Gender Roles In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

As such, they avoid her, as if they fear her views will spread like a disease. Never taught to think for themselves, these people would rather avoid such change, and continue living their lives in mindless obedience of the social norm. They are unable to accept Queenie or the other two girls, merely because they are “unique in all aspects of their beings: walking, down the aisles, against the grain, going barefoot and in swimsuits, against the properly attired clientele” (“An Analysis of John Updike’s A&P”). Because the girls,

Esther’s discomfort of serving men and having to remain subordinate to them demonstrates her inability to conform to what is traditionally expected of her. However as a female in a male controlled society there is not much she can do or say without receiving discrimination from the dominate sex. As well, the concept of female sexuality and its relativity to virginity also furthers the presence of gender inequality. The expression of love or passion is obsolete

The passing of the “International law relating to Racism and Gender Discrimination” were established to prevent the discrimination of women and the ethnic race, “Racism and Sexism.” The cultural and religious biases have become less evident, but nonetheless still present and are likewise expressed in a different manner. “Racism” nowadays is more or less associated with “Judgmentalism.” Judgmental behavior is a sinful defamation of character or a condemning attitude towards another person. People, in the world, ordinarily are quick to judge each other without reason.

Women’s rights have been unfairly neglected by the government. Being a woman in a male-dominated society makes you feel marginalized in different aspects of your life. Oppression of freedom both in physical and psychological is one of the main issue faced in the story. The main character in the story, Offred, shows a woman who is a follower of rules imposed by the authority. But, her submissiveness does not reflect that she also stand with their views.

This article discusses what gender stereotypes are, the groups of people they affect the most, and the laws that are to prevent gender stereotyping. The typical male is seen as emotionless, manipulative, intelligent and violent, while the typical female is seen as emotional, kind, helpless and fearful. These gender stereotypes do more harm than good, as often when people do not fit a stereotype, they become confused as to where they truly belong in society. As stated by Robert Kimbrough in his article “Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender”, people who follow their respective stereotype completely “are prevented from attaining and maintaining a full range of human character traits because of cultural attempts to render some exclusively feminine and some exclusively masculine” (176). In this article, Kimbrough

The consequences of her rebellious action - that is kicking Blanco’s head “without even thinking” - is rather similar to those in The Handmaid’s Tale. Women are not allowed, let alone having the freedom, to have what the desire and to be siding the opposition against the figurehead of the authority - men. Hence, in order for men to sustain their power and authority over the women, fear is injected into the society as a medium for conformity. In other words, fear among women is essential so that they would comply to whatever norms and beliefs the society uphold. In the cases of both texts, fear is used to exacerbate the oppression of females and ultimately, the commodification of

Moreover, the discrimination in social classes leads a path to discrimination in gender roles. People, especially women, were thrust into gender specific roles which withheld them from society. “The diabolical happiness of men on the loose presented an even greater threat to women” shows that women were treated as objects and as something to throw away. One of the things that was thought as useless trash was themselves. It is very clear in the stories that the authors didn’t have very high opinions of themselves.

With the latter two categories not in favour of equality then the only remaining category, if you are in favour of equality, is feminism. Misandrist feminist beliefs have negative ideas that men should suffer for their past suppression of women. This deters many people from labeling themselves as feminists. Sandra Kim addresses this in her article “How Most Things You Know About Feminists Are Vicious Conservative Lies”: Misrepresentations of feminism are so powerful that many progressives and liberals today don’t necessarily want to self-identify as a feminist even when they believe in what feminism stands for. They don’t want women or anyone else to be abused, raped, exploited and discriminated against.

On the one hand, this is a clear sign of rebellion towards the one in power, in other words, the Government ruled by men. On the other hand, it can be seen that they actually did not have any other option since their words would not convince the Government to provide them the rights to vote. To sum up, in this book we are presented different situations that suffragettes had to go through, but if the period of time, and society’s mentality there are several aspects that can be pointed out. First, after the negative of the Government, manifestation organized by suffragettes would have the presence of police forces which were hostile to them; second, in an initial stage suffragettes had people’s support, both men and women; thirdly, it can be seen that the Government was, without any doubt, the main obstacle suffragettes had to deal with, in term of law and trials suffragette were diminished; finally, the rebellious attitude, in terms of the use of violence, that women chose was because their arguments, speeches and peaceful actions were not working: and that was the last option they had to make their voice

While women must be a part of the solution wherever there is a conflict, the existing repressive social norms branch out into institutions that should otherwise counteract it. During conflict women are among the most vulnerable groups for reasons more than just violence. There exists a covert dismissal of the females by their male counterparts which imposes an overt ideological colonialism; an abiding tussle of women against men for free sociopolitical space after traumatic experiences during conflict; and the subtle marginalization of women caused by homosociality. Even though conflicts are equally traumatic for men, they are known to affect both men and women differently. Women tend to have lesser economic, social and other resources to protect

Language is the most powerful tools in connecting between the author and the readers. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses word choice and sentence structure to expose that the shocking cultures of Gilead society are built upon foundations of sexism. Additionally, with the use of double entendre, Atwood emphasizes the theme throughout the novel: the presence of power. Atwood shows Gilead society is a corrupted place where people seek to break the rules and to show power through the action between the Commander and Offred.