The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 (UK Pace) - thread 2

[CruCru]

Hi all

Here is the next thread for those who are watching The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 on Channel 4. Please don't put any spoilers on this - the other thread (for those in other countries who are watching ahead of the UK) is www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3239228-Handmaids-Tale-Season-2-SPOILERS-VIEWING-AHEAD-OF-UK-SREENING.

I loved the line about Prayvaganza not being one of his better ones. If I recall correctly the word is in the book but it sounded a bit more plausible in the 80s, so they must have stuck that in to help explain it away.

TammySwansonTwo

You massive tease! I’m really excited now !!

You should be ;)

I think there will be a steady supply of Handmaids. Even the girls who are raised within Gilead will transgress (run off with the boy next door, say something stupid to the wrong person). When they sin, they’ll be made into Handmaids.

I agree Cru.
If there aren't enough you just lower the threshold for what counts as transgression.

Yes is suspect there will be an adjustment in interpretation of the rules so that more girls have “broken” them and can be made handmaids.

Particularly any lower class wife who is found to be fertile. Mysteriously something will be dragged up to proclaim them a sinner

Of course though the children of handmaids raised as gilead elite will be married off to each other, and at a young age by modern standards. There is nothing to suggest they won't be fertile. In the book the wife's are older and hence no longer fertile (if they were to start with) and the commanders are mostly infertile. But if the next generation of wifes and commanders start having their own children they won't need a handmaid.
However I think the lack of children and low fertility is down played in the show. For example none of the commanders and wifes have children from pre gilead?
Not one???

That's the point though isn't it?

June was the ONLY mother in the Labour ward. And Hannah is roughly 8 now.

Women in general were not having children - if a decent percentage were then no need for Handmaids

As well, thinking of it. Many women are now pursuing careers first and children later and then finding their fertile years behind them, that's why they are starting them young a 15 year old could have as many children by the time she's mid 30s

@theredjellybean a woman tried to kidnap baby Hannah from hospital when she was born which suggests women weren't having babies as normal.

"I think Gilead sees a move to the colonies as a one-way ticket."

Definitely. A death camp, like the Labour camps the Nazis had.

"As well, thinking of it. Many women are now pursuing careers first and children later and then finding their fertile years behind them, that's why they are starting them young a 15 year old could have as many children by the time she's mid 30s"

Well, obviously. If her health and fertility are good she could presumably keep going until she's 45. I suppose that would depend on Gilead not working them too hard and forcing them to have a baby every year though. And also the fertility of the males. Religious authoritarians often believe in early marriage for women also because younger people are easier to manipulate.

Traditionally, societies have used polygyny (males having many wives) to increase the population so if there are more fertile women available you'd expect high status male commanders to have many wives/handmaids - they'd find some old testament justification for it.

In the choice of women someone gave above, what's an unwoman? I presume that's from the book rather than the series.

Unwomen are those in the colonies or Jezebel’s, Gwen.

I love the theories on this thread!

Thinking about the plans for future handmaids / rules around young women, I had sort of thought that the Gilead architects hadn't really thought that far - or at least they aren't allowed to say that they have.

So for the "true believers", the fertility problems were related to the sinfulness of what society had become. So by creating Gilead and perhaps having a "first generation" of handmaids to start the new generations, there would be no future issues. Nick's wife would be expected to be fertile, as would any future children. Because they now live in a Godly society.

However my feeling is that actually the bulk of even the powerful people in Gilead don't really believe in it from a biblical perspective (hence Jezebel's etc). It's all about personal gain. So while no-one can officially say that there are plans for long-term infertility because that would be publicly doubting the success of the regime, I think it's true that they'd restrict rules so there are more "sinners" - however no children would actually be "raised" as handmaids.

I find it interesting how much in Gilead is unsaid. No-one trusts each other.

I also suspect that Nick won't want to have sex with Eden, he looked pretty horrified. Will she therefore suspect him of being a "gender traitor" and report him, and will Serena/June come clean to protect him?

I wonder if Angela might be ill. Serena seemed concerned about her. Isn't she supposed to be a few months old now? She still looked like a newborn (though that might be just the TV company not casting quite the right age). In the book weren't lots of babies born deformed or ill, if they were born at all? Maybe there's something wrong with Angela too. If so, but it's not something that kills her, I can't see her 'mother' wanting her. But Serena might.

Angela did turn out to be a ‘shredder’ in the book.

Maybe June had a caesarean with Hannah, hence the incision.

I think in the book, Hannah wasn't actually kidnapped from the hospital.

I think she was taken in a shop or a restaurant so she was older than newborn at the time.

But births were still rare enough at the time for her to be unusual, and I can't remember if it was mentioned in the book who else was on the maternity ward.

I think in the book a baby previously born to a Handmaid and presumed healthy dies shortly afterwards, and there's a comment about it not being healthy after all. They use a grim name I don't want to use for babies who aren't born healthy or who die from birth defects. I can't remember if the baby who dies in the book is Angela or not.

But that episode and Angela crying and it being dismissed as teething does perhaps suggest that something else might be wrong with her.

What is a shredder?

I assumed that Naomi isn't looking after Angela properly. That she resents Janine so much, she's taking it out on the baby.

I think Serena suspects or will at least try to pretend so she could get Angela

I think shredder = 'unbaby' (baby suffering from congenital malformation)

A shredder is the terrible name they use for disabled and ill children.

Oh that's awful

Sorry to lower the tone but I fancy / love Nick a bit

Yes they shredded Angela in the book.

Unwoman - Woman who is "not a real woman" so presumably

Lesbians
Feminists
Disabled Women
Academic Women

And anyone who refused to be silent and comply to the regime