The Handmaid's Tale Post 2

The main focus of The Handmaid’s Tale is obviously the misuse of women and their bodies for reproductive gain. Again, I had trouble correlating this book with some use of technology or science. However, after much thought, it seems as though you could almost classify the handmaids and prostitutes in the book as forms of technology themselves.

The way in which the men of Giliad treated the women classifies them as a scientific tool used for political gain. They used the scientific makeup of the women for their own problems. The whole purpose behind the new “policy” of handmaids was a result of the reproductive dry spell that the republic was experiencing after exposure to chemicals and such used to overrun the country. The government knows that, without this new policy, their new republic may have some severe problems sooner than expected. Therefore, the women in this book may as well be referred to as machines. Offred, the main character, even refers to herself as nothing more than a mound of skin used for her ovaries and womb.

This concept of using technology and machines (the women) for political gain is nothing foreign to our current society. What do governments use when they want to overturn a government? Machines (weapons, planes, computers, etc.) How did people get ahead in the time of the Industrial Revolution? Technology. Which governments have the most power over trade and other forms of income for their countries? Those with endless access to new technology and science. Therefore, this concept of political gain through technology or science is nothing new. It is, in fact, a foreign concept that is drilled into the reader throughout the book.