I finished reading it a couple of days ago. I came across it as a result of a friendly debate at work. See, this chick i work with is a pretty devout (but sane) feminist, and we goof around a little bit sometimes with each other over it in a friendly manner. You know, I'll amp up the testosterone just a little bit, heh, make a gruff but goofy comment about 'barefoot and pregnant' or something like that (which, as i recall, was met with an equally gruff comment about being 'dickless and bleeding'). Anyway, i have this kinda goofy relationship with this Woman (Her name's Carla), right, and occasionally we put aside the banter and actually talk.
See, I'm not down on feminists or feminism in any real way. It just seems that the further you take anything from the middle, the loonier it becomes. The closer you stay to the middle, the more sense you seem to make. That's just how it seems to me. Feminism isn't a bad thing, fanaticism is what's bad (In seemingly every instance it occurs in, not just feminism). So I never had a dark thought about feminism, BUT... I cannot say, not and be telling the truth at the same time, that I understand feminism. See, it's a reaction to an obstacle that i have never even seen and might, once or twice, have been a part of. How can a male ever grasp what it's like to be a female in this world? How can a guy ever get the forces that would make any individual woman into a feminist?
So, in a moment of levity i did the only thing that seemed prudent... I asked.
I was directed to read this book, and divide it by 10. And that, I'm told is what it's like. That's why I'm posting this here, in a way. Izzat true? AHT divided by 10 is what it's like to be a woman NOW?
Basically, the book is about the casually held beliefs about women that a lot of folk have, only run to their extreme courses. They are forbidden to learn how to read, they are baby machines, they are pretty much sex slaves. Well, the Handmaids, anyway. See that's the part that kind of got me. If i had been reading a pamphlet for feminism I'd have maybe got 100 pages in before i put it down. See it's not a "men all suck chicks rule" book. The author criticizes women throughout the whole damned thing. Particularly the way some women sell other women up the river.
For instance, there is one scene where a political prisoner/'rapist' is offered to the Handmaids at the 'red center' the women are just frothing at the lips to get to him, but not to do anything nice. They just tear him to pieces. Offred, the main character, is horrified to see her friend Ofglen kick the guy in the head right at the beginning of the harrowing verse, knocking him out. Later the reader is told that the man wasn't a rapist, but was some sort of activist for societal change that someone in the government decided to test some irony on (i'd suppose). Ofglen tells Offred that she did it for his own good...
All in all, good book. Can i say that i really understand anything better? No, not really. After all, it's hard to divide a book by 10. I don't really need to shed beliefs that i never had in the first place, a woman's place is where she places herself. It's not my problem, i can barely deal with my own place in life, believe me when i tell you i shouldn't be deciding on anyone elses. But i found the book stimulating. The ending is absolutly heartbreaking.
Here is a plot synopsis i found, amazon's was too short...
The names given the handmaids after their identities are stripped away by the feds is really telling, too. The main character's name Offred, starts... "Of Fred" (Offred's 'Commander's' real name is Fred) or Ofglen "Of Glen" (one would assume Ofglen's "massa" was some dude named Glen even if you didn't know it).This story occurs in a time and place where women have had all rights taken away from them. A radical religious faction uses the US military to kill the president, vice president, and all congressmen. They then declare themselves leaders of the US government. This fundamentalist government slowly saps women's rights. They dissolve women's credit and force companies to fire female employees. Women are no longer allowed to read or write. Eventually, they declare all second marriages invalid and all wives of these marriages subject to deportation or service as handmaids.
Offred chooses to become a handmaid. After a period of training at the “Red Center”, she is assigned to a series of households ending with the household of a high-ranking Commander, Fred. Her roles in this household are shopping for food and bearing children for the commander. She lives and works around a number of different women, separated into distinct societal roles: Marthas, Wives, Econowives, Aunts, and Handmaids.
Once every month the Commander has sex with Offred while his wife sits behind her, holding her hands. This emotionless physical contact does not give Offred the slightest idea that the Commander cares about her situation. However, within a few months the Commander invites her to meet with him in secret, an offense punishable by death. They play scrabble and the Commander brings Offred old books and magazines to read, another offense punishable by death. Soon after, Offred becomes involved with the underground resistance network Mayday. She gives information gleaned from her meetings with the Commander to her contact in the resistance, Ofglen.
Through these months, Offred has not yet borne a child. The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, comes to the conclusion that her husband is probably sterile. Serena Joy wants a child so badly that she bribes Offred to have sex with Nick. Offred becomes so caught up in this affair that she stops gleaning information from Fred for the resistance. Matters come to a head when the government discovers Ofglen's treasonous activities. Offred is taken away in a mysterious black van to a place where she records her story onto cassette tapes, which are found a few hundred years later and presented at an acacemic conference by Professor Pieixoto.



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