role at the handmaid house. Janine was becoming an assistant to Aunt Lydia, not due to menopause but other reasons…

I noticed in the television series that Aunts also taught in the girls schools as well as dealing with handmaids.

I read the book a long time ago. IIRC the Jezebels were young, infertile 'sinful' women of childbearing age. If they were fertile they would have been handmaids.

If they were above a certain age they would be sent to the colonies.

According to Google "rebellious" girls were sent to Jezebels, and sterilised!

Moira was sent to be a Jezebel because she was too rebellious and uncontrollable to be a handmaid. I expect looks were a factor as well.

Martha if they didn't know I was gay....

I would probably be an eco wife as I am married to my first real boyfriend, had children after marriage, nothing they could use against me really except perhaps that we are not religious.