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The Handmaid's Tale Vol 3

574 replies

CruCru · 24/07/2017 21:18

Hi all

As the last thread has all but totally filled up, I've started this new one.

Bit shallow - but do you think the Wives are allowed cosmetics? I got the impression that make up is banned but they do all look very polished.

OP posts:
Elendon · 30/07/2017 11:50

I think the affair (how did they know this?) was an indication to the Gilead that she would be compliant and heterosexual (plus she had a child who was taken).

Janine's story was so sad. Is it just me or was her right hand amputated and that's why she was laid out as such on the bed?

deadringer · 30/07/2017 11:50

I am enjoying this thread so much! I have just finished the book ( I read it before many years ago) to coincide with the end of the first series, and tbh I have more questions than answers. One thing I still don't understand is how they know women are fertile and eligible to be a handmaid. I assumed they picked young women who had previously had a child but Moira never had a baby as far as we know did she. In the book (sorry) she mentions at jezebels that she had her tubes tied years ago. I am assuming she kept that to herself but it just made me wonder how they test the women. Maybe the women made infertile by the stds/pollution typically no longer menstruated? I can't wait to watch tonight even though I don't want it to end!

SapphireStrange · 30/07/2017 11:56

Elendon, maybe the Eyes started operating before the full coup was established and that's how they knew in advance about affairs, and who was a 'degenerate' ie gay, etc?

dead, in the episode where they follow Luke and his fellow refugees, I think the woman who doesn't speak had previously been rounded up and (I assume) repeatedly raped to 'test' her for fertility. I'd guess that's why she was so traumatised that she turned mute.

Elendon · 30/07/2017 11:57

Moira's story is a little different in the book though.

I've just finished reading the book and I didn't get that she had her tubes tied - it's such a good book I may have skimmed past that so apologies. I got that she preferred the Jezebel to the other and that was her choice (and a shitty choice at that).

I loved the visceral tension and disgust that Moira and June displayed when the commander came close to them. And yet the commander doesn't care.

Elendon · 30/07/2017 12:00

In fact all the women in Gilead had shitty choices. None were spared.

Elendon · 30/07/2017 12:01

That's what I love about the epilogue in the book. Nothing has changed.

MsFortunaMajor · 30/07/2017 12:44

Earlier in the thread someone asked if they had done something to Janine as her legs were splayed on the hospital bed. Janine's arms were in restraints, and it looked like her legs were restrained too, which is why her legs were wide apart on the bed. Though I wouldn't put it past the regime to impregnate her in her unconscious state as her womb is all they want or need.

MsFortunaMajor · 30/07/2017 12:47

Elendon perhaps Luke's adultery was listed in his divorce papers and that's how the Gilead regime was able to identify his marriage to June as undesirable.

Elendon · 30/07/2017 13:04

Yet despite that he had control of her money? Is anyone's marriage desirable in this Gilead regime?

cragsandmountains · 30/07/2017 13:21

I was talking about THT at work the other day and a woman was saying how much she was enjoying watching it. Then she said "It makes you think, y'know. What's happening to women in Saudi Arabia and you get these feminists over here making a fuss and taking something someone's said the wrong way."

I despaired at how she could watch it and totally miss the bloody point.

Elendon · 30/07/2017 13:39

But she didn't miss the point. She was spot on.

SophieCatScribbles · 30/07/2017 14:26

I think that's a valid observation. It's ALL important - how we talk about women's rights is important as its a reflection of attitudes....but you can't ever deny that what is being done TO women in other regimes/countries is much more serious than language.

Language might hurt your feelings, worry us and reflect undesirable attitudes, but the physical violence against women in some places, the restraint put on their actual movements, their clothes, their freedoms, their bodies...that's far, far more serious. Every time. So she's not missing the point, she's just looking at an aspect of THT that she's thinking about at that time.

Surely any analysis on THT by anyone is valid? It's going to stir all sorts of feelings in people based on their own lives and experiences...

Just people thinking about it is good. I doubt anyone watching (except a few billionaire nutters, mentioning no names) will watch THT thinking 'wow, that's a great way to live'...

SapphireStrange · 30/07/2017 14:39

I disagree. I think what crags means is that this woman fails to see that anything that is sexist/misogynistic –from the words people use to the way the world of work is constructed to the withholding of women's rights and physical violence –is on a continuum.

I keep thinking back to that scene when June tries to pay for coffee and her card is declined and the server calls her and Moira 'fucking whores'. Yes, it's 'only' 'something someone's said', but it is an indication of the direction in which that society is rapidly moving.

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 30/07/2017 14:54

From the previous thread:

I'm guessing menopause for the Martha if her son is 19, either that or infertile like so many others. It was very telling in the Ofglen trial the difference in the numbers between the Handmaids and Marthas.

Rita's son is not mentioned in the book IIRC. However, it makes sense to have post-menopausal mothers in the Commanders' homes as Marthas as the wives will have no experience of childcare & there are few places they can turn for advice (except, irony, their poor, abused handmaids, who are moved on quickly). Also, everyone seems worried about losing face, so in-house advice, where all of the household's fortunes are inextricably linked so no one leaks problems, makes sound sense.

Clawdy · 30/07/2017 15:02

Can anyone remember who actually removed Janine's eye? I remember her being dragged away and returned with a dressing on her eye, but who did it? Was it the Aunts, or someone else?

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2017 15:45

I don't think it was ever made clear who did it, but I assume they have some sort of medical facility, where the Handmaids are treated - it would be the same place where the FGM was carried out, and maybe the same place that Offred went for her check-up.

InigoTaran · 30/07/2017 20:59

Bloody football!

Cherrypi · 30/07/2017 21:00

My thoughts exactly Inigo.

NCforIS · 30/07/2017 21:01

Fucksake! F'in football again!!!

IndominusRex · 30/07/2017 21:03

I can't stay up that late

deste · 30/07/2017 21:08

Sharp thought time is it on tonight please.

deste · 30/07/2017 21:09

What time.

Mumteadumpty · 30/07/2017 21:17

At least it's women's football.

deste · 30/07/2017 21:18

Found it.

QueenieGoldstein · 30/07/2017 21:51

For the extreme medical disfigurements (eyes, hands, gentials) they appear to at least use anaesthetic. Unlike the brutal punishments of whipping, I hope to God at least they didn't do a Gloucester to poor Janine.