Position of Women in The Handmaid’s Tale

To a certain extent,

Atwood has made me consider the position of women in our society in the way of what views other people may have in modern society. Margaret Atwood uses The Handmaid’s Tale to make the readers consider the position of women in society by inviting them to examine how they value women in contemporary society. Although today’s society is significantly contrasted to Gilead’s dystopian modern society, the novel enunciates the idea that women are still not as valued as they should be. Atwood uses the character of Aunt Lydia to link contemporary and Gileadean society together by referencing a common feminist topic in today’s society, (women’s clothes), in a speech to the training Handmaids. Aunt Lydia confidently states, “the spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder these things used to happen.” Offred recalls Aunt Lydia’s account of how women used to behave, particularly during the summer. Aunt Lydia postulates that when women dressed provocatively, they invited men to take advantage of them, by saying that crimes would never happen to nice women who cover themselves up - Aunt Lydia places all the blame on the women who are victims rather than the men who are the perpetrators. Aunt Lydia’s blaming of women plays an important role in indoctrination in Gilead’s mandated conformity. Aunt Lydia’s view on the blame of women for their harassment could be immediately linked to today’s society as, in certain areas, there is a debate about whether the reason for female sexual harassment is due to how ‘revealing’ their clothing was during the crime. Therefore, Atwood could make certain individuals consider Aunt Lydia’s statement in today’s society, and either agree with her view or believe the opposite, that clothing does not correlate with sexual harassment. Aunt Lydia ends her speech by stating that “no wonder these things used to happen.” Atwood has purposefully left this concluding statement ambiguous for the reader as it could be interpreted in two different ways. The first is that she is talking about sexual harassment and rape, implying that the women were naive enough to go into public in ‘revealing’ clothing and therefore should have known they were setting themselves up for the “things that used to happen”, (harassment). Whereas the other interpretation could be that she was talking about second-wave feminism. The reader can infer that there were feminist uprisings around the time The Handmaid's Tale was set through Offred recalling a day in the park when she was young with her mother, who was burning pornographic magazines of women, showing that she and the others were feminists as they disagreed with women having to use their bodies to be valued in society. Aunt Lydia could be referring to feminist uprisings for equality as “these things that used to happen.” The past tense of the word “used” highlights the lack of power in society for women as the feminist uprising was completely resolved by the Gileadean institution, and forced women to take a domestic role in the community by having to cook, run households, and most importantly reproduce. One way this control over women is contained is through the power of fear through “The Wall”. In conclusion, Margaret Atwood has made me consider the position of women in today’s society through the idea that contemporary society could also be overturned, like Offred’s society before Giliead, and all accomplishments toward gender equality could be entirely disregarded by an institution as powerful as Gilead. Atwood has made me consider how other people may view the position of women in society, specifically men, and if they might agree with any of Aunt Lydia’s views on the position of women in society.