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HANDMAIDS context - Coggle Diagram
HANDMAIDS context
women
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abuse- domestic, sexual and mental
physical suffering (biological, 'in-built' suffering)
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civil rights act (prohibits discrimination and segregation based on race, colour, religion and sex)
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childcare- expectations, women's job? seen as an expectation- biological purpose
Headlines (1985)
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'village moneylenders sometimes take an infant from the farmer to punish him for not paying a loan. She's later off married to anyone, or kept as a maid'
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'missing children', 'baby stealing'
Current
Taliban regained power in afghanistan (2021)Afghan women had achieved significant progress over the last 20 years in the face of instability and conflict. Now, almost every aspect of women & girls’ lives are under siege by restrictions and bans. Current restrictions for women: no education, limited access to healthcare without a male chaperone, banned from playing sports, speaking or showing skin out of home.
Donald Trump has said decisions about abortion rights should be left to the states. Mr Trump said policies should be set by individual states - as they have been since the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade decision in 2022.
Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to acts that cause (or are likely to cause) physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women. over ⅓ of women and girls experience some kind of violence during their lifetimes. Intimate partner violence is the most common form of GBV. Around 1 in 4 women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner.
Threats to reproductive rights- According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, 40% of women live under restrictive laws, which represents over 750 million women of reproductive age. 6% of women live in countries where abortions are prohibited completely. Access to contraception increased from 900 million in 2000 to almost 1.1 billion in 2021, but barriers like misinformation about contraception, fear of side effects and access remain. According to the UN Populations Fund, around 257 million women who don’t want to become pregnant still aren’t using safe and modern contraception.
Unequal political represenation- the UN estimates that it will take 130 years for the world to reach gender equality in the highest positions of power
According to research from 2017, girls and women made up 71% of all victims of trafficking. They also make up 96% of the victims trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Georgia Is Forcing a Brain-Dead Woman to Complete Her Pregnancy. keeps a brain-dead woman on life support against the wishes of her family—all because she was nine weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Adriana Smith has been transformed into a human incubator due to Georgia’s heartbeat law, which bans abortions once a heartbeat is detected in the fetus. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy, making it one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation. “I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision,” said Newkirk, who described seeing her daughter’s still-breathing body as “torture.” Georgia’s LIFE Act bestows legal personhood on unborn fetuses. It was passed in 2019 and went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.
other texts
Dora Forster (1905) sex radicalism: 'I hope the scarcity of children will go on until motherhood is honoured at least as much as the trials and hardships of soldiers campaigning in wartime. It will then be worthwhile to supply the nation with a sufficiency of children'
Lumsden and Wilson (1980s) relationship between biology and culture: 'rthe great majority of economically more primitive societies are polygamous, and the number of wives is generally regarded as a meaure of masculine success'
Rachel and Leah story: 'give me children, or else I die'
Romania (Ceauscu)1966-69
He passed laws that said women had to have four babies. They had to have pregnancy tests every month- if they weren't pregnant, they had to explain why.
'the latest sicko Red ruling was announced by cold-blooded Romanian president Nicholas Ceausescu, who wants women to have more babies so the country will get richer.'
It was this policy that filled up the Romanian orphanages, which then became a scandal around the world for their inhumane conditions
What Atwood saw
3 major dictatorships of the 20th century (Hitler, Stalin, Mussilini)
'The regime follows the notion that it is improving the conditions of life, both physical and moral; and like all regimes, it depends upon its true believers'
'Gilead has utopian idealism flowing through its veins, coupled with a high-minded principle, its every present shadow, sub-legal opportunism, and the propensity of the powerful to indulge in behind-the-scenes sensual delights forbidden to everyone else'
2nd wave feminism
achieving equality for women in various aspects of life, including legal rights, reproductive freedom, and workplace fairness
significant legal and social changes, impacting areas like abortion rights, equal pay, and the availability of contraception.
The movement also fostered greater solidarity among women and challenged traditional gender roles, contributing to a broader cultural shift.
Politics
'conservatives are out to get the women's movement. They wish to attack birth control and voluntary sterilisation. Their eventual target is to wipe out the women's movement'
(article- 1986) 'Birth dearth is a deliberate myth. The super-patriotic, hyper-capitalists running America these days are deciding that we must do "it" more often... we're not breeding fast enough to keep ahead of the dirty commies and dusky third-worlders.' Similarly happening now just written less directly nowadays.
Infertility
(headlines) chemicals affecting fertility: 'lead-poisin in work place on increase', 'perilous chemical problem out of control'- relates directly to HMT
'infertility: not uncommon male problem, but often treatable'. In Gilead, male infertility is similarly glossed over- there are no infertile men, only women.
religion
headline: 'catholics say cult taking over.' It's about a cult called THE PEOPLE OF HOPE that 'subordinates its women, discourages social contact with non-members, arranges marriages, moves teenage discipline to households for indoctrination... their treatment of women is very islamic. It's a form of brainwashing'