What part of Handmaid's Tale traumatised you the most?

[user892734543544]

I love a well made TV show. I wasn't finding anything and, despite my natural aversion to the concept of HMT, I watched it to satisfy the need to see a good show.

Here are the moments I wish I had never seen. Interested to know what you found the most upsetting part.

1. Emily being taken with that other lady to be punished for being gay. Other lady was just unceremoniously strung up and hanged in seconds.
2. What happened to poor, poor Janine. When that bloke got ahold of her and just beat her and kept her prisoner.
3. When June's daughter said to her 'will I ever see you again?'
4. When Janine's child was given back at the end.

So glad we stopped watching at the end of season one.

I could see where this was heading and I didn’t have the stomach for it.

even if she disassociated, she would still be physically sore and bruised. Surely then any sex would be painful rather than enjoyable.

Bear in mind that the monthly rapes were not violent. I'm loathe to downplay them but I would imagine she wouldn't be any more sore or bruised than after normal (consensual) intercourse.

When they rounded up the handmaidens and lead them to a scaffold and made them think they were about to be hanged and one of them wet themselves. The way they grasped each other’s hands and tried to be brave. It was terrifying.

Well she would because there was no foreplay and they didn’t mentally consent. Therefore no lubrication or vaginal expansion which happens when you consent.

@Queen0fTheNorth I'm sorry but you are incorrect. Even if a woman is drugged and unconscious and the rape isn't violent, she will still be bruised, cut, sore and damaged. That's why Rape Kits are performed. They often find small abrasions, soft tissue injuries, bruising etc. If your vagina isn't prepared for sex either consensually or with foreplay then it is very dry and very tight. Thus very painful, regardless of the "violence" of the crime.

@Uggbootsforever @dontcomeatme
Ok, I stand corrected, thanks.

Yes. This scene was haunting with the Kate Bush soundtrack playing. Outstanding piece of television. I wept and wept.

Of course they were violent. No lubrication, no arousal, so no natural lubrication, no relaxation of the pelvis, elongation of the vagina etc, none of the things that consensual enjoyable sex is made of. Women often experience pain or bruising when they have been penetrated prior to being ready, when they are consenting.

I think all of the bits when you think "wait, that actually happens in America" - like the Heaven Is A Place On Earth with the woman kept alive in a coma just so she can host her baby (Adriana Smith). Those are the truly shocking bits, when you realise it isn't fiction. FGM is real. Men do the worst of this already.

It's so depressing I didn't persevere with it. Someone having their eye removed, I remember a lesbian having her clitoris removed and the seedy sex club where all the wealthy men went to act out fantasies on women forced into prostitution. I think I remember a guy licking the amputated hand of a woman in the lift....

I'd add that rape is by definition violent.

That's wrong but I think it's your brain telling you that to minimise the horror

@Disasterclass That sequence reminds me of the graphic novel persepolis which is based on the Iranian revolution - it describes that happening in real life - women suddenly losing all their rights, trying to protest and getting shot at.

@LittleBitofBread 100%

We hold on to our rights by a thread. It could so easily snap. My privilege was to assume we were safe in the UK. We’re never safe.

Janine - her whole story. Raped as a young woman (or girl) - inferred as gang rape, her first child removed, humiliated by the aunts, her eye removed, regular rape, her second child removed, total mental breakdown, attempt to get handmaids to stone her to death, her child nearly dies, sent to the colonies to try and kill her, more rape and torture,escapes, gets blown up, friends die, emotional manipulation by aunt lydia while she tries to 'adapt' and accept her fate, sent to jezebels for more abuse of every kind whilst she tries desperately to survive. Most of her friends die, she nearly dies (again) - finally she gets a happy ever after.

Not sure that she's going to be a healthy human after all that or able to raise her daughter with any positive view of men.