Last Book Club Post For Handmaid's Tale

[darkelf105]

Okay kiddles, here it is, the mythic, oft promised but never posted, book club post. I must admit to all of you that it has been awhile since I read "The Handmaid's Tale", so my head is still swimming, but from talking to several members of the group, one comment always came up, that the book was really, really scary, terrifying, as one of you put it. So, to conclude this book, I would like us to discuss why so many of us find this book frightening and how the themes and motifs of this novel are relevant to today's political climate and trends as well as why men may find the book scary for different reasons than women. Whelp, that's all, chat amongst yourselves. We start "The Left Hand of Darkness" August 21 (I know school starts, but, like this book, we will take more than a month for it).

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

It's scary as all hell. Long answer coming later when I can actually sit and think.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I don’t think I can put my finger on any one thing in the book that scares me. Rather it is all the little things, because they hit so close to home.

A lot of things in our society scare me.
The use of the word “rape” in a humorous/ nonchalant way scares me. If everyone, especially the younger (and parts of our own) generation can justify and ignore it enough to find it funny how can I, or any woman expect it to be taken seriously?

The beginning of the book with the bank funds also scares me. Do you know how few women programmers there are? And how much information is now stored digitally? It would honestly probably take someone 2 minutes to program that exact scenario.

The eyes scare me because it represents a government that is not separated from religion. We all have seen the pendulum of power swinging toward religion and away from the state. First we ban myspace, then we ban videogames, then condoms, then abortion, and then where are we?

In fact we are losing our reproductive rights. Faster and faster, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t wish to be treated as a walking womb.

The part with the children in white at the ceremony disgusts me. I dislike the fact that today men are still attracted to the “virgin in white”.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

You know, I was just thinking about that today, too. I was reading two very different articles, one was about a man that they want to haul into court because he talked to his kids about pornography, and the other was about "purity balls" that conservatives are now throwing where the dad takes the daughter to the ball and he gives her a ring and she pledges her "purity" until marriage. At the marriage ceremony she hands her pledge ring over to her husband. Curiously enough, there are no "purity balls" and pledge rings for sons and their mothers. But then I thought about how that sorta smacks of the Oedipal and Electra complex and how its kinda really sick. I was sorta retching when I was reading the article about the "purity balls". That is such a gross thing to do to a little girl. And I demand that it be done to boys. But see, they don't do it to boys because virginity has very little to do with purity and a lot to do with power---the power to take something that can only be gotten once, the power to broker that something, the power to demand the virginity, the power of scorn over non-virgins....it has very little to do with things that are pure. And because boys will be the ones with the power, they don't need to worry about their virginity, just their futures wives'. Ughh, I gotta stop because this topic is making my stomach hurt even more.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The double standard was even more prevalent in the book. If they were oh so concerned about just having children wouldn't the youngest/most healthy males be having kids, not the old geizer commanders? It should be more like the equally scary system in The Giver.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

But as we've stated earlier, pregnancy, the cult of motherhood, virginity till marriage, the banning of contraceptives, and the linking of sex with procreation and only procreation are ways of control. Men do not get pregnant, so therefor none of these issues affect them, but they are the section of the population who are making all of these laws. In those articles I read, all of the founders and spokesmen for the Christian organizations against contraceptives and abortion and sex for other reasons besides procreation were men. You wanna know the best line from the article "well, if even in marriage, a couple has sex and it isn't for children, well then the man starts to see his wife as an object, a sort of sex slave" because you know things have gotten so much worse for women now that there are contraceptives! Because before women weren't used as business transactions to establish the father's stability and wealth and you know men weren't keeping harems and mistresses and rape NEVER happened because according to the logic of the guy in the article, contraceptives make sex without procreation possible, so following that logic, before contraceptives, women were walking wombs adored by all and NEVER harmed or harassed or raped or their unwanted babies bashed on the head and thrown in a ditch, because absolutely, you are correct Mr. Christian Expert, things were so much better for women a hundred, or even fifty years ago. Way to go, proving my point without even knowing it asshole.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Oh I know it's all a power thing. But it's a power thing that women have had pounded into their head from childhood. Even a relatively simple life choice like "I do not want children" is met with scorn by most everyone, including women. I hate playing breeder bingo.
I wouldn't have a problem with religion and such if it wasn't for the push to CONVERT CONVERT CONVERT! It's not a hug estep from blowing up abortion clinics, to blowing up the president. It's not a huge leap from "you'll change your mind when you get older" to "motherhood is the greatest gift EVAR" to "Oh you'll be thankful we protected you so can fulfill your ultimate destiny"