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Rating: In 1985, according to Margaret Atwood, feminism was dead. The writer speaks of a future that today is not so distant and that to a reader of that period might have seemed very strange. A television series has been made from the novel, which has not yet ended.
So we are in the future. Pollution and atomic radiation have undermined the fertility of most women. The extinction of the human race is at stake. Wars are everywhere. In the United States, a fundamentalist sect takes over, creating a new nation called Gilead.
The regime is ruthless, and a handful of powerful and high-ranking men devise a way to overcome their women's infertility by bringing fertile young women into their homes. During the fertile period of the handmaid, under the supervision of the wives, the men will only engage in intercourse for reproductive purposes.
The entire series narrates the events of a passionate June, whose young daughter Anna is taken away. Society in Gilead is divided into castes, and all women have a "uniform." The color for the handmaids is red. Blue for the wives of powerful politicians and gray for the domestic workers, marthas. All actions are carried out in favor of God.
June is a rebel who, from being an emancipated woman, becomes a handmaid ready to fight incessantly against the regime. She is the narrator, and she will bring innovation and balance to ensure that things change.
Women attend schools where they are taught to obey men and stay in their roles. They cannot read, study, or work. In the end, women will emerge victorious in their only role that escapes men, namely, motherhood and the substantial solidarity among mothers who will eventually unite to fight the regime.
For about twenty years, a situation quite relevant to this work has been emerging. We are tired of being classified by age, appearance, or reproductive capacity. June and Serena, the two protagonists, strengthen their relationship, especially when they work together.
After decades of "feminism," men are regaining their power. Too much "competition," but above all, little interest in intelligence.
It is increasingly easy to find compliant and unscrupulous women, especially when it comes to money to satisfy men who do not want emotional involvement. We also have our uniforms like the women of Gilead…Teen, Milf, Gilf… or others that are invented.
I am happy to have lived in a world where friendship and gender equality were common ground.
The series is gripping in its continuous flashbacks that allow us to savor the evolutionary journey of all the characters.
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