Free Handmaid's Tale Essays: The Oppression of Women

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The Oppression of Women in Handmaids Tale

Within freedom should come security. Within security should come freedom. But in Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, it seems as though there is no in between. Atwood searches throughout the novel for a medium between the two, but in my eyes fails to give justice to a woman’s body image. Today's society has created a fear of beauty and sexuality in this image. It is as though a beautiful woman can be just that, but if at the same time, if she is intelligent and motivated within acting as a sexual being, she is thought of as exploiting herself and her body. Atwood looks for a solution to this problem, but in my eyes fails to do so.

In the Handmaid's Tale women are supposed to be more secure then they have ever been. Their bodies and their ability to reproduce are worshiped by society. Crimes against women have been erased. There is no longer rape, or domestic physical and mental violence against women. There is also no abortion. For women to exist in a space like this, one would think that they had the freedom to be powerful, strong women. Yet they are enslaved to this idea of being "protected." Atwood tries to define a woman’s security as being powerful, but really she just contributes to the idea that women are incapable of taking care of and protecting themselves.

The novel also portrays a space where a woman’s body is something to fear and hide. "My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated. Did I really wear bathing suits at the beach? I did, without thought, amoung men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking at my body, not so much because it's shamefull or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely."(P.63) Women fear their own bodies, they don't love themselves. Which is unfortunate because having love for your body can create a very powerful space for a woman. When women learn to love themselves and their bodies and not fear what they can do with them, they gain self-esteem and confidence to do whatever it is they want to do.

A society such as this, defined as having a basis on women, truely, does not.

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