Intersectionality and Handmaid's Tale (AKA: My fav book ever)
The narrative of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" is set in a dystopian, white, totalitarian society where extreme misogyny and discrimination are prevalent. The novel employs the experiences of white women to represent all women, which raises significant concerns about the absence of intersectionality.
Intersectionality and Handmaid's Tale (AKA: My fav book ever)
Intersectionality: Where different social categories overlap
"By ignoring racism, the book misses an opportunity to show how racism would manifest and evolve into a puritanical theocracy:
Lack of intersectionality
Recognize my social position, privilege, and bias. I am a white woman talking about issues regarding w.o.c .... this is important to recognize.
Thesis?
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, establishes a context in which its readers are presented with issues pertaining to discrimination and extreme misogyny faced by the women in this pronatalist, white, totalitarian society. I argue the absence of women of colour in the narrative is a representation of the lack of intersectionality and due to this, the novel fails to represent the bona fide dystopian society.
"If Gilead is meant to imagine a possible future for America, how could deeply entrenched racial dynamics disappear?"
Argument #1. Topics Discussed
Themes discussed are issues w.o.c have faced yet they are left out of the narrative... once again.
Atwood states that everything in her novel happened
in history at one point in time. Many of the things that happen in her novel happened to black and brown women during Jim Crow Era and Slavery.
4. Birthing "owners" children
3. Rape
2. Public Lynchings
1. Being named after Commanders
Argument #2. Absence of Women Of Colour
Uses experiences of white women in the novel to represent the experiences of all women.
By sending w.o.c to colonies, it allows for Atwood to be "off the hook" regarding including people of colour in her story
