The Handmaids tale

[DumbledoresArmy]

Anyone else planning on watching this at 9pm on channel 4?

People are kept apart and controlled. Handmaidens are either alone, in pairs with who knows who, or in group meetings where they are used to kill, surrounded by armed men. Actually there are armed men everywhere, watching, threatening.

All would have witnessed someone rebelling like Janine and being harshly punished. Or being shipped away to process toxic waste in "the colonies" Impossible to form groups or even identify, let alone communicate with like minded individuals.

Whiskwarrior

Oh. My. God.

Plus Handmaidens are being regularly and systemically raped. And they are meant to feel privileged for it. Toxic waste processing in NZ (that's feat I think of when they say colonies) being the alternative.

I can't recall where the colonies actually are?

And if it was all done under a 'state of emergency', as happens in the book, with women very suddenly having bank accounts frozen and losing their jobs overnight, it would scare, shock, confuse and cow you into just going along until it was all too late.

I like to think men will watch this and understand. But then, to paraphrase Dworkin, I believe in their humanity, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Whisk who was the guitarist?

Oh, the guitarist is Joe Trohman. Not famous outside of his band/s to people who don't know his bands, really. But I love the guy. He's seriously supportive of women's rights.

Cheers Whisk...I'm going to check him out!! I LOVE musicians anyway and if they support women then that's it for me- total loyalty!! 👍😂

My DH is a drummer (not famous) and is a feminist ally....he is brilliant!!!! I love that combo - it is pretty powerful I think!!

It's pretty damn hot, is what it is!

Don't try and steal my Trohman...

All of his band mates are the same. Amazing bunch of dudes, really.

Yeah......it is soooo hot!!!! My DH is incredible on the drums and he also despises men who abuse women...it is addictive listening to his music when he goes off on one like John Lennon!!

Hehe...I am so not going to steal Trohman!!!!

Going back to what the others said about casting Serena Joy and the Commander as younger to ramp up the sexual competition aspect in the TV version, there is a sense in the book in which using a young, fertile woman to provide a couple well past their reproductive capacity with a baby is also a problem. If I recall, the book also implies that the Marthas do most of the work of raising the child once it is removed from the Handmaid, so the child's needs are not centred in this process at all. The child is merely a status symbol for the high status couples.

Just watched it and really liked it, though I also agree that the Commander and Serena are too young and too attractive.

I did it for A Level in 1993. Yr 13s at my school are also doing it for A Level. Looking forward to discussing it with them after half term. I think I'll re-read the book too.

In the book , the commanders being older is also a problem because lots of them are in fact infertile. That can never be acknowledged though-there is no such thing as infertile men only barren women.

I hate that they have made the commander and serena joy young-it changes the whole dynamic.

Just watched the first episode, that was great

I can't remember much detail of the book mind you, it's over 10 years since I read it! So can't comment on how true to the book it was

I thought it was great although agree with PPs about the ages of the commander and his wife.

The nasty vibe from wife to Offred did however nicely show the competition that women are forced to go through and which pits them against each other when their husbands practise polygamy but they are not allowed to.

It reminded me of the awful way in which white plantation owners' wives used to treat their husband's black mistresses even though it was the husband doing the raping and the black woman an innocent victim. She was seen as a threat. As Offred is.

I loved the descent into madness of the eye-poked-out girl. Her full embrace of the system is a coping mechanism of the "I'm alright Jack" variety mixed in with a dose of Stockholm syndrome.

And the killing scene. When Offred realised what she is capable of. All very good.

The only gripe I have is the impression it gives that it is evil women leaders calling the shots. But then it's a good study in how the underlings perpetuate the system by stamping on their own kind I suppose.

In the book , the commanders being older is also a problem because lots of them are in fact infertile. That can never be acknowledged though-there is no such thing as infertile men only barren women.

Absolutely. The handmaids are placed in an invidious position. If they don't get pregnant > off to the colonies. If they resort to other means of getting pregnant > death or the colonies. So much jeopardy.

I read the book many years ago (decades) and found it really thought provoking.

The supermarket was really silly. The idea was that you never would know what was in stock due to austerity. In the TVs adaptation, it looked more like Lidl!

I think the oppressive atmosphere is quite well recreated with the jarring disharmonies in the music. On the other hand any screen adaptation that needs a narrative voice to explain what is happening seems to say that it is a theme treated better by the written word.

I don't remember the supermarket description in the book, but I actually like the depiction of the supermarket in the show - it looks modern and mundane, just like any supermarket that we might go into any day of the week, it made it more real to me.

Not sure about 'men' watching it and feeling 'ashamed'? Ashamed of what? My DH isn't watching it, it's not really his thing, but if he did I wouldnt expected him to feel ashamed?

My dh absolutely loved it! More than I did!

Since inadequate nutrition compromises optimal fertility, perhaps the 'austerity' is political, with rationing and apparently unpredictable scarcity and abundance a tool to control? How people behave in sales in stable and democratic countries is a good indicator of how the notion of scarcity is potent, even when there is no scarcity.

no food is ns carce because gilead is at war and stuff can't be got into the country plus the environmental issues have depleted food.

In he book the shops were small-they had a picture showing what they sold-no words aloud. So the grocer is called milk and honey.
The butchers hangs the body of the animal he has butchered up to show what meat there is. \the women queue up to be served like in a old fashioned shop-that's why rita says 'tell them who the chicken is for so you get a good one'[or words to that effect]

So the state says. But you wouldn't know, would you?