Similarities Between The Handmaid's Tale And Dr Strangelove

Kaitlin Turner­Simotics Ms. Harrington

Grade 10 English August 26th, 2014 Word Count: 794

The Portrayal of Women and Feminism in The Handmaid’s Tale and Dr. Strangelove

Ideas of feminism and women’s liberation have been around since the early 19th century. There are a plethora of feminist movements and ideologies essentially aimed towards claiming and defending social, economic, cultural, and political equality for women. Feminists have a strong belief that neither sex is inherently better than the other and that women are just as perspicacious as the reputed “superior sex”. Throughout the years many authors and filmmakers have created their work with the feminism movement in mind and have even incorporated the basic ethos of feminism into their

Offred describes a dystopian society that is completely controlled by men to the reader.

The way women in The Handmaid’s Tale are portrayed is rather limited. Most women are portrayed as man­haters. A good example of this are the Aunts that work alongside the men in this dystopian society to essentially brainwash the handmaids and instruct them on how to be slaves to the men. Aunts are very satirical characters as they are used to portray what an anti­feminist man would think of modern day feminists. Both Aunts and Wives generally sided with men and mistreated/objectified handmaids throughout the entirety of the novel.

The only characters in The Handmaid’s Tale that shine a light on women in a positive way and/or represent women’s empowerment in any way, shape, or form are Offred’s mother, and Moira. Gradually through the novel we discover that Offred’s mother is a single mother by her own choice. This justifies the idea that Offred’s mother was an incredibly independant woman. On page 120 in the novel we see a passage explaining how Offred’s mother did not listen to her friends telling her about how “lonely” it is to be a single parent along with a slew of other advice regarding birth