Written by Mehela Ram

“This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” A timeless quote from Margaret Atwood’s groundbreaking 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which communicates that humans will eventually adapt to even the most unpredictable changes. But what happens when these changes oppress certain groups in society? Is it our human nature to just let it happen and adjust to unjust social hierarchies, learning to look down upon those society deems as “lesser”? This is exactly the question The Handmaid’s Tale seeks to answer. 

Set in Gilead, a dystopian theocracy in which men have superiority and rights over women, The Handmaid's Tale follows Offred, a "handmaid" whose sole purpose is to procreate. A Canadian liberal herself, Atwood wrote the novel as a cautionary tale about taking the idea of patriarchy too far, but most readers found the ideas presented in the book too far-removed from reality for it to hit home. After all, women today are able to read, vote, and work... right? 

In Gilead, women are nothing more than objects to be used as men desire, unable to speak freely, receive an education, or own property. Whilst some countries do treat women this way, such as Afghanistan, Syria, and South Sudan, Gilead was based upon USA in the 1980s, making it seem even more unrealistic for its first-world target audience. However, upon further scrutiny, terrifying aspects of The Handmaid's Tale start to seem less far-fetched and closer to home. 

The gender discrimination and oppression in this novel began with a far-right, religious group called the Sons of Jacob gaining support and overthrowing the US government, which is eerily similar to the rise of the Christian Right in Europe and North America. Then, there is the powerful propaganda featured throughout the book. Posters of the perfect "model town" Gilead aspires to be, government-regulated television programming, and deceptive news stories seem to mirror tactics used by authoritarian regimes today. Finally, women's lack of reproductive rights is reminiscent of the abortion debate in the United States at the moment. 

But arguably the most evident and frightening similarity of all would be the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. With stay-at-home orders and timed walks outdoors, the world of Gilead operated like it was in constant lockdown for women, facilitating the abuse and oppression prominent in the book. Alarmingly, something similar happened with our COVID lockdowns: male violence against women and girls skyrocketed with lockdowns trapping families in households together without any respite, allowing tensions to brew. Women were also more vulnerable to illness since they made up 70% of frontline workers and were more likely to care for children or the elderly at home. During the COVID recovery period, women found it disproportionately more difficult to regain employment than men, with there being 13 million fewer women in employment in 2021 in the United States. Whether in fiction or reality, women are always at a disadvantage.

Almost 40 years after The Handmaid's Tale was published, the concerning parallels between the frightening dystopia of Gilead and modern society are still crystal clear, and are arguably becoming increasingly relevant. From gender inequality to religious extremism, reproductive rights to economic disparity, the ideas and themes presented in Atwood's disturbing satire are known all too well, due in large part to the current American political climate. 

Of course, a world like Gilead is an incredibly exaggerated worst-case scenario of where a conservative patriarchy could take our world. But we can't forget that far too many women around the world face such struggles, and that we cannot afford to stop supporting one another in the fight for equality. As Margaret Atwood herself once said, "We still think of a powerful man as a leader, and a powerful woman as an anomaly". Only when this becomes untrue can we truly call The Handmaid's Tale an unrealistic, dystopian work of fiction.