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wingedbeastThe theme for Chapter Five is fantasies.
There's a memory of back when there was still America. Our main character was still June and she and her husband would walk down a well-to-do neighborhood and talk about how, some day, they would buy a house there. They knew it wouldn't happen, not on their combined income. But, it was fun to dream, to imagine.
That neighborhood that she and her husband would walk down is now this market area where she and her partner, Ofglen, are walking to shop for groceries. The markets aren't marked by lettered signs, but by things like a wooden porkchop or pictures. Reading is tightly controled in Gilead.
Offred notices a lack of whistling and catcalling, what we now call street harassment and that sparks a different memory of an Aunt saying "There is freedom to and freedom from". This is the Aunt acknowledging that, yes, women are not free in this country. But, allegedly, they're safer. "Freedom from"
The lack of street harassment would seem to be the fulfillment of that "Freedom From", the claim that the lack of freedom at least offers them safety... And that leads down a couple lines of reasoning.
Firstly, there's the question of why street harassment is bad. It's not just annoying. It carries a threat. Even the nicest attempt, the one that's "just paying a compliment", carries an unspoken (and, yes, unintended, we're all well aware) threat of violence. Even short of that, it puts a woman in the position of having to have the perfect response, one that doesn't lead them on, doesn't aggress at them, doesn't seem too indifferent. Oh, and by the way, what it takes to achieve one of those will, itself, make sure you fail at the others.
But, how do they live right now? Well, they have to take pains to put on the act of moral perfection, the good and happy (insert role here). The violence is all around them, the threat inherent in every instance and not taken as worth much opposition (see the Martha who was shot to death in the last chapter). Oh, and the rape is institutionalized.
Secondly, are they really freer from extra-legal rape and murder than before?
My guess would be no. Later on, we'll have another memory of Offred's time with the Aunts and it will involve a woman being blamed for her own rape. That blame won't follow questioning or investigation that leads along that path. The woman says she was raped and the immediate response is to come up with reasons why that was her own fault. That speaks to how safe any woman in Gilead would be coming forward about having been raped.
There's also the segregation of the sexes. Men and women are kept distinctly apart from each other, cutting off the opportunity for young men and boys to personalize women, rather than objectify. That objectification might explicitly be steered toward the "on a pedestal" type of objectification, but that's still objectification and doesn't leave much for those women who don't readily fit onto that pedestal.
On top of being objects, they're also status symbols. They're things that men of power use for reasons ranging from household chores to making babies to having sex. And, there's a common means of rebellion that involves using the stuff of someone with power... or a common power move of using the stuff of someone with less power.
And, the woman so-used is immediately tainted by that use, therefore less likely to come forward and, if she were to come forward, less likely to have people in power care much about how she was used.
So, what is presented as a loss of freedom in exchange for absolute safety from all the violence and disrespect is actually a fantasy. Because, it's not exactly like any of the women can point out, to any of the men, "oh, hey, this purchase you forced onto me, the product isn't any good. I'd like my freedom back, or at least store credit."
It's a fantasy not of all the men, but certainly of those in power, that getting everything they wanted is actually good for everybody who have been reduced to "things that are wanted", a category not limited to the women of Gilead. And, that's an enforced fantasy. You can't safely point out the lack of agreement with reality. The very act would make you an enemy of Gilead, which both runs on and is bound by that fantasy.
That's why, when asked if she is happy in front of foriegn visiters, Offred has to say that she is.
It's an entire society telling people that they'd be so much more pleasing if they smiled.
To finish off, a point of how Gilead would be different if the "revolution" happened today, rather than in the 1980's. In this chapter, the University is shut down. This may have been due to the strong anti-intellectual bent in conservative Christianity at the time that Atwood wrote this book. That's certainly there. But, it's also met with a number of conservative Christian colleges, places of learning that offer a certainty that, if you come here, you will learn but not risk being transformed into someone who might not like the culture.
If the events that made Gilead were to happen today, I'm certain that those Universities would not be shut down, especially those of highest prestige. They would have their professors replaced, however. In the stead would be the altered history of David Barton. Biology texts would reference the death of Charles Darwin's daughter as a motivation for his hatred of God.
They'd be there. The teachings would make their students the laughing stock of the respective disciplines, but they'd be there, just to keep saying that the can be smart, too guys!
There's a memory of back when there was still America. Our main character was still June and she and her husband would walk down a well-to-do neighborhood and talk about how, some day, they would buy a house there. They knew it wouldn't happen, not on their combined income. But, it was fun to dream, to imagine.
That neighborhood that she and her husband would walk down is now this market area where she and her partner, Ofglen, are walking to shop for groceries. The markets aren't marked by lettered signs, but by things like a wooden porkchop or pictures. Reading is tightly controled in Gilead.
Offred notices a lack of whistling and catcalling, what we now call street harassment and that sparks a different memory of an Aunt saying "There is freedom to and freedom from". This is the Aunt acknowledging that, yes, women are not free in this country. But, allegedly, they're safer. "Freedom from"
The lack of street harassment would seem to be the fulfillment of that "Freedom From", the claim that the lack of freedom at least offers them safety... And that leads down a couple lines of reasoning.
Firstly, there's the question of why street harassment is bad. It's not just annoying. It carries a threat. Even the nicest attempt, the one that's "just paying a compliment", carries an unspoken (and, yes, unintended, we're all well aware) threat of violence. Even short of that, it puts a woman in the position of having to have the perfect response, one that doesn't lead them on, doesn't aggress at them, doesn't seem too indifferent. Oh, and by the way, what it takes to achieve one of those will, itself, make sure you fail at the others.
But, how do they live right now? Well, they have to take pains to put on the act of moral perfection, the good and happy (insert role here). The violence is all around them, the threat inherent in every instance and not taken as worth much opposition (see the Martha who was shot to death in the last chapter). Oh, and the rape is institutionalized.
Secondly, are they really freer from extra-legal rape and murder than before?
My guess would be no. Later on, we'll have another memory of Offred's time with the Aunts and it will involve a woman being blamed for her own rape. That blame won't follow questioning or investigation that leads along that path. The woman says she was raped and the immediate response is to come up with reasons why that was her own fault. That speaks to how safe any woman in Gilead would be coming forward about having been raped.
There's also the segregation of the sexes. Men and women are kept distinctly apart from each other, cutting off the opportunity for young men and boys to personalize women, rather than objectify. That objectification might explicitly be steered toward the "on a pedestal" type of objectification, but that's still objectification and doesn't leave much for those women who don't readily fit onto that pedestal.
On top of being objects, they're also status symbols. They're things that men of power use for reasons ranging from household chores to making babies to having sex. And, there's a common means of rebellion that involves using the stuff of someone with power... or a common power move of using the stuff of someone with less power.
And, the woman so-used is immediately tainted by that use, therefore less likely to come forward and, if she were to come forward, less likely to have people in power care much about how she was used.
So, what is presented as a loss of freedom in exchange for absolute safety from all the violence and disrespect is actually a fantasy. Because, it's not exactly like any of the women can point out, to any of the men, "oh, hey, this purchase you forced onto me, the product isn't any good. I'd like my freedom back, or at least store credit."
It's a fantasy not of all the men, but certainly of those in power, that getting everything they wanted is actually good for everybody who have been reduced to "things that are wanted", a category not limited to the women of Gilead. And, that's an enforced fantasy. You can't safely point out the lack of agreement with reality. The very act would make you an enemy of Gilead, which both runs on and is bound by that fantasy.
That's why, when asked if she is happy in front of foriegn visiters, Offred has to say that she is.
It's an entire society telling people that they'd be so much more pleasing if they smiled.
To finish off, a point of how Gilead would be different if the "revolution" happened today, rather than in the 1980's. In this chapter, the University is shut down. This may have been due to the strong anti-intellectual bent in conservative Christianity at the time that Atwood wrote this book. That's certainly there. But, it's also met with a number of conservative Christian colleges, places of learning that offer a certainty that, if you come here, you will learn but not risk being transformed into someone who might not like the culture.
If the events that made Gilead were to happen today, I'm certain that those Universities would not be shut down, especially those of highest prestige. They would have their professors replaced, however. In the stead would be the altered history of David Barton. Biology texts would reference the death of Charles Darwin's daughter as a motivation for his hatred of God.
They'd be there. The teachings would make their students the laughing stock of the respective disciplines, but they'd be there, just to keep saying that the can be smart, too guys!
no subject
Date: 2018-01-30 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-31 12:45 am (UTC)I contend that what the Aunt pitched is the fantasy of the power structure in Gilead. They are the powerful and their expression of power is to enforce the acting out of their fantasy. Part of their fantasy is that the women involved are happy for it.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-30 10:58 pm (UTC)Question...why do the men of Gilead go along with this system? From what I can tell,a few of the ordinary men (as opposed to the leaders) have Econowives who are basically housewives--they do the work of Wives, Handmaids and Marthas. But most of the men aren't getting any sex at all (including same-sex relationships and masturbation, which of which are forbidden).
As near as I can figure, the only ones who are benefiting from Gilead are the male leaders. I'm at a loss to figure out why none of the bodyguards or Eyes murder the creepy old guys in their beds out of sheer frustration.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-31 12:50 am (UTC)That's part of it. This is a topic that might get more involved later on. But, there's a big element of "here I am and it's not like I can be a revolution all by myself and if I were to try to form one, who could I trust and it's just easier just to believe what they tell us."
Another element is that this is Southern Strategy. This society creates a world in which the lowest of men is of higher station (and of greater inherent worth) than the greatest of women. And, that gives an easy go-to for a rush of superiority of one sense or another, not uplifting themselves but relatively doing so by pushing others down.
And, for the younger, more relevant to this particular post, there is the fantasy that they've mostly grown up in. It's been enforced upon them all their lives. To do otherwise is to break the fantasy.
All that, of course, on top of the promise of, eventually meriting wives and Marthas and, if the wives don't bare fruit, Handmaids of their own.