'The Handmaid's tale'. I am now in a dark dark hole.

Over the last few days I binge watched ‘The Handmaid’s tale’. I am now in a dark dark hole. To think that Margaret Atwood wrote this with a challenge to herself that she’d only include events that have already happened somewhere at some point in time…

To know that even now a lot of people think the primary role of women is just to fulfill her ‘biological destiny’ and bear children, future sons who will go on to uphold the patriarchy on the shoulders and bruised backs of his sisters and daughters…

I am privileged to not have suffered from any trauma, but even then this show was triggering. At points I had to physically turn away because I could not stand it. Because this dystopian novel is a dark compilation of horrific events that have actually happened to women and continue to happen in different parts of world. Considered property, not being allowed to read or write or vote or work, being forced to bear children for others and have them snatched away from them, reduced to renting their wombs just so they can survive, being at the mercy of the ‘benevolence’ of the man who owns her, being blamed for some men’s inability to control themselves, women picked out by men to become Aunt Lydias and Serena Joys of the world (who become happy when someone tells them ‘you are not like most women’) who make sure the patriarchy functions like a well oiled machine by keeping their fellow women ‘in check’ and supporting laws that hurt themselves as well, governments and states controlling and regulating our bodies and deciding what can be done with it… this has happened for centuries and continues to happen.

My thoughts are muddled and I think I will have nightmares about this for some time. If you are a woman watching the series or reading the book, I have to say this will be triggering and will take a mental toll. If you are a man, you may think that this is hyperbole. But it isn’t. The Republic of Gildead exists and has always existed, it was built on the blood, bones, and hopes of women. It continues to thrive by sucking out our ambitions and demanding of us sacrifices that leave us hollow and spent.