7 nightmares from the Handmaid's Tale that we live in

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's hard to believe, but you have to. Lots of spoilers!

“My name is Fredova. I had a different name, but now it is banned. Now many things are banned. This monologue begins the first season of The Handmaid's Tale, which reopened the novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, written back in 1985. Season three kicked off today.

The series takes place in a totalitarian theocratic society. First, the world for unknown reasons is covered by a wave of mass sterility. And after a sudden military coup, the radical religious group "Sons of Jacob" comes to power and establishes its own order in the former United States, now called Gilead in honor of the historical region of Ancient Israel.

Under the new regime, women actually become slaves: they are forbidden to read and write, go to work, and freely have a sex life. The caste of servants stands out - women who are able to conceive and bear a child. They don't even have the right to their own name. Their only function is to give birth to children for the high-ranking elite. To do this, they are subjected to ritual rape once a month.

The main character played by Elisabeth Moss will have to survive among this hell. Once her name was June, but under the new regime the girl was given a different, humiliating name - Fredova (that is, "Fred's property").

It may seem that the world created in the series is pure fiction, and the viewer at the end of the next season can only breathe out with relief and be glad that nothing like this has happened and will not happen. But it was not so: after the release of the novel, Margaret Atwood brought newspaper clippings to each of her interviews to prove how close the events of the book were to reality.

Attention: there are a lot of spoilers ahead! If you're not ready for them, read our column on feminism.

1. Normalization of violence

In Gilead, physical violence against women is not considered unacceptable. For example, aunts (high-ranking women responsible for training maidservants) are allowed to beat their charges or use a stun gun to maintain discipline. Commanders' wives can also be cruel to their maids. Serena Waterford beat June several times, even when she was pregnant. The guardians of the law and order of Gilead can also hit the girl who has been fined.

Domestic violence in Gilead is perceived as the norm even at the legislative level. Parents have every right to punish the child, the husband - the wife. When Commander Waterford discovers that in his absence, Serena has been doing important things without permission, he severely punishes her husband right in front of the shocked June.

You don't have to look far for real examples. In February 2017, the Russian Federation adopted Federal Law No. 8-FZ dated 07.02.2017 “On Amendments to Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”, a law on decriminalizing beatings against loved ones. Simply put, domestic violence is no longer considered a crime. But only if it was committed for the first time and did not cause serious harm to health.

The new law provoked a heated debate in Russian society. Some said that decriminalization would lead to even greater impunity and increase the number of victims of domestic violence. Others argued that family affairs should not be interfered with. For example, even before the adoption of the controversial amendment, the Russian Orthodox Church stated that the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues expresses concern about the adoption of a new version of Article 116 of the Criminal Code that “the love use of physical punishment” for children is a parental right “established by God himself”.

2. Total control over reproductive rights

Children are at the top of Gilead's list of priorities. Therefore, women capable of giving birth are under the close scrutiny of the state. These unfortunate girls are deprived of one of the basic human rights - to freely dispose of their bodies. They only do what they try to bear and give birth to a child.

Moreover, it is impossible to be a mother in the full sense of the word: after birth, the child is taken away, and the servant is sent to the next family.

Outside of The Handmaid's Tale, women are still fighting for their reproductive rights. It's no secret that many religions still condemn contraception. And even among the most progressive countries there are those where termination of pregnancy is illegal, partially or completely. For example, in Poland, it is still not a sin, but a crime: how Ireland won the battle for abortion, but Poland does not have one of the most stringent abortion laws in Europe. And in Ireland it was allowed In Ireland it was finally allowed to have abortion. Why only now? terminate pregnancy only in 2018.

As Margaret Atwood herself noted, the plot of the novel is an allusion to the policy of increasing the birth rate in Romania, which President Nicolae Ceausescu pursued since 1966 as Ceausescu forced Romanian women to give birth. And the matter was not limited only to the ban on abortion. Even contraception was strictly taboo. The embryos were declared public property, and women were forced to take a pregnancy test. Anyone who could not or did not want to conceive a child had to pay "abstinence tax".

It may seem that such wildness is a thing of the past. But not so long ago, several American states, including Alabama and Missouri, adopted Alabama Governor Signs Nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion bill into law law to almost completely ban abortion. Even victims of rape and incest cannot count on termination of pregnancy. The permit will be issued only in case of a threat to the health of the woman or the life of the child.

The public reaction was not long in coming. Dressed in white caps and red robes, Alabama women took to the streets for Why the ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Costume Is the New Protest Attire for Women. Wearing the uniform of the Gilead maids, they tried to convey to the legislators a simple idea: a woman can control her own body. And the state certainly should not make this choice for her.

Although abortion is permitted in Russia, the overall situation is far from it. Not a sin, but a crime: should we expect a complete ban on abortion in Russia? from ideal. Despite the fact that abortion is officially included in the CHI, many public organizations use a loophole Federal Law of 21.11.2011 N 323-FZ (as amended on 06.03.2019) "On the basics of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation" Article 70. Attending physician in law, according to which the attending physician may refuse to carry out an artificial termination of pregnancy, if this does not threaten the patient's life. So Mommy appeared in our country, they tear my leg. How doctors, the church and the Vladimir Yakunin Foundation are fighting abortion. Meduza's reportage entire regions where women cannot freely have an abortion. And it's 100% legal.

3. Public executions of dissent

In the brave new world of Gilead, anyone can be tortured or executed. Anything can become the reason: treason, attempted escape, political opinion or “wrong” sexual orientation. “Criminals” are executed publicly, most often by hanging or stoning.

An example of such a brutal policy is the Executioner's Heart. Dictator Marcos tortured and robbed while his wife let millions down on toilet paper by Ferdinand Marcos' military police regime in the Philippines. The dictator dissolved parliament in one fell swoop, abolished the constitution, and took control of the media. All those who disagreed were executed, and the few remaining dissidents were tortured, raped and beaten.

4. Military coup

In the series, traditionalist commanders seized power in the country with a military coup. Moreover, they had the best intentions: they believed that they were saving America, mired in sins. The Sons of Jacob, including one of the key characters in the story, Commander Waterford, organize a series of terrorist attacks, assassinate the President and overthrow the Congress.

All this is very reminiscent of the Islamic revolution "Death to the Shah!" The Islamic Revolution took place 40 years ago in Iran in Iran in the late 70s. After her, a lot has changed in the country, and the wearing of the hijab for women has become mandatory. There were those who tried to resist, but nothing could be changed.

5. Forced transfer of children to other families

The system at the heart of Gilead - taking a child away from a woman and giving it up to someone else’s family - seems wild and disgusting. But real historical facts are sometimes worse than fiction.

In 1976, power in Argentina was seized by a military group In Brief: The 1976-1983 Dictatorship in Argentina. During the regime, thousands of young children were kidnapped from their families. Many of those stolen died. Some of the kids were tortured. Others were raised away from their parents.

Even pregnant women are known to have been abducted. After giving birth, mothers were killed in a terrible way: they put them on an airplane, took off all their clothes, gave a fatal injection and threw them overboard alive. And their children were adopted by high-ranking military men.

6. Monstrous camps for political prisoners

The worst fate that can await in Gilead is the status of "non-woman" and a one-way trip to the colonies contaminated with radiation. Women are sent into exile with wrong political convictions (feminists), wrong orientation (lesbians or, as they are called, “gender cheaters”) or simply unable to work due to their age. Prisoners usually die within a few years from radiation, disease and unbearable toil.

In the second season of the series, former handmaidens Emily and Janine managed to avoid indefinite confinement in the colonies. After a terrorist attack by members of the resistance, many of the maids died, and Gilead decided that under the circumstances, fertile women should not be scattered. Therefore, the status of "non-women" was removed from the heroines and returned to the families of the commanders.

A striking historical example of a similar repressive system is the “Prison for Moms”. What happened in the most terrible camps of the GULAG GULAG. The labor of prisoners in the USSR was viewed as an economic resource. Moreover, a significant part of the convicts ended up in the camp on trumped-up absurd charges. Sometimes it was enough just to have the wrong origin.

7. Clitorodectomy

One of the central heroines of the series, Emily, who received the name Glenova under the new regime, is a very educated woman. She was formerly a professor of cytology at the university. From the very beginning, the freedom-loving heroine was not going to obey the regime and was secretly listed as a member of the resistance. But she was discovered and found out that Emily is a lesbian. The girl was punished in a terrible way - the clitoris was removed. But they retained their reproductive function.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) frequently asked questions in many countries of Africa and Asia, the Middle East and the North Caucasus (mainly in Dagestan) Practices of female genital mutilation in the republics of the North Caucasus: strategies overcoming).

The purpose of this barbaric procedure is to make the girl "cleaner" in terms of morality and religion. After all, a crippled woman will not be able to get sexual pleasure, therefore, she will be faithful to her husband.

Of course, in reality there are no indications for this operation and cannot be. Removing the clitoris has never made anyone cleaner or better. On the contrary, clitoridectomy leads to serious health problems. Not to mention that it is simply torture - painful, cruel, completely senseless and degrading human dignity.