Dystopian Society In The Handmaid's Tale

Words: 631
Pages: 3

Throughout the books the class has read this semester, there has been a unifying topic connecting them: the role of women in society. Dystopian fiction establishes and critiques gender roles, traditions and values. Women in dystopian societies are not represented with the same equal rights as men. For example, The Handmaid’s Tale gives men a superior status and objectifies women. The Handmaid’s Tale provides an example of a world where women are suppressed to create the illusion that they are being protected. Society is based off of gender and gender alone, the rights people have stem from gender. The men in their society subjugate the women to create a power relationship between the men and women. To create the divided body of people, women are categorised according to class status and sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons. Although the society values reproduction by white women most highly, women are still only seen useful when they are providing a service. Sexual encounters are strictly regulated, creating a rift that views people as property. The Handmaid's are the fertile women whose social function is to bear children for the Wives. Gilead, the society in The Handmaid’s Tale, is a totalitarian dictatorship in which women are oppressed and their status is explicitly determined by their reproductive capabilities. Wives despise Handmaids, despite sharing common …show more content…
Religious extremists believe that women are inherently inferior based on their religious texts. Some wives in The Handmaid’s Tale, like Serena Joy, believe that women should be oppressed and objectified by men. Serena Joy and conservative religious extremists today would like to reverse the progress of feminism made during the sexual revolution in the 1960s and 70s. Women against feminism campaign for traditional gender values in a society. Female roles and values have been