Technologies and the Handmaid’s Tale
Technologies and The Handmaid’s Tale
WGSS 3860-02
06 December 2016
In this term paper, I will be discussing the film, The Handmaid’s Tale, and I will be presenting research and evidence that reproduction technologies in the film is parallel to, or almost mimics, the way people depict modern day contraceptives in today’s society in the United States. It is no opinion of mine that birth control leans more towards for the purpose of women than on men, but rather a fact. Despite this, the consequences of the portrayal of birth control create a negative stigma around women who use or want to use them. Women are continued to be viewed as simple baby-making objects, created for the purpose of men and procreation.
The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a society in which all technologies, including reproductive technologies, are entirely controlled by men and applied and withheld in the interest of men, with dire consequences for women. This film takes place in the Republic of Gilead. The function of sex in the Republic of Gilead is to reproduce and multiply, and it can be argued that it also serves to allow powerful men to have promiscuous sex. Social status and the value of women in Gilead is determined by their fertility and beauty, and if they are married to a powerful man. It even extends to a woman’s race or ethnicity, as it is obvious that women of African descent and other women of color are not used as handmaids, regardless of their fertility--nonetheless, they are sent to the colonies, which is practically a death sentence. Fertile women used as handmaids give up their own names and take the name of the man as a label of ownership--for example, Offred and Ofglen.
Men are in charge of controlling all propaganda and technology in Gilead. As a result, males and females are not equally subjected to technological procedures in the Republic of Gilead. The pills the women have to take at the Red Center are possibility brainwashing them. Women are checked for fertility but men are not. Women take full responsibility and blame for a failure to conceive. Only men are allowed to handle weapons and driving cars. There are video surveillance cameras in the Red Center, where fertile women stay. They are forced to wear bracelets that allow for them to be tracked.
The official propaganda in the Republic of Gilead suggests that technologies, such as, abortion, artificial insemination, birth control, etc. are bad because they go against the ‘will of God’. Only 1 in 100 women are fertile, and these technologies are believed to be the cause for infertility because God is angry and wants to punish women--this society is very clearly based on the Old Testament of the bible. Such rejected technologies could arguably be extremely valuable in addressing the infertility crisis, but this truth only makes it obvious that the real purpose that the ruling class of men takes for banning birth control is not because contraceptives are truly harmful, but because it is easier to push the blame on someone that is not yourself--i.e. men. Imagine how much simpler it would be to bring a rise to population and diminish the infertility crisis if technologies such as artificial insemination and testing men for fertility would create, but rather it is rejected, on the basis that it is not permitted by God.
The social and emotional consequences of the unequal and restricted use of technology in the Republic of Gilead are very troublesome for women, and give more power to men. Handmaids are the victims of institutionalized rape. One could argue that these women are, in fact, giving consent to be used as a baby incubator, but in reality, their situation is a prime example of a double-bind; the women are forced to choose between only bad choices--either agree to be used in such a manner, or be sent to the colonies. Even after birth, the child is not theirs. The wives are forced to participate in awkward ceremonies with the handmaids and the husbands. Homosexuals in Gilead are punished, and lower status men cannot have fertile women and are therefore starved for sex. Fertile nuns are forced to break their vows with God, and reproduce with men. The powerful men are never punished or blamed for infertility, and get to have plenty of sex with different women, where only the women are blamed.
In terms of gender and reproductive technologies, there are many parallels between the Republic of Gilead and contemporary Western societies. In the United States, there are constantly men in politics fighting to deny women the right to abortions. Victims of sexual abuse are blamed. Certain religious fundamentalists feel against available technologies. Most importantly, most contraception options are created for use by women--men only have the options for condoms and vasectomies, while women have options like birth control pills, IUDs, birth control shots, diaphragms, spermicide, female condoms, cervical caps, female condoms, birth control sponge, birth control patch, vasectomies, etc. Because of the wide range of options supposably present to all women (because of all the laws banning many of the birth control options, and the low availability for lower-class women) to prevent pregnancies, it is believed to be the women’s responsibility for getting pregnant, and the man holds very little, if any, legal obligation to stay with the woman or help her with the baby. The unequal and unjust application and withholding of available or potentially available reproductive technologies according to male interests depicted in the movie does have a basis in social and cultural reality.