Why You Should Add 'The Handmaids Tale" to Your List of Things To Watch RIGHT NOW

If you haven’t watched the Emmy award winning The Handmaid’s Tale yet, watch it RIGHT NOW! Not only does the show have incredible acting, costumes, and a super interesting soundtrack, but the show has a eye-opening message and is currently inspiring activism across the country. Don't worry there are no spoilers in this post.

[Elisabeth Moss as Offred in The Handmaid's Tale]

The Handmaid’s Tale is based off of Margaret Atwood’s chilling dystopian novel that depicts a future in which the United States is run by a totalitarian, Christian theonomic government that believes that their survival hinges on the society’s ability to control women’s bodies. In Gilead, fertile women are powerless, indentured servants that are expected to undergo regular sexual abuse in order to procreate on a planet undergoing pollution and environmental destruction. These women are called “Handmaids” and not only are stripped of their human rights but also must wear a recognizable red robe and white bonnet to cover their hair.

The reason why The Handmaid’s Tale is so powerful and necessary for everyone to watch is because of its potency. The fantasy of the show has now become a proposed reality in today’s political climate. When Atwood wrote the novel in the 1980s, she was inspired by living in Berlin and seeing the conflict within the city itself. The world that she painted with Gilead seemed so far-fetched at the time, but today resonates much more with the realities of climate change as well as the GOP’s continuous efforts to strip women of their reproductive rights. In addition, the television version of the story uses present day references to ideas such as Tinder, weed, and millennial feminism to made the fantasy of the show resonate even further.

The Handmaid’s Tale director Reed Morano recently said in an interview that:

“We tend to be a little sheltered in America because of the rights that we do have and what we’ve all been used to. One of the things I liked about doing this story is that I thought maybe it will make people really appreciate what they have.”

In this case, the show has helped its viewers see the reality that human rights could stripped from them. This reality has made many want to march using the imagery of the handmaids and in turn has made the image of a handmaid in a red robe and white bonnet a symbol of feminism.

In June, a group of activists dressed as handmaids marched on the Capitol building protesting the GOP’s health care plan. The proposed plan at the time would have left millions of women uninsured and was written by thirteen men. Since then women have staged similar protests in states such as Texas, California, Ohio, and Missouri. Women would wear the costume and shot “Shame,” a word repeated throughout the show and novel, and demand representatives and senators from their respective states rethink their stance on anti-abortion legislation. While these policies existed in Gilead, these women wanted to make sure that the legislation never became a true reality. The women identify with the issues that The Handmaid’s Tale is discussing how women are portrayed, and in turn make the handmaids a symbol of feminism. As Morano said, “The whole message that Margaret was sending in the book is that big changes like this don’t happen overnight, they happen very slowly over time, almost so that you don’t know that they’re happening until it’s too late.”

The handmaids represent a future where women are stripped of their reproductive rights. Unfortunately, with the current legislature that lawmakers are trying to pass in states across the US a future that removes women’s reproductive rights similar to Gilead isn’t far off.

Watch the show, get inspired, and fight for your rights. Because this fantasy isn’t so far from reality and we have a lot to learn from the fantasy.

Brooks, Katherine. “The Lasting Impact Of 'Handmaid's Tale' Is The Activism It's Inspired.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 June 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-lasting-impact-of-handmaids-tale-is-the-activism-its-inspired_us_594011b5e4b0b13f2c6e36a6?utm_hp_ref=the-handmaids-tale.