Been thinking about Margaret Atwood a lot lately. Partly because she’s wonderful and amazing. But mostly because all the talk of contraception and women’s health in the news lately has me revisiting the terror that is The Handmaid’s Tale. Every time I read it, I am left with a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I imagine it’s what cave man felt while hiding from a saber tooth tiger; crouching in the dark listening to a monster outside waiting to come and rip your loincloth off.
When I see stories like this, this and this, I can’t help but panic a little. I believe that this country will always be divided on abortion and contraception, but as long as women still have a choice, I’m ok with a dialogue on the issue. But when the Susan Komen Foundation stripped funding for Planned Parenthood, and when it’s “rumored” that the move was motivated by conservative leaders; that’s a whole other level of dirty politics. Men like Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and their conservative cronies are making names for themselves by focusing their campaigns on “traditional” values – most of which hinge on returning to a day when women knew their place was barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
Punishing women for the audacity of using birth control, for daring to want jobs and educations, for having the gall to have and express ideas and thoughts, and the wantonness to admit to having sexual desires – that’s what life in Gilead is about. And when I read comments made by Santorum, Ginirich, Perry and others lately I’ve been flashing to Atwood’s words. And that feeling of terror has been creeping back.
Some say The Handmaid’s Tale is a cautionary tale of what happens to a society that strays from traditional values and let’s women run amok. To me though, the scary thing about life in Gilead is how close some would have us to that world.
No comments:
Post a Comment