Impersonal Procreating

The second part of the handmaids tale continues to show the twisted culture that the republic of Gilead is. The begin of the second part is just as interesting as the first but by now we know a lot more about Offred and her feelings toward this new life she is living. We discover in this section that Offred decides to become a handmaid instead of going to the colonies. Offred shares how she has sex with the Commander and how it is very impersonal. Sex is more for procreating and furthering human existence than for pleasure and excitement. She explains how the Serena is present during it and is extremely rude after it was over. Offred explains a lot about the lifestyle and customs in the Republic of Gilead, she talks about how the birth of a child has a tremendous amount of importance, not just for the elite people of Gilead but for the handmaids as well because if the woman had a baby with a deformity, she would be considered a unwomen and she would be exiled as not a real women. Which shows a lot of the stress the handmaids deal with on the basis of expectations of the women to perform and come through. Offred also had an odd experience with the Commander as he invited her to come to his office to see him. Where they played Scrabble which was a side she had never seen from him. The world of Gilead is a weird and peculiar society that has so many unwritten rules and expectations of the women that they do not necessarily have control over.

Dumbing things down for control.

The early chapters of the this book are reminiscent to a mix of slavery and Muslim society. Slavery in that knowledge is greatly restricted to those who are to be enslaved. Knowledge in this case is restricted in that women are essentially banned from reading. The similarities are essentially the same. African Americans in the past were hung if they even knew how to read. This restriction of an education deprived these people of power, and the means to justify their equality. By restricting education the white slave holders were able to maintain slavery for centuries. The only way the cycle of slavery was broken was due to the efforts of white educated christian individuals believing and justifying how and why all men are created equal. The restriction of education in this book shows how these women are slave.

The influence of Muslim society comes from their customs where women have no freedom to choose what they want to wear. They hide all skin except for their eyes. In this case a strict dress code is to be followed and is for some reason or other never broken. In Muslim society, if the dress code is broken the women is essentially fair game. If a women is raped breaking dress code she would essentially be the one accused of the crime and stoned to death. Both these societies restrict not only rights such as freedom, but also basic rights such as a choice of clothes.

What see in this story is the fact that women are nothing more but absolute slaves in this society.

1984 similarities

I find it interting in this novel that I see many similarities to how the people were persecuted in 1984, although it seems that instead of the entire population being persecuted it's focused on the women as the subjects of persecution. The descriptions of Offred and the Commander having sex is very moving. The fact that the wives are there holding the hand trying to make sex as cold as possible. The fact that while neither woman will most likely enjoy it there is a good chance it will still be pleasing to the man. I'd find it curious how most of the wives would feel being forced to see their husbands having sex with the handmaidens to conceive a child. Many consider sex and specifically childbearing as a unique bonding experience between a couple and while there are surrogates and artificial insemination today, the fact that one would be forced to watch this may make the wives not just resentful but perhaps distant from their husbands/children. It would also be interesting to see where the husbands looked while perfoming the act.

The society is basically using sex as a weapon, as it is one of the easiest ways to mass suppress a people, and is used in our society still to oppress women. The author shows how sex is being used simply for the pleasure of man, and that bestowing upon him a child is the only thing handmaidens are good for, he shows how these women can only be used for one thing, anything else is irrelevant.

It's also interesting to point out that while Offred gets put in a very interesting position throughout the novel as well because of her contact with the Commander. It's almost a double edged sword because of her "affair" with him. She cannot become too close because if his wife were to find out she would be banished, but if she refuses the Commander he may also send her to the same place. Offred must balance the two.

"The Problem Wasn't Only With the Women..."

There was a very significant quote in chapter 32. By this point, Offred and the Commander have developed an unconventional relationship. Women were forbidden to read and when they went out to the markets, they had pictures rather than words just to keep them from learning how to read. The Commander has evenings with Offred where they play a game of Scrabble. If anyone were to find out Offred could be transported or killed. The Commander is very powerful and has control over the household and the handmaids. The Commander told Offred that the men in the old world found women and sex to be too easy and available. They had somehow lost their "feeling". The Republic of Gilead has changed it's ways and now men are more satisfied, probably because of the amount of control they have. We know from other readings and class discussions that men need to feel in control and that without it, it can threaten their masculinity. Even though men in Gilead are "better" that also means that things are worse for women and especially handmaid's who's soul purpose in Gilead is to bear a child. Can you imagine? Could you picture yourself wanting to live a life of your own but you are a prisoner to sex for the pleasure and gain of someone else?

The quote reads "The problem wasn't only with the women he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore...I'm not talking about sex he says. That was part of it, the sex was too easy...You know what they were complaining about the most? Inability to feel" Now that women were being controlled by men the ability to "feel" was back for men. What about women? Don't they have the right to "feel"? Do you think both partners are entitled to sexual pleasure or do you thinking their is a "pecking order" for sex? Do you think one gives way to another? Can both be satisfied?

Lack of Unifying Theme

The popular image of women in modern religion and popular culture is the caring mother figure. What this new society has done has split the burden of motherhood upon two women, instead of just one, and that is only if you do not count the other women who are designated cooks and nurses. One woman endures a pregnancy and the other brings up the child. What is sad is that one of these women receives more flack than the other. Offred the handmaid, whose role is to endure the pregnancy, lives like a prisoner compared to Serena, the Commanders Wife, and women who would bring up the child. By using this system, one group of women has power, while another is being oppressed. Such importance is placed on the ceremonies surrounding birth, that it makes you wonder how the people of this society treat the women at the middle of these ceremonies like trash. It is all very ironic and absurd., but then again when you look at oppression it always is. Somehow, the person with the most power always seems to be able to convince everyone else, just about anything, in this case it is that a woman's body is a tool of the government. After reading more and more of the novel, it is easier to see everyday cases of oppression and not simply look at them as something natural. Many people in the novel know that what is going on is wrong but they simply cannot do anything about it, and they are forced to live in an absurd world.

IT'S ALL ABOUT SEX

As I was reading the part of the sexual act between Offred and the Commander I was instantly perplexed and horrified. I doubt this is the three way men are dreaming about. Not only is it awkward, cold and distant but also I doubt there do neither the Handmaids nor the Wives feel any pleasure. Lets not forget the immense pressure to perform these men must feel. The fact that in the book sex is for recreational purposes only is an absurd idea. I guess this is the oldest notion about sex. It is the agenda for many religious institutions to “control” the masses (by masses I mean women), hence why the author probably brought it up in the book. Sexual expression is one of the important and essential acts individuals can undertake. And even though women have often been deprived of the pleasure sexual acts can produce the book takes it to a new level. I guess in the author’s intent is to draw connections with female genitalia cutting.

It is important to recognize that just like many of the themes presented in the book about power there is too the element of power in the sexual act. For starters the Commanders play a crucial role in this pecking order, they are the one’s to receive pleasure and prestige with the outcome of the sexual act; hence they are at the very top of the totem pole. The presence of Serena Joy in the act is detrimental to the power hierarchy. The Wives presence in the act says to the Handmaids, that even though they are having sex with their husbands it is going to be at their own terms even if that means they have to be in it as well. In a very minute way Offred has some power, it is her body that is this “vessel” of procreation, a body she has little control of. I can only imagine how the author came up with the ideas in her book, I can only understand that she is taking some things in real life o produce this book.

It’s Baby Making Time

Heading through the later chapters of The Handmaid’s Tale, I have come across some sick, twisted tactics that this hell hole of a town uses to enforce hierarchal power. I am not able to get over the fact of how these women are so nasty to one another. There is SO much horizontal hostility happening throughout this story. It’s sad, because through horizontal hostility, these women are reinforcing the system in which entraps them all.
Something I found interesting, located around chapter 19, was when Aunt Lydia was speaking of the ‘Jezebels.’ Jezebels were women who did not want to have children. Aunt Lydia refers to them as “scorners of God’s gifts” and shows the handmaids a graph of how the birthrate had fallen over the course of history, eventually falling below the “line of replacement.” She further explains that women who did not want to breed were lazy sluts. WOAH!
Ok, first of all, doesn’t one need to be having a ton of sex with everyone to be considered a slut? But she is saying those who DO NOT have sex are sluts, and LAZY sluts, for that matter. HMM. So, Aunt Lydia isn’t really making much sense here, but nice try? I’m sensing a double-bind, the whole screwed-if-you-do, screwed-if-you-don’t situation.
Reading this nonsense reminded me of what I believe was chapter eight that we read in Jessica Valenti’s book, Full Frontal Feminism, entitled ‘Real Women Have Babies.’ Valenti speaks of how women’s reproduction rights are used to keep women in their places. She further explains that women who decide they do not want to have babies are looked down upon and are seen as unnatural because women are suppose to want to have babies, that it is a natural inclination. This is the exact idea Aunt Lydia is forcefully slam-dunking into the handmaid’s brains. They are forced to be raped in hopes of becoming preggers. This is clearly what Jesus wants for his creation. The messed up system of hierarchy is not only using the women’s bodies as a tool to oppress, but religion and God to justify the oppression, saying this is what God wants--for them to suffer. We can see how Offred is silently and perhaps unbeknownst to herself, fighting back. By her experiencing her own intense sexual desires for Nick (the guard) she is gaining a sense of her own sexuality and desires without experiencing pain or suffering and giving the middle finger to Gilead and all its untruths while doing so. Hooray!