My Beloved Mangina

Language is powerful and in the Republic of Gilead words are invisible shackles of suppression and power. These frames of identity through a language that denotes the status of every person delineates the hierarchical system. Those separate from society are referred to after Scripture are ultimately cleansed from the system. Women, vital to sustaining this power structure through the oppressive needs implicated on them and are named Handmaids, Wives and Marthas, and lastly, the domineering male species that withhold this power are militant and identified through rank like Commander and Nick (Ha!). The creation of this language serves its purpose in keeping people in line, failure to comply results in punishment. Eventually, language is an additional facet of demonstrating how a dystopian society controls its people. Delegation of this language is done through stripping the women of their identity—‘Of’ then, insert property owner’s name cleverly kept the women from questioning the system and numbly letting their Commanders “fuck” them. In comparison to our language today, words of insult are all genderized: bitch, cunt, whore, slut. Of course, we don’t go around calling our moms, sisters and girlfriends by these names on a daily basis, “Hey, bitch can you pass me your sluttish eraser. Thank you, whore!” but the scope of these words can be as insulting if you direct them to a man. I would name a few more but my word bank is limited in this area. I don’t know where I’m going with this comparison but I think that the language showed me how our language is as powerful in subjugating people into a niche that consequently, makes them less than what is required. LGBQT have various vernacular terms that are insulting but are as accepting too. Women who are successful and powerful are sometimes referred to as bitches because they dare to step into men’s realm and men who are jerks are simply called dicks. It is evident that words pay a vital role in shaping how people perceive others and these frames are constructed to put people in position of power or subservience, but language is recycled and new terms will always emerge. Soon enough we’ll be calling men “manginas” as a term of endearment because planet Earth will be ruled by crazy, radical, leftists feminists who will change the existence of our very own language!