What makes a good dystopian tale?
A lot of attention had recently been drawn to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, A Handmaid’s Tale. The reason? The book itself shows the downfall of American society from the liberty to the exact opposite. For women at least. At first women are fired from their jobs before seeing the fertile rounded up to be ‘handmaids’ for the infertile rich. These women are raped and forced to give up the resulting baby to their captors.
The rich women aren’t free though. They are the perfect housewives, raising the children of the handmaids as if they were their own. The reproductive rights of both women are distorted and broken.
Essentially, the rights of all women are taken away.
Which comes to why the book has garnered so much attention. The election of Donald Trump to his second term of office has worried many women, not just in the US but across the world. In reality, it is impossible to tell if he will resort to any such draconian measures as stopping women from working but it is highly likely he will support anti-woman policies. Before the election he made it clear it was up to each individual state where they sat on abortion laws but he didn’t condemn the idea that pregnant women could be monitored or abortions punished by the courts. His close circle, however, hold views much more strict than Trumps own. How much influence they may have over policy is yet to be seen. Also, Trump is 78 years old; will he last the term? What direction will Vance take in his stead?
The Handmaid’s Tale has caught the attention of many women who are afraid of what might happen over the next four years, and that is why the book is so good. Because it tapped into fears (it was published in 1985) that are ongoing and ever present in the minds of women. The fear of control by men is ever present in our lives but control by the male dominated state would be the ultimate act of patriarchal oppression.
Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).
Charlotte’s debut novel Heather available now!
A compelling, frightening and heart-breaking tale of desperation, Heather is a ghost story spanning 100 years that will keep you guessing till the end.