The hit Hulu series "The Handmaid’s Tale: based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel scarily mimics the political climate America is currently experiencing. The show tells the story of women forced to be “handmaids”, or sex-slave-child-bearers, for America’s white and wealthy males due to widespread infertility across the country. There is no such thing as abortion and men have all the power. Handmaids are not permitted to resist their commanders nor the government in any way.
Similar to the right-wing conservative government in "The Handmaid’s Tale", our current government is comprised of primarily older, white conservatives and controlled by a president who does not prioritize diversity within the government. But, the greatest similarity between the dystopian novel and our current government rests in the lack of reproductive rights for women.
Former Indiana Governor and current Vice President Mike Pence is not shy about his beliefs that a woman should NOT have the right to choose whether or not she wants an abortion. Just last year, Pence signed an Indiana law banning women from obtaining an abortion despite if the baby has a genetic abnormality that will alter their quality of life.
“An important step in protecting the unborn,” Pence called the law, neglecting to address the impact that a child with serious genetic abnormalities could have on the mother. Similarly, President Donald Trump has tried to cut funding for Planned Parenthood across America, which would impact the access women across America have to abortions, reproductive health testing, and even cancer screenings.
The male-dominated government is making decisions about what happens to a woman’s body.
"The Handmaid’s Tale" creepily echoes this theme throughout the series. Handmaids have no choice whether or not they want to have children and are forced to carry the baby to term. With strict abortion laws in America today, women in some states are forced to carry their babies to term because of these male-imposed restrictions that exist. States including Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, and Iowa have created extreme limitations on reproductive rights making it almost impossible to get an abortion.
Within both the series and real life, the practice of being an abortion provider is a dangerous one. Just last year, a shooting occurred at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado – an abortion-providing facility. In "The Handmaid’s Tale", abortion providers are publically hung to scare anyone from seeking an abortion or being an abortion provider.
Women in the series have absolutely no say in what reproductive rights they have and even have severe occupational restrictions. In Atwood’s dystopia, women are given jobs, such as a handmaid or a Martha, but never something that would give them higher power than a man. Today, women do not necessarily have restricted access to certain jobs, but in almost all jobs they are paid 80 percent of what men are paid. Maybe currently women can have a job of their choice, but why the wage gap? Why are we allowing women to be paid less than men in equal jobs and what does this mean about gender equality moving forwards?
Frankly, our country has a gender equality issue. Men are consistently held to higher standards than women and tasked with greater, more important decisions. "The Handmaid’s Tale" should serve as a reminder for what could happen if women are not treated as equal to their male counterparts.
