The Handmaid's tale context Flashcards
Atwood in the Middle East
-Atwood went on a world tour in 1978, with one of the countries she visited being Afghanistan
-Atwood was inspired to write THT after witnessing the state control of women’s bodies. She said that ‘the women in the book wear outfits derived.. partly from the chader I acquired in Afghanistan and it’s conflicting associations’
- The Afghan people only spoke to Atwood’s husband as to speak to her would be ‘impolite’
Quotes from Atwood
-‘The more limited and boxed in you are, the more important details become […] Details, episodes seperate themselves from the flow of time in which they’re embedded’
-‘power hungry elite who have used their own brand of Bible-based religion as an excuse for the suppression of the majority of the population’
-‘The projected trends on which future society is based are already in motion’
-‘there is nothing in the book without a precedent’
Environmental concerns
- Atwood ‘our ability to discover and invent has allowed us to open the biggest pandora’s box in the world’
- Gilead is a radiation-soaked world with chemicals all over the air and water. The causes of this are wars, pollution and a general collection of irresponsible actions against nature
- The clearance of land, excessive use of fossil fuels and the general degradation of the environment and the irresponsible use of resources were obvious consequences of the industrial revolution
Second wave feminism
- Second wave feminism took place in 60s/70s and it was much broader than 1st wave. It targeted all areas of inequality in women’s lives like family, sexuality and work
- National organisation for women (NOW) was created to ensure equality of women and they helped many positive reforms to be put in place such as the equal opportunity act 1985
-Tammy Faye Baker an anti-feminist protester is represented by Serena Joy. She was a televangelist like Serena Joy and despite having a uni degree preached that women should be enclosed into a house wife life
The religious right in the 1980s
- The religious right was a movement that began in the late 1970s to counteract the sexual revolution
- The groups that enhanced the religious right movement had a profound effect on electoral outcomes and public policy debated. The movement aimed to appeal to the public emphasising topics such as traditional family values, resisting abortion and homosexual rights
-Reagan became president in 1980. He was anti-abortion, pro-capital punishment and opposed civil rights during the 60s when he was the Governor or California. He also opposed legislation that ended compulsory prayers in schools
The oppression of women in Romania
- In 1957 in Romania there was a decree that legalised abortion and birth rates significantly decreased because of women participating in the labour market and a low standard of living
-The communist party in Oct 1966 with Decree 770 made abortion and contraception illegal, secret police watched hospitals and women were forced to be monitored monthly by a gynecologist and sex education was refocused on the benefits of motherhood
-9000 women died from illegal abortions and 100,000 unwanted babies were abandoned in the dire conditions of communist orphanages
