1. The Handmaid’s Tale & Feminism
“We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.” Atwood
“Mother, I think…Can you hear me? You wanted a woman’s culture. Well, now there is one, It isn’t what you meant, but it exists, Be thankful for small mercies.”
The Handmaid’s Tale
&
Feminism

2. ‘Born a Woman’ Sandy Posey 1966
It makes no difference if you're rich or poor Or if you're smart or dumb A woman's place in this old world Is under some man's thumb And if you're born a woman You're born to be hurt You're born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated on And treated like dirt Ah if you're born a woman You're born to be hurt A woman's lot is to give and give And go on giving A woman's got to love and lose And go on living Well I was born a woman I didn't have no say And when my man finally comes home He makes me glad it happened that way Because to be his woman No price is too great to pay Yes I was born a woman I'm glad it happened that way Oh I was born a woman I'm glad it happened that way

3. I am woman, hear me roar In numbers too big to ignore And I know too much to go back an' pretend 'Cause I've heard it all before And I've been down there on the floor No one's ever gonna keep me down again Oh yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of pain Yes, I've paid the price But look how much I gained If I have to I can do anything I am strong (strong) I am invincible (invincible) I am woman You can bend but never break me 'Cause it only serves to make me More determined to achieve my final goal And I come back even stronger Not a novice any longer 'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul Oh, yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of pain Yes, I've paid the price But look how much I gained If I have to I can face anything I am strong (strong) I am invincible (invincible) I am woman I am woman watch me grow See me standing toe to toe As I spread my lovin' arms across the land But I'm still an embryo With a long, long way to go Until I make my brother understand Oh, yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of pain Yes, I've paid the price But look how much I gained If I have to I can face anything I am strong (strong) I am invincible (invincible) I am woman Oh, I am woman I am invincible I am strong I am woman I am invincible I am strong I am woman
Helen Reddy, 1972

4. The Lifeless Wife Atwood
The lifeless wife
Kisses with pursed lips
Her grim husband (thin
Pinstriped businessman);
She is his safe
Deposit box and bank
The nickelodeon
That plays his favourite tune
She was just an ordinary
Woman: all he had to do
To make her fully his
In pure domestic bliss
Was just break through
Her backbone, empty out her head
Stuff her heart with money
And bury her in bed.

5. Plan of attack Handouts Frieden and de Beauvoir English Review
With the people around you share what you ‘coloured-in’and be able to share what you’ll take from the readings into the novel?
Examples from the novel & how is the feminist message subverted in Gilead?

6. Examples of how Feminism has been subverted in the novel?
There is more than one kind of freedom…Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it. (5, 34)
We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society dying…of too much choice. (5, 35)
There is no such thing as a sterile man any more, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law.
But whose fault was it? Her fault, her fault, her fault (13, 82)
For the generations that come after..it will be better. The women will live in harmony together, all in one family; you will be like daughters to them…women united for a common end…Why expect one woman to carry out all the functions necessary to the serene running of a household? It isn’t reasonable or humane…But we can’t be greedy pigs and demand too much before it’s ready, now can we? (26, 171/2)
Don’t you remember the terrible gap between the ones who could get a man easily and the ones who couldn’t? ….This way they all get a man, nobody’s left out….what did we overlook? Love, I said. (34, 230)
Consider the alternatives, said Aunt Lydia. You see what things used to be like? That was what they thought of women, then. Her voice trembled with indignation (20, 128)
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. EVER BABY A WANTED BABY. RECAPTURE OUR BODIES. DO YOU BELIEVE A WOMAN”S PLACE IS ON THE KITCHEN TABLE? Under the last sign there’s a line drawing of woman’s body, lying on a table, blood dripping out of it. (20, 130)
We are for breeding purposes(21, 146)… we are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.