Coming to Margaret Atwood’s work for the first time, a reader is likely to be daunted: she is seen as one of the world’s leading novelists; she has written books, poetry, criticism, and short stories; she campaigns for human rights and for the environment. Atwood also writes about art and its creation, the dangers of ideology, and, of course, sexual politics; she deconstructs myths, fairytales, and the classics for a new audience. Her work is often gothic, which is one reason for its wide popularity. The Handmaid’s Tale is Atwood’s most famous novel. The story is about a woman called Offred (literally “Of Fred,” meaning belonging to a man named Fred—women’s identities were stripped away) living in the republic of Gilead, a nightmarishly imagined America of the future. It is starkly political in its depiction of the constrained rights of the individual in a new society, and of male-female power relations; it shows a woman who has suffered. Here, Atwood’s feminism is considerably apparent. The series is definitely binge-watchable.
Sources:
Read Below–Scroll to Ch. 2, “Laughter vs. Death” and read the Article by Margaret Atwood on the ethical issue of Pornography, pgs. 12-18.
https://books.google.com/books?id=OXvJNu-NftIC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=%22if+sex+were+considered+joyful+and+life-enhancing+instead+of+a+wallow+in+germ-filled+glop%22+and+atwood&source=bl&ots=c8yGGF9yyA&sig=ACfU3U2nSdHv3c0Nr9mL7d9CNeIYsZ9idQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqlYyUtYvmAhWCvZ4KHaUlBM4Q6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22if%20sex%20were%20considered%20joyful%20and%20life-enhancing%20instead%20of%20a%20wallow%20in%20germ-filled%20glop%22%20and%20atwood&f=false
Questions:
How is Atwood defining pornography? Is her descriiption too extreme? Why does she do this?
Is Atwood herself against portrayals of sex in general, or is what she’s defining different?
Atwood talks about the hatred of the body, hatred of women/feminism, and religion; is there a social, trickle-down effect for this type of objectification?
Is Atwood’s overall argument persuasive? Consider that Canada took action and banned “hate literature”; should the violence that she is describing be legal here in the U.S.?
Consider how views on sex and sexual experiences differ for males and females. Atwood describes how a young boy could learn about sex from pornography, whereas a young girl could have been socialized by the “Cinderella Myth” (how she should wait for Prince Charming to magically whisk her away to the castle)—how could these different ways of viewing sex/love be an issue?
How is the Handmaid’s Tale video clip representative of dystopia?
