Big Changes! From the United State to Republic of Gilead

Why did we choose Harvard University?

             On the 2nd Annual Gilead Commanders' Session, we voted in favor of transforming Harvard's building into a detention center. Since then, the Eyes, our secret police hang the bodies of executed dissidents from the Wall that runs around the college; the mass executions, Salvagings, also take place in Harvard Yard, on the steps of the Widener Library. Harvard University was one of America's most famous institutions of higher learning. The choice of this location emphasises the way our state has overturned the outdated education system. The free pursuit of knowledge and truth are unnecessary to our new society. In Harvard, we aim to re-educate our citizens how to obey orders, and focus on carrying out their duties.

Sex for reproduction only, not pleasure

 

             At the age of the United State, some people celebrate the joys of sexual liberation. Promiscuity was common and appeared to be trivial. But nowadays, the birthrate is so low that we need to do everything possible to prevent miscarriages and birth defects. Promiscuity is an unacceptable concept for us.

           In Gilead, "the Ceremony" is a non-marital sexual act sanctioned solely for the purpose of reproduction, based on a Biblical passage described on the top of this page. This Gileadian enactment has the Handmaid lying supine upon the Wife during the sex act itself. The handmaid is to lie between the Wife's legs as if they are one person. In this way, the Wife has to invite the Handmaid to share her power by inviting her to lie in her own personal space, which is considered both humiliating and offensive by many wives. Offred describes the ceremony:

"My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for" (Atwood, 94).

Once a Handmaid is pregnant, she is venerated by her peers and the Wives. After the baby is born, if it is not an "unbaby" or a "shredder", it is given to the Wife of her Commander, and she is reassigned to another household. She has the guarantee that she will never be declared an "Unwoman".

Safety is the First!

             One of the best things about Republic of Gilead is, we are much safer! Since we re-organized our family structure and the secret police takes care of the public order, women aren't whistled at on the street, men don't come climbing in the window in the middle of the night. Women are well protected!

The Big Return of Slight Amount of Power

We are all watching you!

             Gilead is not simply controls her citizens by power. Instead, women in general support Gilead's existence by willingly participating in it, and even serving as agents for our totalitarian state.

            As Atwood suggests, people always endure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of power or freedom. Offred’s complacency after she begins her relationship with Nick shows the truth of this insight. Her situation restricts her horribly compared to the freedom her former life allowed, but her relationship with Nick allows her to reclaim the tiniest fragment of her former existence. The physical affection and companionship become compensation that make the restrictions almost bearable. Offred seems suddenly so content that she does not say yes when Ofglen asks her to gather information about the Commander.

           Some Women, like the Wives and Aunts, support Gilead’s existence by serving as agents of this totalitarian state. While a woman like Serena Joy has no power in the world of men, she exercises authority within her own household and seems to delight in her tyranny over Offred. She jealously guards what little power she has and wields it eagerly. In a similar way, the women known as Aunts, especially Aunt Lydia, act as willing agents of the Gileadean state. They indoctrinate other women into the ruling ideology, keep a close eye out for rebellion, and generally serve the same function for Gilead that the Jewish police did under Nazi rule. Although they cannot get pregnant and bear a child as a Handmaid do, they are necessary for maintaining social order.

          After all, giving out slight amount of power or freedom is necessary to keep our leadership firmly in control.

Language as a Tool of Power...Gilead is Better than George Orwell's Oceania!

             Having made it illegal for women to hold jobs, we create a system of titles. Whereas men are defined by their military rank, women are defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, Aunts or Marthas. Feminists and deformed babies are treated as subhuman, denoted by the terms “Unwomen” and “Unbabies.” Gilead maintains its control over women’s bodies by maintaining control over names.

In 1984

             George Orwell examines narrowing the range of thought though the destruction of words. In Oceania, destroying the whole literature of the past is considered "a beautiful thing" (Orwell, 51).In Newspeak, “bad” and “awful” are altered to mean “ungood” or “doubleplus ungood.” This language leaves no room for nuance or shades of meaning. The vocabulary of Newspeak reduces year after year, limits the range of consciousness, and aims to make thoughtcrime impossible. As Syme, who is a specialist in Newspeak, says, “Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness” (Orwell, 53). Sooner or Later, there will be no thought in Oceania, as there will be no words to express it. 
            Big Brother haven't finished the final edition of Newspeak. In 1984, Syme's only job is to sit in his cubicle, and consolidate the English language into as few as characters as possible. But In Gilead, no one are called by their own names, everyone from the same class are equal. Nine names and a few sentences from the Bible make up all the language we use in daily life. Unlike Big Brother, we have already done everything possible to let our citizens not to express themselves.

In the North American society

           The same thing happened to the state before us, the North American society. Text messaging was Newspeak. It had taken the world of communication over, and slowly took hold of the proper English language. As soon as the instant messaging services came out, short text messaging became a preferred form of communication and being frequently used. Ideas and thoughts were transmitted in fewest numbers of characters before any review and correction. With acronyms like LOL (laugh out loud), BTW (by the way) and ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) being used online to cut down the time spent on typing, the younger generations by that time were actually using these acronyms in their daily lives. The Example of the North American society depicts simple words seek to adapt the language to fit the new technological world.

Yes! We Use Women's Bodies As Political Instruments.

"Farming" Our "National Resource"

              After drinking about 300,000 different chemicals from water, and being affected by a great deal of radiation, our male sterility is on the increase and so are spontaneous miscarriages and birth defects. Our Gilead society was formed in response to the crisis caused by dramatically decreased birthrates. The state’s entire structure is built around a single goal: control of reproduction. For sure, this is a society in which you have a sort of "farming" of women. The women who are still capable of bearing children are taken as Handmaids and assigned to the homes of wealthy, powerful men; the commanders. These Handmaids are used only for the purposes of breeding. They are forbidden to vote, hold property or jobs, read, or do anything else that might allow them to become subversive or independent and thereby undermine their husbands or the state.

Well, pretty much like this.

 

              In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood reveals the fact that women in our society are treated as subhuman. True, in Gilead, they are reduced to their fertility, treated as nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. In one of the novel’s key scenes, Offred lies in the bath and reflects that, before Gilead, she considered her body an instrument of her desires; now, she is just a mound of flesh surrounding a womb that must be filled in order to make her useful. Offred's thought reflects the fact that we are using women's bodies as political instruments. Our state of Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality in order to make them docile carriers of the next generation.

We Should Control Our "National Resource" - Let See What Did Other Countries Do

Number 1: Chinese Foot Binding

 

            Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. In fact, this custom was practiced for approximated one thousand years in China, beginning in the tenth century and ending in the first half of twentieth century. In the first plce, it was carried out only among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China. This practice shows the ability of the husbands to afford their wives who did not need to work, who existed only to serve their husbands and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves. In the poorer families, it was usual to bind the feet of the eldest daughter, who was intended to be brought up as a lady. Her large-footed sisters would grow up to be servants or slaves, and, when old enough, become the wives of laboring men.

Number 2:European Corset Wearing

         

        Corset was used for the first time by the wife of King Henry II of France in the sixteenth century. In the middle of nineteenth century, during the Victorian era, wearing corset was regarded morally necessary. Tight lacing was considered virtuous - a loose corset was probably a sign of a loose woman. To keep her innocence and virtuosity, a lady had to be chaperoned everywhere she went.

        Similar to the phenomenon of Chinese foot binding where at the beginning it was practiced among the wealthiest families, corset was also mostly worn by high class ladies. Lower class ladies would wear looser corsets and simpler clothes, with less weight.

Number 3: Brass coils

 

              In Kayan, a country besides Thailand, women need to wear neck rings, which are brass coils that help make their necks look longer. These coils are first applied to young girls when they are around five years old.

              Each coil is replaced with longer coil, as the weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage. Contrary to popular belief, the neck is not actually lengthened; the illusion of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle.

             The coils originate from the desire to look more attractive by exaggerating sexual characteristic, as women have more slender necks than men. It also been suggested that the coils give the women resemblance to a dragon, which is a important figure in Kayan folklore.

 

Remind Your Women How To Dress

          Compare to these customs, our Gilead society is much more humane. We organise our ladies by letting wives in blue, daughters in white, Handmaids in red, Marthas in green and Aunts in brown. Women in general support Gilead's existence by willingly participating in it, serving as agents of our state. While a woman like Serena Joy as a wife, she exercises authority within her own household and delight in her control over the Handmaids. In a similar way, the women know as Aunts, especially Aunt Lydia, act as willing agents of our state. They indoctrinate other women into the ruling ideology and keep a close eye out for rebellion. Classifying women is necessary all societies, but as you can see, we are not merely separate them by clothing; we help them to learn, and willing participating in their roles.