I watched the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale with my friend, one July night, and we sat in complete silence for a while after we finished the episode. It took us weeks to get the courage to watch the second episode because we were so affected by what we saw in the pilot. As young women living in an increasingly polarized country, with a leader who has little respect for anyone who isn’t white and male, we found it horrifying to watch a world in which women are completely dehumanized, men have control of their wives, and everyone’s freedom is brutally and rapidly taken away.
The show revolves around the life of a handmaid, Offred. In the first episode, she is forcibly removed from her previous life with her husband and daughter and stripped of her identity. Because reproduction rates had decreased significantly, the new regime forces handmaids like Offred to move in with an infertile couple to have a child for them. The handmaids lose everything and have no other purpose in their world than to reproduce and repeat.
Seeing these women’s worlds unravel seems eerily like the America we live in today. Although our fear can’t be compared to the suffering of the handmaids (and reproduction rates are not on the decline), the systematic deconstruction of a democratic regime into a theocratic male-dominant oligarchy in their world does not feel as implausible as it used to. Congress seems intent on stripping women of our reproductive rights and attacking Planned Parenthood and other nonprofit organizations women use for a host of services. Trump threatens the legal rights of LGBTQ people every day in this country, especially of transgender people serving in our military. And he speaks horribly about women, using language unheard of by any governmental official, let alone the President. Trump uses divisive and coded language to describe Americans who fall into any category other than white male when they challenge authority, speak up for their rights, or simply demand equal treatment under the law.
Although our world isn’t in danger of seeing this kind of terror, I still view The Handmaid’s Tale as an important reminder to everyone. The first scene of The Handmaid’s Tale is filled with women who look just like us—modern women with independent lives. By the end of the first episode, those same women are oppressed and controlled by despotic leaders who resemble men in the current administration. We must continue to resist.