Empowerment; Restriction And Alienation

Question 1

1. Gender complexities within gileadean society

Answer 1

Atwood also confronts western ideals of development and highlights intersectionality and cultural diversity.

‘Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some trade off, we still had our bodies’
- bargaining chip. There is no illusion here; offred constructs this states=ment as fact - questioning women’s rights to their bodies -modern resonance.

Alienated from the wet of the world like Japan. Stark contrast between the past, present and future e.g offred jumps between verb tenses as she inspires her audience to imagine the gymnasium across time periods. Past to reflect her own experiences: ‘the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone’ n the pluperfect tense: ‘we slept in what had once been the gymnasium’ which sparks a feeling of longing in readers and ‘we yearned for the future’ - track the development of time but ironically, Incarcerated living conditions does not support beneficial development- regressive= military - issue bedding and lined up cots

Question 2

Reproductive and productive roles 2.

Answer 2

Healthcare to enhance pregnancy only- formal expressions of reproduction are of public interest, including state-sanctioned tests for ‘urine, hormones, cancer smear, blood test (are) obligatory’ p59. Everything becomes centred around reproduction, including the beauty of flowers: ‘they’re the genital organs of plants”

Epigraph and ‘fruitful vs barren’ - intersectionality
Women performing either reproductive or productive activities; hms reproduce while the Martha’s produce within the household.

Reproduction may be secretive if hms do not quickly have children- may be impregnated by the doctor or other men, like nick, but do not get private control over the produced child: ‘we do have something in common: both of us are supposed to be invisible, both of us are functionaries” p232. In the HMT, giving an individual opportnties, such as the opportunity to reproduce w/other men is always of instrumental value.

Question 3

3. Instrumental value of women’ and reproduction in Jezebel’s

Answer 3

Com explains the dal relationship between production and an evening out w/women
‘ it stimulates trade…you can hardly do business without it.. you can overhear things too; information’ p237. Although women r not reproducing for children, their role in the men’s club is to reproduce info.

Question 4

Expressions of empowerment 4.

Answer 4

Mimetic desires can accelerate the imposter syndrome

Offred marvels at pregnant Janine: ‘she’s a magic presence to us what can still be done: we too can be saved’. Janine= paradigm exemplar of the ideal hm, implying that an empowered woman relates to her ‘successful’ reproductive role. ‘Every month I watch for blood..failure’ sends her further into complying with gilead’s dehumanising expressions.

‘Moira had power now, she’d been set loose, she’d set herself loose. She was now a loose woman’ p133. Statement has many implications. Offred contrast being ‘saved’ in the previous passage with ‘power’. Being ‘set loose’ may be opposite of a hm’s pregnancy; that pregnancy and process of conception itself, imposes requirements on the hm. 2. Shift from being ‘set loose’ to setting’ herself loose’. Moira is not at the whim of com, wife or aunts - had her own agency. 3. ‘Loose woman’ colloquial, vulgar slang for a sexually promiscuous woman, shifted readers’ image of women empowerment from a forced reproductive relationship w/ little power to multiple intimate powers and agency.

Don’t let the bastards grind u down

Question 5

5. Deconstruction of empowerment

Answer 5

Historical notes making fun and scientific lang used to divorce readers’ emotional investment in offred’s narrative

Question 6

Comparison to frank

Answer 6

Gendered stereotypes
Hubris and regulation
Irony
Reproduction