'The Handmaid's Tale' Is More Than Fiction—It's a Dark Reminder of Slavery
So I find myself a little frustrated and jealous that my white feminist allies are able to digest The Handmaid’s Tale through the lens of a fictitious foreboding, instead of an alarming recount of a very real and dark past. It’s a privilege to be horrified and shocked by the imagery of this show. It likely means that you’ve never had to truly envision yourself as the victim of systematic oppression. The concept of being assaulted, caged, mentally and physically oppressed, and repeatedly sexually violated gets to be a fictional concept in your mind, not a part of your family’s history.
As I watch the show, I am flooded with thoughts of real African women who were kidnapped from their homes, treated and sold as property, separated from their families, and forced to live in shacks and work for no wages. These women were legally viewed as three fifths of a human, were not allowed to learn to read, and were mercilessly abused, both physically and verbally. And unlike the handmaids of this show, they were forced to give birth to children they knew would likely be condemned to the same tragic existence.
Yet, this analogy is being ignored in discussions about the show. A New Yorker article drew parallels between The Handmaid’s Tale and the Reagan era, as “a mightily perverse period for sexual politics.” And during a speech, Hillary Clinton addressed the politicians in Washington who are “attempting to roll back the rights and progress we have fought hard for over the last century.” But enslaved women were fighting for basic human rights and progress long before the twentieth century. And the failure to acknowledge those efforts is another example of the exclusion and erasure of the struggle of women of color, particularly black women in this instance, from the feminist history. At a time when all of our rights are at risk—we can no longer afford to ignore a restrictive feminist agenda that prioritizes and represents issues that squarely affect white women.
And despite all this, I still believe this show is valuable. It has served as an eye-opening experience that hopefully challenges us all to take actionable steps to ensure history never repeats itself. And as the dialogue around this show grows, it is also an opportunity to remind all feminists, despite race, to expand the feminist agenda to be inclusive and intersectional. Embrace the women who are standing beside you in this movement whose unique issues don’t necessarily apply to you. And as we take a unified approach to resistance, let the courage of women of the Suffrage March, the sexual revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the slave trade inspire and empower us all to keep fighting for equality.
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