The Handmaid’s Tale is a series on Hulu (based on the novel) that focuses on a future dystopian society following a civil war. This society, named Gilead, is a totalitarian society led by power hungry men whom govern Gilead through religious standards and have enslaved fertile women (“Handmaids”) to the wealthy “elite” families in order to provide them with children (they are raped but it is called a “Ceremony” as the government names it) as most women in Gilead are plagued by not being able to have children, thus a severe birth rate decline. In Gilead, citizens are placed in their social classes as follows; Women are to have very little say or roles other than being wives (they are not allowed to work or even read), men are the most powerful and in control, handmaids are the fertile women who go through brutal “training” to be prepared to essentially be impregnated by force of the commanders (wealthy governmental men), Martha’s who are pretty much housekeepers and servers that raise the children and assist the wives, and then the “eyes” whom are the militia and guards.
The Handmaid’s Tale relates to our course in a huge aspect in regards to Othering. Handmaid or not, in the show, women are the other and are treated so poorly where as men are powerful and perceived as the “One”. This is such an injustice on so many levels- sexism being the biggest. Fertile women are used as baby makers by means of rape, women are not allowed any sort of freedom, even the basic act of reading is against the law, they are only to wear clothing that they are assigned that depicts their social class. This show has plenty of examples on several topics that could go on and on. This show does an eerily fantastic job of showing power differential, the injustices that women face(d) and of course the concept of othering.
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