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As we prepare for the new season of The Handmaid's Tale, join us in taking a look back at the previous seasons and the deeper meanings and symbolism they hold. In this video, we're unpacking...
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00:00Is America truly becoming Gilead?
00:02How much of The Handmaid's Tale's terrifying fiction
00:05has already come to pass?
00:07Maybe more than you think.
00:09We don't put anything in the show that hasn't happened somewhere.
00:12So everything, no matter how dark it is, it's happened.
00:15As the shock of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade
00:18spread through the U.S., many turn to comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale,
00:22the horrific dystopian series based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel
00:26about fertile women being turned into child-bearing slaves
00:30struck a nerve when it started airing in 2017
00:33as the election of Donald Trump suddenly made the story feel a little less far-fetched.
00:38The brilliance of Margaret Atwood's book, it's been relevant for over 30 years.
00:42It was relevant in 85 when it came out, and unfortunately it remains relevant now.
00:47But a few years later, The Handmaid's Tale's brutal, medieval-feeling Republic of Gilead
00:52seems downright possible here in the U.S.A.,
00:54and a lot sooner than we could have ever imagined.
00:56So let's look at what from the story has come true so far in the U.S.,
01:01and what hasn't... yet.
01:03Better never means better for everyone.
01:05It always means worse for some.
01:15In the Puritanical regime of Gilead, which takes over the U.S.A.,
01:18fertile women are turned into handmaids,
01:21raped by powerful men called commanders,
01:23and forced to give birth to babies who are taken away and placed with the commanders and their wives.
01:27All this sounds far too bleak to be imaginable in the U.S.,
01:31but elements of it are already happening in some states.
01:34Women being forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term?
01:38Check.
01:38Even if they're raped, or even still children themselves?
01:41Incredibly, yes.
01:43Unless they can afford to travel to a place where abortion's still legal.
01:46Some forms of contraception are even said to be next up on the anti-abortion agenda,
01:51and in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson,
01:55Women's Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe,
01:58that the court should reconsider Griswold v. Connecticut ruling,
02:01which declared the right to contraception as protected.
02:04No doubt taking away rights to contraceptives would substantially add
02:08to the unwanted pregnancies women could be forced to carry.
02:10In a Handmaid's Tale flashback of pre-Gilead USA,
02:14we see how our current state of affairs led to Gilead's status quo.
02:18Janine, a single mom struggling to make ends meet,
02:20can't afford a second baby and schedules an abortion
02:23at a place that actually turns out to be a crisis pregnancy center.
02:27I want to go through with it.
02:28That's why I'm here.
02:29Well, we don't do them here.
02:30What?
02:31What is this place?
02:32Somewhere we can help you understand what happens when you choose abortion.
02:36In today's America,
02:37countless of these anti-abortion centers use scary misinformation
02:40to talk people out of abortions.
02:42Abortion is dangerous.
02:44Collect women's personal information with no HIPAA obligation to keep it private
02:47and already outnumber actual abortion clinics in many areas.
02:52In the first episode of Handmaid's Tale,
02:54June and Emily walk by someone who's been hanged for working in an abortion clinic.
02:58While this isn't happening in the U.S.,
02:59people are being prosecuted for aiding abortions in any way
03:03in Texas, Idaho, and more states soon to follow,
03:05while women who've aborted or miscarried can even face criminal charges of murder.
03:10Within Gilead,
03:14same-sex relationships are outlawed,
03:16termed gender treachery,
03:18and brutally punished,
03:19sometimes with death.
03:21In the U.S. today,
03:21a record number of new laws across the country,
03:24like Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill,
03:25are targeting LGBT rights
03:27and restricting gay and transgender youth's access to protections
03:30and discussion involving their sexuality or identity.
03:33You're rejecting these concepts about choosing your gender.
03:37That is just inappropriate for our schools.
03:40And Clarence Thomas also wrote in his Dobbs opinion that the court should reconsider past cases
03:44Obergefell v. Hodges, which ruled the right to same-sex marriage is protected,
03:49as well as Lawrence v. Thomas, which ruled anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional.
03:53In other words, he's suggesting many states could revert to a time where same-sex marriage is no longer legal,
03:58and homosexuality is even criminalized.
04:01This is basically what we see happen in a Handmaid's Tale flashback
04:04when Emily and her wife are confronted by ICE agents
04:06who tell them that their marriage is all of a sudden no longer recognized.
04:10The document is no longer recognized.
04:12You are not married.
04:13It's forbidden.
04:17Gilead took control of the U.S. by bombing the White House,
04:20while a relatively small number of men with guns
04:22stormed the U.S. Capitol and declared martial law.
04:25It definitely seemed like nothing that could really happen until January 6, 2021.
04:38Evidence that Trump supported that event,
04:40as well as his blatant attempts to overrule the results of the 2020 Democratic election,
04:44backed by a significant portion of the Republican Party,
04:47make it clear that such a coup or seizure of power
04:49is more than possible in the U.S.'s near future.
04:55Gilead is ruled by a theocratic inner circle of male commanders with all the power.
05:00You are the misery of all men.
05:03All of you.
05:05In our current climate,
05:06an increasing number of political candidates
05:08are calling for end to separation of church and state.
05:11The Supreme Court is issuing decision after decision
05:13at odds with the majority wishes of the U.S. population,
05:16and gerrymandering across the country
05:18is ensuring that an ever-smaller percentage of voters
05:21are dictating who's elected,
05:22assuming those elections will even be respected.
05:25All of this makes Gilead's council of unelected men
05:28seem less and less unrealistic.
05:30America was not initially founded as an 18th century Enlightenment republic.
05:37It was initially a 17th century theocracy.
05:41Gilead's outlook is also inspired by historical precedents in the U.S.,
05:45like the Puritanism and witch trials in our 17th century roots
05:49and the rise of the Christian right in the 80s
05:51during the time Atwood was writing.
05:53That tendency keeps bubbling up in America from time to time.
05:59One of the most evil things Gilead does
06:02is to steal children from their parents,
06:04both newborns from the handmaids
06:06and older children from parents who are deemed unfit.
06:09Obviously, separating parents and their children could never happen here,
06:12except that it already has and is reportedly still happening.
06:15The Handmaid's Tale raises some terrifying ideas
06:18of what it could be like if the government were to expand criteria
06:21for taking children away on supposedly moral grounds.
06:25In one flashback, June is interrogated for giving her daughter medicine
06:28before sending her to daycare.
06:29Did you medicate her to bypass the school's fever policy?
06:34So you wouldn't have to miss work today?
06:36She's judged for working instead of staying home with her child.
06:39We have busy lives, but children are so precious.
06:43We have to make certain that they are in a safe home environment
06:46with fit parents.
06:48And she's ultimately deemed immoral
06:50because her husband was married to someone else
06:52when they first got together.
06:56In the days before Gilead,
06:58the world is undergoing a major fertility crisis.
07:01So God whipped up a special plague.
07:06The plague of infertility.
07:08And Gilead seizes on people's panic,
07:10pretending its policies are the only way to increase birth rates.
07:13You girls will serve the leaders of the faithful
07:17and their barren wives.
07:19You will bear children for them.
07:22The global birth rate has declined in our world, too,
07:25around 50% over the last 70 years.
07:27And in the U.S., the birth rate declined nearly 20% from 2007 to 2020.
07:32Whereas in Handmaid's Tale,
07:33it becomes physiologically impossible for most women to have children.
07:37In our world, there's a more complex mix of factors,
07:40like the increased cost of raising children,
07:42changing cultural standards,
07:44and people having families later.
07:45A new CDC report looks at fertility rates for women,
07:49finding families are getting smaller,
07:51and women are having babies later in life.
07:53Gilead's response is to remove all women's opportunities outside of childbearing
07:58and force them to have kids they don't want.
08:00In The Handmaid's Tale,
08:01Gilead also uses the climate crisis as a justification for its policies.
08:05They filled the air with chemicals and radiation and poison.
08:11And Margaret Atwood has said that women will suffer disproportionately
08:14as a result of climate catastrophes.
08:16In addition to hangings, or making women become handmaids,
08:23Gilead imprisons women who are seen as immoral,
08:26i.e. adulterous, or promiscuous, LGBT, or abortion patients,
08:30by sending them to the colonies,
08:32where they're exposed to life-threatening radiation
08:34and worked basically to death.
08:36Got to work!
08:37The Lord is my master.
08:39He is my strength and my sustenance.
08:41He's not here.
08:42This plot actually has a historical precedent in our country.
08:45In the early 1900s, during World War I,
08:48the American Plan locked up women thought to be promiscuous
08:51in order to protect soldiers from STDs
08:54or from being tempted by sex workers.
08:57And again, it's echoed in the initiative
08:58to criminally punish abortion patients.
09:03In its early days,
09:05Gilead takes away women's rights to hold jobs or own property,
09:08suddenly freezing all assets belonging to women.
09:11Women can't own property anymore.
09:13Luke can use your account.
09:14I'll transfer the money to him.
09:17Or, that's what they're saying,
09:18husband or male next to Kim.
09:20This is a key plot point that hasn't happened in the U.S.,
09:23but it's terrifying to imagine how effective that would be
09:25at immediately disempowering all women.
09:27You can't really predict the future,
09:30but you can speculate on what might be possible.
09:34And it's not inconceivable if you look at other countries in the world.
09:37Women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan
09:39are banned from working or receiving higher education.
09:41And according to the World Bank,
09:43as of 2019,
09:44women in half of the countries in the world
09:46are unable to assert equal land and property rights
09:48despite legal protections.
09:52In Gilead, women are forbidden from reading.
09:55A society in which women can no longer read your book.
10:00Or anything else.
10:01Today, unlike in some other countries,
10:04U.S. women's rights to education remain intact.
10:06But U.S. school curriculums and public libraries
10:09are seeing record numbers of challenges or bans of books
10:12dealing with topics like gender identity, racism, and sexuality.
10:16Politicians like Ron DeSantis and Harry McMaster
10:18objected to schools reading the book Genderqueer by Maya Kobabe,
10:22while Glenn Youngkin ran an ad featuring a parent upset
10:25that her teen son's class was reading Toni Morrison's Beloved.
10:28And Senator Ted Cruz took major issue with the book Anti-Racist Baby.
10:32Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids
10:35that babies are racist?
10:38Senator.
10:43In flashbacks to pre-Gilead USA,
10:45we see Serena Joy campaigning for Gilead's vision
10:48of women staying in the home as subservient wives and mothers.
10:52I'm blessed to have a home and a husband to care for and follow.
10:55This backstory is reminiscent of right-wing female personalities
10:58like Ann Coulter, Tommy Lahren, or Phyllis Schlafly,
11:01who gained platforms by promoting regressive gender ideas.
11:04Most recently, Amy Coney Barrett is the female addition to the Supreme Court
11:08who helped usher in the end of Roe v. Wade.
11:10Is Roe a super precedent?
11:12I'm answering a lot of questions about Roe,
11:14which I think indicates that Roe doesn't fall in that category.
11:17In The Handmaid's Tale, as soon as Serena has served her purpose
11:20helping the rise of the Gilead regime,
11:22she's cast aside and given none of the power she expected.
11:25So it's a reminder that if you campaign against the rights of all women
11:29or any minority group you belong to,
11:31you won't be the exception who escapes the consequences.
11:34There is no one less worthy of redemption than you.
11:42Other flashbacks to pre-Gilead US focus on June's mother, Holly,
11:45a feminist activist, and in those days,
11:47June isn't particularly political,
11:49or eager to follow in her mother's footsteps.
11:52But as she experiences the brutality and injustice of Gilead,
11:55June becomes a total rebel and badass.
11:58They should have never given us uniforms if they didn't want us to be an army.
12:01Showing that sometimes you don't know the power you possess
12:04until you're truly pushed to take a stand.
12:07You don't know what you're capable of until you have to do it.
12:09There are still countless crucial major differences
12:11that are keeping the US from becoming Gilead.
12:14But the fact that many of these comparisons actually do work is beyond scary.
12:19They're infinitely possible futures.
12:23Like June, so many are outraged by the decisions being made for us.
12:27But from that hurt comes the need to act to protect the country we love
12:31and want to be free for all.
12:33The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel,
12:37is a show about strong, dynamic women.
12:39But it's set in a world where women are enslaved,
12:42heavily restricted in what they say or do.
12:44So much of what we learn about these women
12:46has to be communicated through other means than dialogue.
12:50Let's take a look at the cinematic techniques.
12:52Framing, choreography, color, voiceover, music, and flashbacks
12:57that allow the show to include us in its characters' inner worlds
13:01as they confront the very wrong outer world that's closing in on them.
13:05Blessed are the meek.
13:07And blessed are those who suffer for the cause of righteousness.
13:15Closely framed shots of the show's female characters,
13:18particularly Elizabeth Moss's Offred,
13:20show the complex range of emotion experienced by these women.
13:24So we can see on her face when Offred is lying, sarcastic,
13:27or in deep emotional pain.
13:29Remaining close with them is a way of visually making us feel their emotions,
13:33what they're not able to say or express.
13:35I have found happiness, yes.
13:40The claustrophobic close-ups reinforce that they're trapped in Gilead
13:43just as they're trapped in the frame.
13:46Some of these shots place the women on the edges
13:48and in the corners of the frame, literally marginalizing them.
13:53And shots looking down on the women or putting them low in the frame
13:56emphasize their powerlessness.
13:58And the framing tells us it's not just the handmaids who are victims.
14:03Ivan Strahovski's Serena Joy, the commander's wife,
14:06is part of one of the leading families of Gilead,
14:09but the close-ups on her face mirror those of Offred.
14:12Even if one has a higher status, both are slaves,
14:15marginalized in the corner of the frame
14:17instead of central and actively in control of the composition.
14:20The contrast between the oppressed, terrified women in the close-ups
14:24and the obedient, efficient handmaiden army in the wide-angle shots is striking.
14:28And it shows how much humanity can be lost
14:30in the transition from personal to abstract collective.
14:35From valuing individual lives to valuing only the greater good.
14:40Many shots are also obscured in some way
14:42because we share in the handmaid's point of view.
14:45Things are hidden from us.
14:46We're denied information.
14:47Color functions to highlight the categories or roles the women are sorted into.
14:53A woman is quickly defined by the color she wears
14:55and reduced to that function.
14:57Forcing the women to wear different colors is a strategic move,
15:01keeping them apart and distracting them with internal rivalries.
15:05The fertile women, handmaids, wear red.
15:08Red symbolizes fertility and menstrual blood.
15:10And it sets these women apart as a prized rarity.
15:13Yet a woman wearing red is traditionally associated with desire
15:16and sin, like a scarlet woman or the Bible's Mary Magdalene.
15:20Little whores, all of them.
15:23And these connotations clash with the official rhetoric of devout sacrifice
15:27surrounding the handmaid's position.
15:29We aren't concubines.
15:31We're two-legged wombs.
15:33Against the oppressively desaturated gray world of Gilead,
15:36the handmaid's red stands out,
15:38just as these women stand out as the one vibrant life force
15:41that remains in this drab world.
15:43Red is also the color of the bloodshed that Gilead uses
15:46to keep the handmaids enslaved.
15:49And as an aggressive color of action,
15:51red can symbolize power and rebellion.
15:53Since they're the only fertile women,
15:54they still have a source of power.
15:56If they could band together,
15:58society couldn't kill all of them as Gilead,
16:00and perhaps most of the world is unable to procreate without them.
16:04Red's my color.
16:08Well, that's lucky.
16:09The name Offred, while literally a patronymic,
16:12of Fred referring to her commander,
16:15also sounds like of Red,
16:17which could be a hint that in the story
16:18she represents the universal experience
16:20of this red, abused, and eventually rebellious woman.
16:25The wife's turquoise,
16:26in contrast to the red of a Mary Magdalene,
16:29alludes to the blue garments of the pure Virgin Mary.
16:31The blue is symbolic of companionship,
16:34admiration, and loyalty.
16:36Yet it's sexless and muted,
16:38masking the dissatisfaction of a wife
16:40who's reduced to a virginal state.
16:42The red and blue contrast with each other,
16:44showing that the system is intentionally placing
16:46the wives and handmaids in opposition
16:48to keep all women down.
16:50Martha's unmarried, non-fertile women
16:52wear khaki green to blend into the background.
16:55They're viewed as servants,
16:56given little more respect than furniture.
16:58Ants, women who train and control the handmaids,
17:01wear brown.
17:02The browns reminiscent of military dress.
17:04And according to Atwood,
17:05the color was chosen to be vaguely reminiscent
17:07of Nazi Germany,
17:09which adds another layer
17:10to the subconscious foreboding we feel.
17:12Blessed are the meek, dear.
17:15So powerful.
17:19Men wear black,
17:20a universal color,
17:21which allows them to be viewed as more whole,
17:23not defined by a function.
17:25However, they are still dressed in uniform,
17:26so they're not entirely free either.
17:29No one is in a system like this.
17:32At the end of the last episode,
17:33offered remarks,
17:34They should have never given us uniforms
17:35if they didn't want us to be an army.
17:37Cleverly reversing the intent
17:39of the colored uniforms
17:40to reduce and separate the women,
17:42as the red of the handmaid's suffering
17:44has brought them together.
17:45The show and Gilead are full of contrasts,
17:49the stated,
17:50virtuous-sounding outer reality
17:52and the brutal inner one.
17:53Truth is filtered through
17:54the false embroidered vocabulary of the state.
17:56You are hereby sentenced
17:58to the common mercy of the state.
18:00And almost everyone we meet
18:01is a terrified slave
18:03who must praise
18:04the tyrannical totalitarian government.
18:06Because spoken words
18:07don't say what they mean,
18:09Offred's voiceover is crucial.
18:11I don't need oranges.
18:12I need to scream.
18:15Mimicking the feel of the novel,
18:17the narration reveals June's private mind,
18:19the only place where she is free.
18:21You want shopping?
18:22No, Nick.
18:23I'm going to knock back a few
18:24at the Oyster House bar.
18:25You want to come along?
18:26Yes.
18:27Her candid speech reminds us
18:28of the person she still is
18:30behind the facade.
18:31Educated, sarcastic, honest.
18:33And her blunt commentary
18:34can provide humor.
18:36Ten ways to tell
18:37how he feels about you.
18:39Number two.
18:40He keeps finding ways
18:41to accidentally run into you.
18:44In the very first episode,
18:45Offred's misjudging of Offglen,
18:47I kind of want to tell her
18:48that I sincerely believe
18:49that Offglen is a pious little shit
18:52with a broomstick up her ass.
18:54Under his eye.
18:55Under his eye.
18:56Helps us grasp how effective
18:57the world's strict regulation
18:59of speech and behavior is
19:00in separating the women.
19:02I always thought
19:03you were such a true believer.
19:05So are you.
19:06So freaking pious.
19:08They do that really well.
19:09Make us distrust each other.
19:10As we observe the choreographed,
19:13scripted world of Gilead,
19:14we're trained,
19:15like the Handmaids,
19:16to quickly perceive detours
19:18from the repeated rituals
19:19and expect these detours
19:22to receive punishment.
19:24And we wonder
19:24about the other Handmaids'
19:25true personalities
19:26hidden inside this cage
19:28of false behavior.
19:29Good day.
19:30Flashbacks to the women's pasts
19:33highlight the wrongness
19:34of the present.
19:35Here, the content
19:36of the past and present situations
19:38is drastically different.
19:39And so is the framing.
19:41In the present,
19:42the Handmaids are usually low
19:43in the frame
19:43or to the sides and corners,
19:45visually oppressed.
19:46In the flashbacks,
19:47June and Moira
19:48occupy the middle of the frame.
19:49These interplays
19:50between past and present
19:51help us grasp on a visceral level
19:53how much has changed
19:55and how these characters
19:56arrived where they are.
19:57The flashbacks resemble
19:58our world
19:59and show us
20:00how the nightmare evolves
20:01step by step
20:02from a place that we recognize,
20:04unsettling us
20:05with the understanding
20:06that this could
20:07all conceivably happen.
20:09When they slaughtered Congress,
20:10we didn't wake up.
20:11When they blamed terrorists
20:12and suspended the Constitution,
20:14we didn't wake up then either.
20:16Flashbacks also make us
20:17come to like,
20:18or at least pity,
20:19Serena Joy.
20:20Even though she's
20:21offered its enemy,
20:22we realize that she was
20:23a career woman,
20:24far smarter than her husband,
20:25who's now had to retreat
20:26into a domestic role
20:27that doesn't at all satisfy her.
20:29You don't need to worry about this.
20:30I promise.
20:31We've got good men working on it.
20:33Praise be.
20:34Even if she's a victim
20:35of her own ideology.
20:36Did you ever imagine
20:38a society like this?
20:39A society that has reduced
20:40its carbon emissions
20:41by 78% in three years?
20:43A society in which women
20:44can no longer read your book.
20:47From the information
20:48given us in flashbacks
20:49and other scenes,
20:50we gather that the Handmaids
20:51aren't just casualties
20:52of this new society.
20:53They're the foundation
20:55of Gilead's economy
20:56and existence.
20:57You think they want
20:58to trade oranges?
20:59Don't be an idiot.
21:00Gilead only has one thing
21:02to trade that anyone wants.
21:04Red tags.
21:05Offred and Wee
21:06start to realize that
21:07while the Handmaids
21:08have been reduced
21:08to a commodity,
21:09this means that Gilead
21:11will collapse
21:11if they all refuse
21:12to obey.
21:13The arc of the first season
21:18of Handmaid's Tale
21:19is Offred's journey
21:20from not being one
21:21of those people
21:21who protests and rebels
21:23There's a network.
21:25I don't know.
21:25I'm not that kind of person.
21:27No one is until they have to be.
21:29To stepping forward
21:30as the leader of a rebellion.
21:32We experience her transformation
21:33through camera and sound.
21:35Slow motion.
21:36She's...
21:36Her opinionated inner voice.
21:38My name is June.
21:39Music
21:40and specific framing
21:42and blocking.
21:43All of which helps us
21:43to see her reach
21:44her breaking point
21:45and understand
21:46why there is no other way.
21:48Close-ups allow us
21:49to sense her intensifying
21:50defiance and hatred
21:52of the Commander
21:52and Serena Joy.
21:54Contrasts between
21:55her facial expressions
21:56and her words
21:57I'm fine.
21:58Start to reveal
21:58the increasing falseness
22:00and daring of her dialogue.
22:02Here, Offred's close-up
22:03plus the point-of-view shot
22:04tell us exactly
22:05what she's thinking.
22:07While speaking words
22:07of calm and obedience,
22:09she's contemplating
22:10bloody murder
22:10of her captors.
22:12The visual calls back
22:12to the thoughts
22:13she shared with us
22:14in a previous voiceover.
22:15How hard would I have
22:16to press those shears
22:18into her neck
22:19before seeing blood?
22:21Here, the intense close-ups
22:22of her mouth and eyes
22:24convey her visceral disgust
22:25after she's kissed
22:26the Commander.
22:28The threatening score
22:29makes us feel
22:30constantly on edge.
22:32It saws at us
22:32like this world
22:33is constantly attacking Offred.
22:35But moments of other music
22:39in key scenes
22:40and often at the ends
22:41of episodes
22:42express Offred's inner world
22:44when it's out of joint
22:45with her outer.
22:46As if coming from within
22:48Offred's thoughts
22:49or memories,
22:50invigorating pop songs
22:51punctuate moments
22:52when we realize
22:53that she's still June inside
22:54and her hope
22:55is still alive.
22:56We get this for June's
22:57good feeling
22:58after the first time
22:59she plays Scrabble,
23:00only for the music
23:01to be abruptly cut out
23:02when she realizes
23:03Offglen has been replaced.
23:06After Offred's heartened
23:08by the secret message
23:09she finds
23:09from the previous Offred,
23:11the music is uplifting too
23:12while Offred walks
23:13in slow motion
23:14and behind her
23:15the other handmaids
23:16enter the frame
23:17and fall in step
23:18as if she's their leader.
23:19Lede de Bastardes
23:21Carver and Doran bitches.
23:22We are handmaids.
23:23With her bold voiceover,
23:25Offred reclaims
23:26the handmaid title.
23:27To her,
23:27being a handmaid
23:28now means being part
23:29of a community of women
23:30so strong
23:31that even the most
23:32inhuman conditioning
23:33won't stop them
23:34from being kind
23:35to each other.
23:36We again get hopeful music
23:37when Offglen or Emily
23:38steals a car
23:39and runs a man over
23:40and the music
23:41transforms the bloody scene
23:43which is sure
23:43to be swiftly punished
23:45into a moment
23:45of inspiration
23:46for Offred.
23:47And after Offred refuses
23:49to stone Janine,
23:50another slow motion moment
23:52to emphasize the gravity
23:53of her defiance,
23:54we again get her
23:55internal soundtrack
23:56as Nina Simone expresses
23:58how good it feels
23:59to start a revolution.
24:01In the final scene
24:02of the series,
24:03Offred is escaping
24:04the commander,
24:05escaping Gilead
24:06and for a second
24:07it even feels as though
24:08Offred is escaping
24:09the camera.
24:10When the camera lingers
24:11on an extreme close-up
24:12of Offred's red dress,
24:14we have the feeling
24:14that she's literally
24:15climbing out of the frame
24:17to where our eyes
24:18can't follow her.
24:19The very last song
24:20over the season finale
24:21and credits,
24:22Tom Petty's
24:22American Girl.
24:25Ironically reminds us
24:26that this story
24:27is after all
24:28set in the USA
24:29but it also alludes
24:30to Offred's
24:31unbreakable spirit.
24:33June's inner world
24:34has finally been expressed
24:35and the hope
24:36of rebellion
24:37is alive.
24:38With no characters
24:39able to act
24:40or speak freely,
24:41the inventive audiovisual
24:43world of The Handmaid's Tale
24:44allows us to witness
24:45women growing strong,
24:47rebelling,
24:47and expressing themselves.
24:49These techniques
24:50help us connect
24:51emotionally
24:51to this nightmare,
24:52to feel what
24:53these women feel
24:54in a world
24:55that treats them
24:55as less than human.
24:57Now I'm awake
24:58to the world.
25:03The Handmaid's Tale
25:04isn't just the story
25:05of a dystopian future,
25:07it's also an abstract,
25:09symbolic way
25:10of talking about the present.
25:12Season 2 of the show
25:13based on Margaret Atwood's novel
25:15makes it all the more brutal
25:16to imagine Gilead's militant theocracy
25:19based on sex slavery
25:20coming to pass
25:21in the future.
25:22And of course,
25:23there's another important discussion
25:25to be had
25:25about horrific abuses
25:26of women
25:27that are going on right now
25:28in our world.
25:29But outside of those questions
25:31of more literal parallels,
25:33we can also read
25:34The Handmaid's Tale
25:35as allegory
25:35for how gender relationships
25:37have long been codified
25:38in Western society.
25:40Atwood,
25:41a Canadian author
25:41who published the novel
25:43in 1985,
25:44was on some level
25:45reflecting the society
25:46she saw around her.
25:48And the show
25:49has updated the story
25:50to reflect underlying
25:52gender and class relationships
25:54in our world today.
25:55What kind of deeper points
25:57is it making
25:58about our present?
26:00A girl trapped in a box.
26:02She only dances
26:03when someone else opens the lid,
26:05when someone else winds her up.
26:11The color-coded women of Gilead
26:13correspond to types
26:15that women tend to be sorted into
26:17in our society.
26:18The clash between the wives
26:20and handmaids reflects
26:21the long-standing Madonna-whore complex,
26:23which separates women
26:24into two categories,
26:26virtuous but sexless,
26:28or sexy but sinful.
26:30The complex was named
26:31by Sigmund Freud,
26:32but splitting women
26:33into sacred Madonnas
26:34and degraded prostitutes
26:36has been around
26:37at least since the dawn
26:38of Judeo-Christian literature
26:39and art.
26:40The commanders in The Handmaid's Tale
26:42have made the Madonna-whore complex literal
26:44through the Virgin Mary Blue Wives
26:47and the Scarlet Red Handmaids.
26:49One category inspires affection
26:51and admiration,
26:52but not desire.
26:53The other is desired,
26:54but degraded and despised.
26:56The official rhetoric of Gilead
26:58denies that the handmaids are concubines.
27:01We aren't concubines.
27:02We're two-legged wombs.
27:04But the commanders tend to coerce
27:05their handmaids into illicit affairs,
27:08feeling the need to associate these red women
27:10with acts the commanders see as dirty.
27:12She's not well.
27:14I was well enough to suck your c**k.
27:16Or with very stereotypically sexy signifiers,
27:19like red lipstick,
27:20shaving legs,
27:21nightclubs,
27:22and showing skin.
27:24By our society's standards of beauty,
27:26the handmaids aren't more attractive
27:28than the wives,
27:29who are played by Hollywood beautiful actresses.
27:32But the men have put the handmaids
27:34into this category of sex object,
27:36while they've de-sexualized the wives.
27:39Don't.
27:40In our culture,
27:41many socially accepted ideals of attractiveness
27:44are believed to stem from perceived signifiers
27:47of fertility and reproductive health.
27:49Gilead shows a heightened version of this.
27:52The society is so obsessed with reproduction
27:54that many men appear to see
27:56only fertility itself as attractive.
27:59Look at you.
28:02My special girls.
28:04So beautiful.
28:07Meanwhile,
28:07the wives reflect problems
28:09with how our society pigeonholes married women,
28:12and especially mothers.
28:13At the end of the birth ritual,
28:15the wife steps in for the handmaid.
28:17This could symbolically represent
28:19the way that a woman immediately changes
28:21in society's eyes once she gives birth.
28:24The fertile, sexualized woman is cast aside,
28:27and the mother is now viewed
28:29as an entirely different person.
28:31You should hear Naomi Putnam.
28:33She goes on and on about how her baby
28:34keeps her awake at night.
28:36To complain about such a miracle.
28:38She should appreciate every moment.
28:40Modelled on the Virgin Mary,
28:42the wives become mothers without having sex,
28:45and this could reflect the way
28:46that mothers in our society
28:47are traditionally seen as pure and sexless.
28:51Interestingly, the commanders seem to allow
28:53more intellectual activity from the handmaids
28:56than from their wives,
28:58even though one of the wives' main duties
28:59is supposed to be companionship.
29:02The commander's first flirtations with Offred
29:04begin through playing Scrabble,
29:06while he refuses to let Serena play with him.
29:08Do you want to play?
29:10Love to.
29:10I have work to do.
29:12And in any case, you know the law.
29:14Yes, I do.
29:15But the moderate mental freedom
29:17that Fred allows Offred
29:19stems from the degree to which
29:21wit plays a pleasurable role in flirtation.
29:24Maybe I should let you in again.
29:29And sex may invite emotional confidences.
29:32How was your trip?
29:33I was in Mexico
29:34to coordinate a trade delegation.
29:37A lot of difficult personalities.
29:39You have no idea.
29:41The type of reading material
29:42Fred actually gives Offred,
29:44a beauty magazine,
29:45is a clue to just how much mental activity
29:48he wants from her.
29:49Ten ways to tell how he feels about you.
29:52Number one,
29:54he brings you small gifts.
29:56He encourages Offred to express herself,
29:59but by that he means to perform
30:00his image of the flirtatious bad girl.
30:03I'll have to be more careful.
30:05What's the fun in that?
30:07When he tells Offred,
30:08You don't have to be quiet here.
30:10You can be free.
30:11The irony, of course,
30:12is that she's not enjoying this at all
30:14and is hardly holding herself back
30:15from expressing pleasure.
30:17Meanwhile,
30:18when she expresses any true aspects of herself,
30:20this displeases him
30:22because it destroys the illusion
30:23that she's a plaything
30:25who only wants to worship and amuse him.
30:28So in their relationship,
30:29we see all the hallmarks
30:31of what it means to view someone
30:32as a sex object
30:33and how limiting that truly is.
30:36Women who are not a mother-slash-wife
30:39or a sex object
30:40wear a khaki green
30:41that blends into their surroundings,
30:44symbolizing that these women
30:45are invisible to the man
30:47at the center of this structure.
30:49And that reflects the way
30:50that our society does tend to marginalize women
30:53who are past childbearing age
30:55or not deemed sexually desirable.
30:57Meanwhile, the ants in Brown
30:59take on a more masculine role,
31:01getting respect in official situations
31:03only through becoming completely defeminized.
31:06Aunt Lydia,
31:07who struggles with harming the girls
31:08she does secretly love,
31:10represents those women
31:11who feel they must betray their sex
31:13or not act like a woman
31:15in order to hold power.
31:17All women in the show
31:18are seen and color-coded
31:20in relation to the powerful Commander,
31:23who doesn't see women as whole people.
31:25Instead, he sees women
31:26only as their function
31:28in relation to him.
31:30Everybody answers to God.
31:31And you answer to me.
31:36And to maximize efficiency,
31:38he uses multiple women
31:39to provide what he needs
31:41from the female gender.
31:42This kind of thinking,
31:44separating women into categories
31:45and reducing them to functions,
31:47is a long-standing problem
31:49we can clearly link to gender imbalances
31:51in our society today.
31:53The Gilead structure
31:57doesn't actually benefit most men,
32:00only a few men in the ruling elite.
32:02This whole structure exists
32:04to make a very small number
32:05of prominent men feel important.
32:08And this is also true
32:09in actual societies
32:11where women are more oppressed.
32:13Regular men,
32:14like Nick or Luke,
32:15are more free
32:16when women are also free.
32:18Doesn't she look beautiful?
32:19Yes, sir.
32:24The commanders,
32:24with their systems of exploitation,
32:27are able to come to power
32:28by feeding on fertility panic.
32:30Before their takeover,
32:31we see that American society
32:33was becoming paranoid
32:34over reproduction
32:35and the health of children.
32:37Did you medicate Hannah
32:38this morning to lower her fever?
32:40She was just a little warm,
32:41so I gave her some Tylenol.
32:42Did you medicate her
32:43to bypass the school's fever policy?
32:46And Gilead demonstrates
32:47that when a society
32:48becomes so obsessed
32:49with reproduction above all else,
32:51women especially,
32:52but almost all citizens,
32:54become less free.
32:55Citizens have more freedom
32:57in societies
32:57that don't sacrifice
32:58everything else
33:00for the sake of childbearing.
33:01Societies that culturally
33:02accept lifestyles,
33:04including things like
33:05delayed marriage,
33:06same-sex partnerships,
33:07a work-life balance
33:08for mothers,
33:09and so on.
33:09These scenes showing
33:10the rise of Gilead
33:11are highlighting
33:12that there is a direct link
33:13between more reproductive choice
33:15and more freedom
33:16for everyone.
33:19Gilead pits women
33:23against each other.
33:24Her fault.
33:26Her fault.
33:26Her fault.
33:27But it's not as if
33:28this kind of conflict
33:29really appears so foreign to us.
33:32It's taking forever.
33:34Is it breech, dear?
33:35Did you hear that word?
33:37No, ma'am.
33:38If we strip away
33:39the dystopian context,
33:40there are a number
33:41of familiar things
33:42we recognize about this scene.
33:45Would you like a cookie, dear?
33:46You shouldn't spoil them.
33:48Sugar is bad for them.
33:49Higher-class women
33:50condescend to the lower-class woman,
33:53as if she's mentally inferior to them,
33:55treating her like a child.
33:57Oh, isn't she well-behaved?
34:00They criticize her sexual purity
34:02because,
34:03despite their privilege
34:04and power over her,
34:05they also feel threatened
34:06by her youth and fertility.
34:08Little whores, all of them.
34:11As the story goes on,
34:12we can see that class
34:13is just as much of a divide
34:15as gender.
34:16I'm clean now.
34:17I got a safe place
34:18to sleep every night
34:19and have people who are nice to me.
34:21And I want to keep it that way.
34:22As Offred bonds together
34:24with her fellow handmaids,
34:25the story subtly implores women
34:27to help each other,
34:28and at least not to add
34:30to each other's burdens.
34:32Friends don't stone
34:33their friends to death.
34:35But we don't really see
34:36that kind of bonding
34:37happening much
34:38across class lines.
34:40Higher-class women
34:41willingly participate
34:42in the oppression
34:43of the lower-class women
34:44for their own benefit.
34:46She bit you?
34:47You know how they get.
34:48I'm just counting the days
34:49until Angela's weaned
34:50and that girl is out of my house.
34:53Which sadly feels accurate
34:55to viewers.
34:56On the political level,
34:57The Handmaid's Tale
34:58warns us to be vigilant
35:00against the small, gradual
35:02taking away of our rights
35:03and the cloaking of evil things
35:05in virtuous-sounding language.
35:07You are sentenced to redemption.
35:09On the personal level,
35:11the show is asking us
35:13to look a little closer
35:14at our own behavior
35:15and ask how we might fit
35:17into the structures
35:18of our society,
35:20in which the phenomena
35:21we're talking about here
35:22are less extreme
35:23but still very much present.
35:25We should do the hard work
35:26of examining how we relate
35:28to others
35:28and whether we're supporting
35:30oppressive power dynamics
35:31more than we realize.
35:33Whether the story
35:34might be speaking to a man
35:36who puts women into categories,
35:37a woman who doesn't help
35:39other women,
35:40or a person of privilege
35:41who thinks of others
35:42as less than.
35:43The message is that
35:44bad things happen
35:45when we don't treat all people
35:47as whole individuals
35:49worthy of respect
35:50and compassion.
35:51Regardless of how you read
35:53The Handmaid's Tale,
35:54as a possible future,
35:56a literal fictional nightmare,
35:57or an exaggeration of class
35:59and gender relationships
36:00in Western society,
36:02the story urges us
36:03to be brave
36:04and keep hope alive
36:06even when we feel powerless
36:07to change what we don't like
36:09in the world.
36:10We can't always win
36:11but it's still worth it
36:12to be kind,
36:13to stand up for ourselves
36:15and to do the right thing.
36:17That is how we stay human.
36:19It's not worth it.
36:21Yeah, it is.
36:23That's the take.
36:24Click here to watch a video
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