As I was reading the part in where the Commander gave Offred the Vogue magazine it took me back to one of the discussions we had in class. We talked about women and the media, women’s portrayal, the glamorization of sex and the idea of the perfect body. It was puzzling to me that in the book, the main character see the women in the magazine as having freedom, freedom to chose to wear one thing over the other, use a certain shade of eye shadow, treat a guy in this manner or another etc these are vain things that are seen as luxury in the book, as something we should not take for granted. Looking back into what we have discussed in class, we were able to recognize the effects magazines, commercials, and TV shows over all have over women. We come to these conclusions because of the context and the times we live in, a time and space in where there is possibility for debate and discussion on these issues. This is a freedom that women in the book do not posses.
In the world of the Republic of Gilead in where women’s images are not even portrayed or done so with an excess of restrictions, I can understand why Offred sees the women in the magazine as exuding some sort of freedom of expression; a least in this context they have a voice. Over all, even though the media wants to dictate what we wear, what we look like, what we do etc at least form Offred point of view this is a lesser evil.
I think the way most are portrayed is problematic. I liked when Dove was promoting women with curves and loving their figures. If it was more like that then I think there would be a more positive outlook.
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