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Discrimination In The Handmaid's Tale

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Victim or offender?Even after experiencing the worst crimes, for example sexual violence, women feel powerless because the blame falls on themselves. Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a dystopian novel set in the near-future of America that tells a story where women are only valued for their fertility. Powerful or powerless? Within the problems of this novel: the ceremony, the salvagings and the particicution, the novel highlights “power relationships” and the discrimination of women and their power in society. The real question is, are women discriminated against only in this book, or in the real world?

So, let me ask you a question, what is the worst part about the society of Gilead? Is it the big events, like the ceremony and the …show more content…

The relationship between the Handmaid’s Tale and the current way we blame the victim of rape is outstanding. It’s upsetting to know that even though this novel is a dystopian piece of writing, Atwood has got our society spot on! In 2010, an 10-year-old girl was placed in a Child Protection Service after being removed from her house. She ran away with another girl, both 10 years old, and were on the street for about a week. At some time, they encountered a 30-year-old convicted drug dealer who assaulted her in his apartment. In 2011, the same girl, now 11-years-old, was gang raped by 20 men for the second time in two years. The perpetrators received between a 15 year and 99 year jail sentence. In the trial, the prosecutor described Cruse, an offender who received a life imprisonment after the incident, as one of a ‘pack of dogs’ who gang raped the girl and likened the victim to a ‘spider’ who lured men into her web. The assault was videotaped showing Cruse as a proud man after his buddies were constantly saying, “beat that ho.” The judgement against this girl for bringing the crime onto herself is discrimination. Recently, there was a debate in class about whether or not it was her own fault. Personally, I believe that running away from home the second time was a mistake, even after knowing the dangers of the world from the incident the year before. In today’s society, sexual assault is growing more and more. On average, there are 288,820 victims, aged 12 or older, of rape and sexual assault each year in the US. Discrimination against women was the major key in this novel, which is also a huge world problem nowadays. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, in relation to the restriction of reading and writing for the Handmaid’s in the novel. In Yemen, Asia, Yemeni women are some of the least empowered women in the world. In Nepal, if a women is raped or assaulted, the perpetrators are not

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