The Handmaid's Tale ~ Post 1

When discussing The Handmaid’s Tale with Dr. Fishman there was one thing that was really bothering me. Why couldn’t the wives of the commanders bear children themselves? Why was it that all of these women had become infertile due to pollution and new strains of diseases? Why was it that these environmental factors spared the fertility of the men and poisoned the fertility of the women?

In this day in age we have all heard of fertility specialists whose jobs are to diagnose infertility in instances where a male and female are trying to conceive a child but to no avail. This diagnosis could indicate infertility in the man only, the woman only, or both the man and woman. After such a diagnosis medical interventions such as invitro fertilization can be implemented. This scenario, however, was not the one played out in The Handmaid’s Tale. Rather than determine where the infertility lies it seems as though this handicap was automatically bestowed upon the women by their government, their spouses, and their society. In fact, to even speculate that it was the men who were infertile was a forbidden act for the women in the novel. If there were no fruits being produced from the “labor” of their marriage it was always and only the fault of the women.

That being said, how desperate these women must have been to have children that they would welcome, or at the very least tolerate, another woman’s body between their thighs and holding the woman’s hands while her own husband (the one she had a vow of forever with) penetrated and attempted to impregnate the woman. I can’t imagine. You’d think this isn’t something that you would welcome into your life habitually, even if you were desperate for a child. So, why not take advantage of scientific and technological advances? Why not see a fertility specialist? Why not turn to science rather than ceremony alone? Nevertheless, I can understand how some things are so painful and beyond understanding that the only place one feels they can turn is to the word of God. For this reason, I’m not saying that they must/should get rid of the religious ceremony all together but I am saying to exist solely on ceremony and to reject science is probably what got them in the predicament where they needed handmaids in the first place.