AO3 Context:

Question 1

Dystopia:

Answer 1

An imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or past apocalyptic.

Question 2

Examples of dystopia presented in Handmaid Tale :

Answer 2

• Government control
• Environment destruction
• Loss of individualism
• Survival
• Technological control

Question 3

Totalitarian Government:

Answer 3

Totalitarian is a type of government that aims to take total control over its citizens. Dictatorship leadership.

Question 4

Examples of Totalitarian Government:

Answer 4

• Hitler

- Joseph Starling

Question 5

The Handmaid Tale a “feminist dystopia” ,Gilead and dictatorship.

Answer 5

Gilead carries a dictatorial control. This system created a pyramid-like power with the use of gender.
1 . Men outranking the women of same level.
2. Descending levels of power and status with men and women in each.
3. All the way to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an econo-wife.

Question 6

Real life events which Atwood took inspiration from to create The Handmaid Tale:

Answer 6

• Lead Poisoning in poor communities.
• Nazi Germany - when the nazi men were given racially ‘pure’ extra wives to make more nazi members.
• Debit card trackers.

Question 7

Handmaid Tale and Trump: The testament sequel

Answer 7

This novel is known as a symbol for the movement against Trump, standing female empowerment and resistance in the face of misogyny and rolling back on women’s rights.

Question 8

Dystopian Novel Example: 1984 by George Orwell:

Answer 8

The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim toperpetual war,omnipresent government surveillance,historical negations, andpropaganda.

• Mass surveillance
• Thought police help to purge the state of non-conformists
• Sex is only for reproduction
• Room 101 is used for re-education where prisoners face their worst fear

Question 9

Theocracy:

Answer 9

A government by divine guidance or officials who are regarded as divinely guided. Legal system is based on religious laws. Examples include: Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Question 10

Hebrew bible and the story of Jacob and Rachel:

Answer 10

• Rachael was one of the two wives of Jacob, she gave birth to Joseph.
• Leah proved to be more fertile than her sister, bearing their husband four sons, practically when their marriage was consummated.
• Jacob’s overt favouritism toward Rachel had prompted God to keep Rachel’s womb closed, but Rachel’s love was ultimately redeemed when she gave birth to a boy named Joseph, Jacob’s favourite (Genesis 30:24-25).

Question 11

Theocratic laws in the handmaid tale:

Answer 11

• Women can’t read, write, vote, own property or access contraception.
• The salvaging - gender criminals, those who commit infidelity and those who tried to escape were hanged.
• The woman in the colonies - women that are homosexual, cannot conform gender stereotype older women who have had hysterectomies. They have to toil on radioactive land to make it clean again.

Question 12

Left Wing Government:

Answer 12

• Include progressive policies that are eggetarian.
• They’re genuinely idealistic.
• Believe in equality and community ethical values.
• Believe people should be taxed more.

Question 13

Right Wing Government:

Answer 13

• Includes the republican, conservative and nationalist.
• Favour national values other global.
• Favour equality and believe in pragmatism, access situations then take action.
• Believe in low tax.
• Military value is high and believe in low belief of interference.

Question 14

1980s America: The rise of the Christian right and the religious right:

Answer 14

• 1980 Presidential election, Daniel K. Williams argues inGod’s Own Partythat it had actually been involved in politics for most of the twentieth century.
• The Christian Right has engaged in battles over abortion,euthanasia ,contraception,pornography, gambling,obscenity,Christian nationalism,Sunday Sabbatarian, state sanctionedprayer in public schools, textbook contents (concerningcreationism), homosexuality, andsexual education.

Question 15

Book burning – a political history:

Answer 15

“But there were some women burning books, that’s what she was really there for.” - Offred

• Book burningrefers to the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials.
• Represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.

Question 16

Chapter 8 – Under his eye :

Answer 16

“Under His Eye”:

• How Handmaids formally say goodbye to each other in person.
• The phrase “under his eye” reminds every citizen that someone- Guardian, a Commander, a fellow Handmaid, God—is always watching. The spies in Gilead are called ‘Eye’s’.
• Can link with 1984 By George Orwell.

Question 17

Problems with Western feminism:

Answer 17

• Feminism western women discuss inherently only operates in industrialised nations.
• Liberal feminism focuses on utilises the tools of the western world to alter laws and does not consider the issues if this type of movement cannot be applied to third world countries.
• Third world feminism focuses on female struggle of basic necessities such as healthcare and safety from systemic abuse.
• Western feminism does not completely acknowledge that oppression is based in culture and nationality.

Question 18

Betty Freidan and the feminine mystique:

Answer 18

• Proves that these stereotypes regarding women aren’t true.
• Women spent years with psychologists who tried to help them to adjust to their ‘feminine role’ or they drank alcohol to ease their feelings of emptiness.
• “who knows what women can be when they’re free to be themselves”.

Question 19

Germain Greer:

Answer 19

• Gender is a learned behaviour.

- “I refuse to be female impersonator. I am woman, not a castrate”.

Question 20

Radical Feminists:

Answer 20

• Patriarchy is societal rights, superiority.

- Disregard men.

Question 21

Key ideas of radical feminism:

Answer 21

• Pornography is a patriarchal industry that harms women.
• Motherhood, marriage and the nuclear family and sexuality is based on patriarchal assumptions of role. Supported by Betty Friedan.

Question 22

Liberal Feminism:

Answer 22

• Believe in gender equality and the key to accomplish this is through the governance of society.

Question 23

Patriarchal oppression in the Handmaid’s tale:

Answer 23

• As everything in Gilead is about reproduction, sex is merely a tool for the purpose of the regime.
• In the Gilead society, women are seen as objects with social roles and can be replaced with other objects/bodies when no longer useful.

Question 24

Judith Butler: Performing Gender:

Answer 24

• Rather than being a woman or man, individuals instead act as a man or a woman. As a result, this then creates categories of men and women.
• Those who don not complete their gender roles, face clear negative consequences.
• Links to handmaid tale as those who rebel against gender roles get physically punished.

Question 25

Public/ private divide:

Answer 25

• The private and public divide is central to the feminist perspective. Its based on the idea that men dominate the public sphere; and women are regulated to the private sphere. This is the key element to the patriarchal system.
• Men held onto the power of education and money. Public Sphere.
• Women hold onto the power of functioning the household. Private sphere.

Question 26

The Iranian artist Shirin Neshat:

Answer 26

Had described in 2004, that the female body has been politicised and has functioned in a way as a type of battleground for ideological, philosophical and religious debates and agendas.

• Body shaming
• Reproductive rights curtailed and consequences imposed
• Exploitation of feminine insecurity

Question 27

Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex:

Answer 27

A man defines a woman not as autonomous but only as relative to him. He is the Subject and she is the Other.