Why The Handmaid’s Tale Hits a Little Too Close to Home

Since Handmaid’s Tale debuted this year I have been glued to the screen as soon as a new episode comes on. At first, when I tuned in, I thought it was another remake of the original book, The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood. I soon found out that the idea behind the book was still there but the TV series was set in modern day. I think what fascinated me so much about the terrifying things going on in the show was the idea that something like that could easily happen in the world today. In the TV series, it’s the United States that has been transformed into the dystopian world of Gilead. Thankfully, at least in the show, Canada hasn’t totally lost their mind. Yay us!

So, the premise of the show is that the world is going through a fertility crisis and instead of looking for a scientific solution to the problem, the powerful men of the world decided to collect all the fertile women and force them to be handmaids. The requirement of the handmaids was to be ritually raped once a month in the hopes of providing a child to the men and their bitter wives. They are held prisoner and often abused if they don’t provide a child in a timely manner. Losing an eye is a common punishment for wrongdoing. When they do give birth, their children are ripped from their arms and raised by strangers.

The terrifying things that happen in the show will cause any woman to shudder. Handmaids are considered to be whores from their previous lives even if they lived normal, non-promiscuous lives with their partners. Handmaids have been forced to publicly blame women in their group for being gang raped, it’s always their fault for being “whores.” They must have encouraged the attack in some way. If someone tries to escape or to go against the rules, they are stoned. The handmaids are forced to do the stoning, as if they are back in Biblical days, killing their own friends. But the thing that makes us women shudder the most is the idea that a whole nation would be okay if women were forbidden objects who had to remain silent and obedient at all times. They are forced to stone their own friends if they get out of line, they can’t read books and getting a cookie from one of the “wives” is considered to be a blessing.

There was a lot of backlash about the series when it first came out because women, for the most part, didn’t think that it could actually happen in real life, but I beg to differ. Granted, when I first saw the show, as much as I was horrified by what I saw, I also said to myself that if something like that were to ever happen, well, we would just all fight back, wouldn’t we? It’s not like we would just accept our fate and live with it. Right?! That was until I saw a scene where all the working women in the States were ordered by armed guards to go home as they were not allowed to continue working any longer. There was no warning and the women had no idea what was going on. That was only the beginning; their bank accounts were seized and could not be accessed except by a male figure or partner in their life.

Finally, we see the protests in the streets where both men and women were fighting for women’s rights. Obviously, something was going to be done about the outrageous things going on in the United States against women. Not even close. To my utter shock and disbelief, I watched the army open fire on the protesters. The protestors ran, shocked that they were now being hunted down by the very government that was supposed to protect them. It’s suddenly become obvious to women that they have no rights and some try to sneak out of the country only to have their spouses murdered while they are dragged, kicking and screaming. If you are unfortunate enough to have children, they are taken away and raised by the powerful and they are no longer allowed to call you mom.

Could it happen? Tune into the show and judge for yourself.