The Handmaid's Tale Vol 2

[PacificDogwod]

I go to work and this is what happens: the previous thread fills up when I have pertinent things to say!

Hope nobody minds, I've taken the opportunity to start a new one before the Offspring demand food and the likes...

One of the masterful strikes of strategic genius of the new regime is the division and envy between everybody and everybody: men vs women, women in different roles vs other women, high ranking vs low ranking.
No solidarity is allowed - even the partnered Handmaids were half companion and have guard. Never knowing who might be an Eye and who to trust must be soul destroying.

I think Serena is quite a tragic figure - in the book and in the TV series. She must feel so betrayed by the ideals she fought for and that she is now kind of forced to uphold because otherwise what would her life be?? Admitting that she supporting a world view that while giving her some kind of social status by dint of her husband's role, considers her without value as she cannot have children would render everything she stands for invalid, and herself by extension.

The author who wrote a book about women being able to electrocute men by touch thereby causing a power change over (sorry, I cannot remember either name ) was talking on Radio Scotland today. She said the idea for her book came from when she wondered why so many mechanisms in society seem to go back to the fact that 'more men can throw a woman across a room than the other way around'. It's a depressing thought that physical strength underpins so much.

I will be on holiday for the last 2

I should cancel, shouldn't I?
Or I could send DH and the kids on their own??
Thank goodness for newfangled recording options...
I will be waaaaaay behind this thread though

The Mexicans want the trade, but they also want it sanitised. They don't want to 'officially' trade in human slavery and rape. So the women are 'volunteers' for the good of humanity, is the official line - and they can turn a blind eye to the reality.

We do similar already - we know that a lot of our clothes are made by people in appalling condition in v poor countries, using variations of child labour, v poor wages, few rights - even slave labour. We know, because every now and again it is exposed in the press. But we turn a blind eye to it.

Essie I would love to know, too. Unfortunately, I remember little else about the program...but it does seem like a sensible explanation doesn't it.

It's all about 'deniability', isn't it.
The Mexican ambassador cannot be seen to know what's really going on.
All too close to RL

It was Masters and Johnston who did the orgasm study - it remains a landmark study in trying to understand female sexuality.

I found the Masters of Sex tv show very interesting where it focussed on the real medical research, along with the discovery of birth control pills.
The Handmaids Tale is far better though. I think about it all the time. Can't wait for the series to finish so I can read the book.

I'm of the opinion that birth control is the single biggest mechanism for the emancipation of women in history. My friends and I have had numerous conversations about it (as fertile women) - most of us went to Uni, worked for a good few years, chose to start having babies in our thirties.

With no contraception, we would basically have probably had a baby every year/couple of years -and the fact that we can now be married, work, enjoy sex and relationships, without the risk of pregnancy - is huge. It's a massive thing for women's equality.

It has frightened me for a long time that the far-right Christians in the US want to not only reduce access to abortion, but also access to contraception - it all feels a little too close to THT.

I am bereft. Just finished the last episode. It has been by far the best thing I have ever seen on television. The West Wine was previously my best thing ever and Elizabeth Moss was in that anyway

Bloody brilliant. I want to watch it all again

A timely tweet

Vice President Pence‏Verified account @VP 4m4 minutes ago
More
Met pro-life leaders at @WhiteHouse & reaffirmed @POTUS' commitment to the sanctity of life as we work on the Obamacare repeal/replace plan.

I thought Masters of Sex was brilliant. We never did get the second series though, anyone know if it's due anytime ever?!
Gilead is so chilling simply because we can see the future possibilities and the odd present-day truth now. Particularly with the rise of the right-wing, anti-science, pro-life extremists.
The pro-life argument never makes sense to me. Of course in an ideal world no foetus should be aborted - but the world is far from ideal, and if the mother wants that abortion, surely her choice over her own life and body should take priority, otherwise women are just slaves to men's will. Why would anyone force a baby to be born where it was unwanted? Isn't that the cruellest of acts?
Birth control has indeed freed millions of women to actually live a life they choose. It's barbaric that so many still don't have that right, and that some might have it taken away.
Thanks for clarity re the ten-episode series! Phew.
:)

I do absolutely love this programme and it is one of the best things I've ever seen but I sometimes find it hard to reconcile 'June/Offred' with the Scientology beliefs of the actress. It's a little distracting to me. As amazing as she is.

Scientology? Really? I wonder if this role triggered anything for her?

No way! Really?! She's a Scientologist?
I am actually genuinely shocked.

Well she was raised in Scientology by Scientologist parents. So presumably if she left now she'd never be able to see her family again. So that casts the possible decisions she has made in a certain light. Possibly.

I wonder if this role triggered anything for her?

I'd say the fact she's chosen to produce a series about an oppressively religious regime is interesting. She's been quite outspoken about what a fan of the book she is.

It's odd isn't it! Would love to explore this further but nay chance of that!

www.google.co.uk/amp/themuse.jezebel.com/isnt-it-relevant-that-the-star-of-the-handmaids-tale-be-1794667562/amp

It's explored a little bit here...

Yes just read that. She refused to engage about it.

This article also mentions how the cast were initially reluctant to call it a feminist piece of work, possibly as a marketing decision...

www.mtv.com/news/3005753/the-handmaids-tale-refuses-to-say-the-f-word/

Thanks for the links, both interesting articles.

"What struck me instead was the haunting notion that we've reached a point in history where an explicitly political, feminist work of art must be depoliticized and downplayed for fear of alienating the men who might feel excluded by it."

Yep. Ironic really.

In fairness, it is a feminist piece of tv whether you admit it or not.

Exactly. But how tragic that they don't want to call it that, for fear of alienating audiences or something

Shoes "
We do similar already - we know that a lot of our clothes are made by people in appalling condition in v poor countries, using variations of child labour, v poor wages, few rights - even slave labour. We know, because every now and again it is exposed in the press. But we turn a blind eye to it."

Yes. Also pornography. A huge proportion of women in pornography haven't made a free choice to be there and are trafficked/coerced/abused etc. Prostitution too. Some men are still happy to watch/participate/use despite this.

Sorry for DM link but thought it was pertinent to our discussion. It's about the 'comfort women', women who were used as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during WWII. Horrific what happened to them. And again, just reinforces what Atwood said about only using real life incidents in her novel.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4670480/First-footage-sex-slaves-shame-Japan.html

But we turn a blind eye to it

There's so much we turn a blind eye to. There is so much awfulness and inequality in this world. And people do have little power to enact change. So a blind eye is turned. And yes, we play along with it. Cheap clothes, working in an arms industry that supplies weapons to Saudi Arabia etc.

But at the same time, a lot of good is done as well. It's just sad when the world's most powerful country seems to be in the hands of the religious right at the moment.