Handmaid, Handmaiden.

[CandlelightGlow]

Can someone explain why it's been deemed appropriate to call women who appear to be defending men or considering men in any capacity, handmaids?

Does it mean something else that I'm not aware of? My understanding is it comes from the Margaret Atwood novels, referring to women who are forced into ritualistic rape, pregnancy and childbirth.

How exactly does it link to a woman who in one's opinion, chooses to serve the patriarchy. Is it a term feminists should ever use? There is a strong connotation of victim blaming if you are choosing to refer to another woman as a willing handmaid. How is it justifiable?

I'm not asking for examples of when you would consider someone fitting the definition of "handmaiden". I've seen this term thrown around on a couple of threads recently and I'm concerned that it's become a term used largely by women, to insult other women, often in the context of feminist discussions, and I find it interesting that given this very particular context, it's deemed acceptable to use? Again, given the highly misogynistic connotation feeding into the "willing female victim" narrative that already plagues patriarchal rhetoric.

It predates A Handmaid’s Tale on Netflix

You could Google but I did it for you

"An allusion to Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), in which "handmaids" are women who serve the male commanders in a patriarchal dystopia"

en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/handmaiden#:~:text=Etymology,commanders%20in%20a%20patriarchal%20dystopia.

Lots of women have a strong internalised misogyny and so support various things that are harmful to women and uphold the patriarchy. E.g. most liberal choice based views on sex work. Handmaiden is shorthand.

It's hardly an offensive term although it is an insult. I can't get too wound up by it tbh

I see, do you think that's why people are using it, or do you think it's mainly used in the context of the Handmaid's Tale, it's quite prominent these days in popular culture. I've always assumed the latter, cursory searches on google seem to agree, but that's if you can consider places like Urban Dictionary a reliable source!

Er, the OP’s question still stands and you’d know that if you’d actually read Atwood’s Handmaids Tale and Last Testaments.

The Handmaids were raped and forced to give birth and then give up their children. The word “serve” in the little handbook you’ve quoted is as a slave, not as a willing servant.

It’s nothing to do with Atwood’s book.

It’s ‘handmaiden’ not ‘handmaid’.

The whole phrase is ‘handmaiden of patriarchy’ (‘HOP’ for short) and iirc the reference is biblical.

Perhaps ‘handmaid’ as described in Margaret Atwood’s novels is not the right term, as they had no choice in the matter, but, how would you describe women who willingly promote the patriarchy to the detriment of other women, and by extension, themselves?

Biblical handmaidens were slaves.

In Handmaids tale a Handmaiden doesn’t choose to serve men/the patriarchy, they’re forced to, it’s not a personal choice.

That's interesting that you don't consider it offensive.

I guess the way I see it, is that handmaids are specifically women of childbearing age who are routinely raped and forced into pregnancy, and so appropriating a term used to describe a victim, and applying that term to a woman who you believe is willingly "serving the patriarchy" seems poorly matched. The only reason (in my opinion) it fits, is because of the ongoing societal trope that women are either willing or deserving recipients of patriarchal pressure and misogynistic treatment.

Even the quote that you provided uses the word "serve" when it's clear from the books and shows that they are not servants. They are forced sex slaves. But yet Martha isn't the chosen shorthand word. It's Handmaid.

It originated from the handmaid's tale book in the 1980s but its in widespread usage by feminists now. Its been used on here since before HT was on TV

Actually it's quite interesting now I'm looking into it as the original usage of handmaiden has a dual meaning so Margaret Atwood was very clever in how she used it in the book as "Handmaidens" are fulfilling both definitions

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/handmaiden

Thanks for the question as that's been an interesting Internet rabbit hole

There’s only been confusion voiced about the word since A Handmaid’s Tale came out on Netflix.

Prior to that people knew it meant ‘handmaiden of the patriarchy’ and no one used ‘handmaid’ always ‘handmaiden’.

Basically, it refers to those women who betray their own sex to uphold, defend and act out practises which benefit men as a class at the expense of women as a class.

That's my point though. It's not the right word, and why is it okay to perpetuate this as an insult to women given it's actual meaning?

The whole phrase is ‘handmaiden of patriarchy’ (‘HOP’ for short) and iirc the reference is biblical.

That’s interesting…I assume MA based her use of the term in her books on this. How are they described and what do they do in in the bible?

Second part of the dictionary definition:

": something whose essential function is to serve or assist
criticism is not the enemy of art but rather its handmaiden
—Gary Michael"

The idea that it's biblical origin being used doesn't really make sense, since handmaids were female servants to other women, not to men. It has nothing to do with the patriarchy or men at all unless you use the MA meaning.

Handmaids/handmaidens are personal female slaves who tend to the body of their master/mistress. This includes clothing, bathing, and being sexually available. Hagar is perhaps the most well known biblical Handmaid, an Egyptian slave of Sarah, who told her husband Abram that any children Hagar bore of him, she would consider to be her own children - for purposes of Abram having an heir as Sarah was barren.

As are the Handmaidens in Atwood’s work, that in itself is a biblical reference isn’t it, they suggest that making women of childbearing age Handmaidens is a religious act.

I’m so slow at typing, and my questions have been answered!

Uou are right though OP, it’s not the right word based on its MA meaning, but it has become to mean female supporters of the patriarchy.

So you could rewrite that quote as:
"Liberal feminism is not the enemy of the patriarchy but rather its handmaiden" and then apply "Handmaiden" to Liberal feminists

If you go back even further to Atum’s “wife”/“right hand” you may be even more troubled 😂

I'm so uncomfortable with the use of the word. It's just yet another way women are blamed for their own sexual victimisation.

If a woman is labelled a handmaid, in life as in the books, no one has sympathy for any suffering she receives from men.

And again, the underlying connection between the fact that handmaids are essentially sex slaves is not irrelevant to it being the choice term coined to refer to modern women. It's misogyny.

There is actually already a term for women who support men's rights at the direct cost of women, which I heard of years ago. They're called honey badgers.

I'm just looking into the origins of that term to see if it has a similarly misogynistic origin.

The point is in no frame of reference is a Handmaid or handmaiden free and consenting in her ‘service’, so the insult only displays the ignorance of the person using it in both history and literature.

100%

This thread is bollocks.

How long have any you of you been involved in feminism for? Tsk.

Excuse the extra you there