Reviews

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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rebelkiss's review against another edition

4.0

Originally I rated this 5 stars. It's a very powerful book. After rereading, I lowered the rating by a star. It still still a powerful book that unnerves me. But It's left open ended. I wish they would tell how it ended.

rayarriz's review against another edition

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5.0

This book was one of the most depressing I have ever read, but it is far from outlandish. I'm very familiar with the Christian Right (they're remarkably similar to Islam, ironic because they hate Muslims more than anyone else) and this is what the US would look like if they could have their way. Really, it's a very creepy subset of religion. I know them. I've had Christian schooling, come from a extremely religious family, read ex fundy blogs. The difference between my family and most of the members of the extreme Christian movement is that we were black, they were white, they were interested in politics and my family was not and we encountered them because of corresponding religious beliefs. But they are some of the coldest, rudest people I have ever met. I really want nothing more to do with any of it. It wouldn't take much for them to act out like the members of the Gilead society. If you don't believe me, just look up Christian fundamentalists, Southern Baptists, Westboro, Pat Robertson, etc. Plenty of horrifying stories.
Those women in the Handmaid's Tale aiding their own subjugation? All the women in the fundamentalist movements, telling wives how to submit, telling girls they're nothing if not virgins, dictating dress standards. And praying, praying, praying, just like the people in this book, all the time. Every order word is Christ, the Bible, redemption, oh thank God I'm saved, you're going to hell if you don't accept Christ. And they try to make it seem fun too, just like the Prayvaganza. That really struck me. Prayvaganza, like it's some kind of concert or festival.
And the extreme hatred of anything sexual. That wraps up the whole fundamentalist movement, and certainly not only for Christianity. Islam, Judaism, etc. They all hate sex, regulate it, and by that they control the women. That's the first thing they regulate, women's dress, they restrict that if nothing else. It's always about the woman, and what's she's doing with her body. A woman's body, what conservatives are always fussing about.

But the scariest thing: this could actually happen. Maybe not as rapidly, or as easily, but it still could happen. Look how many people voted for Trump and for Pence, look how many women supported them, are antifeminist, look at the Christian women like Serena Joy. Those women shock me the most, but they are there. And I still understand them, because they've usually been raised in that ideology. So that was so scary. I thought about Iran, Afghanistan, I said that could be us. And I started thinking really hard about it, and I came to the conclusion that we really need more women in top positions, in positions of command. Because I've noted something: often after there's a civil war, women are dropped back to virtually slaves. It's happened all over. The government falls and extremists take over and the first people they oppress are women. In the US, very few women are in the highest positions of any field. We don't have enough voice. It happened to the women in Gilead, it certainly could happen here. After all, the clock turned back with the 2016 election... Definitely a good read, relevant, perspective, and downright scary.