The Handmaid's Tale Part 7: Ratios
Feb. 17th, 2018 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastThis chapter is one in which we know it's a different day because there are different bodies hanging at The Wall. One of the bodies seems to be the priest or preacher of a different faith. Given bigotries that prevail even today, I would expect Gilead's wars to be especially fervent in their efforts to stamp out Catholicism.
Two other bodies are in Guardian uniforms and the signs hung around their necks state that they were killed for the crime of "Gender Treachery". By Offred's musings of how they might have been caught, we can take that phrase to refer to homosexuality. Today, we'd be more likely to consider the possibility that they were trans.
As a quick aside, my alternate-Gilead game wouldn't be that different from the Gilead we have. Today's religious right culture is filled with the possibilities of "fixing" gay people with "Reparitive Therapy". The Gilead that we have shows neither a sign of the presence of such programs nor a sign of its absence. I can readily believe that Gilead has such programs, but with little funding and, functionally, little value save as a carrot to hang before those accused of "Gender Treachery", to suggest that confessing and naming names would allow them to live and be "fixed".
But, such a program would be required to be very small, indeed, and with a readiness to execute those who haven't been sufficiently "cooperative". This would be a few tokens, enough to have somebody to present for propaganda purposes, not more than that. Reparations and forgiveness of crimes cannot be an element of how Gilead treats crime. Gilead needs executions far more than it needs crime-prevention.
It's very soon after we look at this that Offred explains that an Aunt told her that, in the future, there would be no need for Econowives. Econowives being one woman to do the work a wife, a martha, and a handmaid all at once.
Let's look at the household in which Offred lives. There's one Commander. He controls a wife, two Marthas and a handmaid. That's four women to one man. He's a high-ranking example, a rare case. But, other men, men with lower status, are afforded Econowives and there must be a range between. That means that Gilead needs a high ration of women to men. (And, that's not even getting into the Jezebel houses that we'll see later on.)
Nature does not provide this. Technically, more women are born than men, but by a number so small that it still rounds off to 50/50. Gilead households have, on average, probably two women to every man. The goal is to have that average up to three or even four women to every man. How do you achieve what nature will not provide?
One way is an endless war. Say, with other Christians (though, of course, they aren't really Christians, because we're the real Christians and if they really trusted the Bible and Jesus they'd join us), one that demands lives and sacrifice. But, that has its limits, particularly when you're rooting out entrenched survivors.
The FLDS Church (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormons) holds with multiple wives and has a strategy that results in what are called Lost Boys. That is, they either excommunicate or otherwise pressure young men to leave the bubble of the FLDS Church. Young women are rarely excommunicated. The result is not only that young men are shoved out into a world in which they have not been prepared to live, but a maintained ratio. The high-ranking members have more women for their wives without having to compete with the young men.
Exile and excommunication won't work for Gilead. That means that there must be another way. They can't do what other cultures have done and create Castrati or Eunuchs. It's just too counter to their ideology, the young men and their fathers wouldn't accept it.
Neither is some kind of expanded Hunger Games scenario in which, at a certain age, they're expected to kill each other until an appropriate ratio is reached... a Horny Games if you will. Not only would such an idea be fought, but there'd be too much possibility of the survivors not having the characteristics that you want (namely, commitment to Orthodoxy).
Luckily, Gilead has a two-birds one-stone situation. (Three birds if you include the person being executed.) That is, as I've previously noted, Gilead already has a greater need to punish crimes than it has to make sure that the punished are actually guilty. So, here Gilead has a solution.
By presenting this as crimes that need to be punished, Gilead invites its subjects to take part in the execution. If not physically, at least vocally and spiritually. In fact, Gilead requires that, because not being sufficiently supportive of the execution means earning the eye of suspicion for potentially sympathizing with the crime in question. This supports their power and gets rid of excess sperm producers.
If this seems chilling to you, if this seems like it reduces men to objects, and inconvenient objects at that, don't worry. That only means you are paying attention.
The second half of this chapter deals, primarily, with treating Offred as something similar. Offred gets to walk over to the shops to get the groceries, something she's envied by the Marthas no matter how she tries to ingratiate herself. They still treat the need to bathe her as just one more chore, one they'd rather be rid of because her being gone would mean that they might be able to take a walk.
And, there'd be more to be said on it if it wasn't more establishment of what's already been established. Gilead makes everybody into things... often things you're better off without.
Two other bodies are in Guardian uniforms and the signs hung around their necks state that they were killed for the crime of "Gender Treachery". By Offred's musings of how they might have been caught, we can take that phrase to refer to homosexuality. Today, we'd be more likely to consider the possibility that they were trans.
As a quick aside, my alternate-Gilead game wouldn't be that different from the Gilead we have. Today's religious right culture is filled with the possibilities of "fixing" gay people with "Reparitive Therapy". The Gilead that we have shows neither a sign of the presence of such programs nor a sign of its absence. I can readily believe that Gilead has such programs, but with little funding and, functionally, little value save as a carrot to hang before those accused of "Gender Treachery", to suggest that confessing and naming names would allow them to live and be "fixed".
But, such a program would be required to be very small, indeed, and with a readiness to execute those who haven't been sufficiently "cooperative". This would be a few tokens, enough to have somebody to present for propaganda purposes, not more than that. Reparations and forgiveness of crimes cannot be an element of how Gilead treats crime. Gilead needs executions far more than it needs crime-prevention.
It's very soon after we look at this that Offred explains that an Aunt told her that, in the future, there would be no need for Econowives. Econowives being one woman to do the work a wife, a martha, and a handmaid all at once.
Let's look at the household in which Offred lives. There's one Commander. He controls a wife, two Marthas and a handmaid. That's four women to one man. He's a high-ranking example, a rare case. But, other men, men with lower status, are afforded Econowives and there must be a range between. That means that Gilead needs a high ration of women to men. (And, that's not even getting into the Jezebel houses that we'll see later on.)
Nature does not provide this. Technically, more women are born than men, but by a number so small that it still rounds off to 50/50. Gilead households have, on average, probably two women to every man. The goal is to have that average up to three or even four women to every man. How do you achieve what nature will not provide?
One way is an endless war. Say, with other Christians (though, of course, they aren't really Christians, because we're the real Christians and if they really trusted the Bible and Jesus they'd join us), one that demands lives and sacrifice. But, that has its limits, particularly when you're rooting out entrenched survivors.
The FLDS Church (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormons) holds with multiple wives and has a strategy that results in what are called Lost Boys. That is, they either excommunicate or otherwise pressure young men to leave the bubble of the FLDS Church. Young women are rarely excommunicated. The result is not only that young men are shoved out into a world in which they have not been prepared to live, but a maintained ratio. The high-ranking members have more women for their wives without having to compete with the young men.
Exile and excommunication won't work for Gilead. That means that there must be another way. They can't do what other cultures have done and create Castrati or Eunuchs. It's just too counter to their ideology, the young men and their fathers wouldn't accept it.
Neither is some kind of expanded Hunger Games scenario in which, at a certain age, they're expected to kill each other until an appropriate ratio is reached... a Horny Games if you will. Not only would such an idea be fought, but there'd be too much possibility of the survivors not having the characteristics that you want (namely, commitment to Orthodoxy).
Luckily, Gilead has a two-birds one-stone situation. (Three birds if you include the person being executed.) That is, as I've previously noted, Gilead already has a greater need to punish crimes than it has to make sure that the punished are actually guilty. So, here Gilead has a solution.
By presenting this as crimes that need to be punished, Gilead invites its subjects to take part in the execution. If not physically, at least vocally and spiritually. In fact, Gilead requires that, because not being sufficiently supportive of the execution means earning the eye of suspicion for potentially sympathizing with the crime in question. This supports their power and gets rid of excess sperm producers.
If this seems chilling to you, if this seems like it reduces men to objects, and inconvenient objects at that, don't worry. That only means you are paying attention.
The second half of this chapter deals, primarily, with treating Offred as something similar. Offred gets to walk over to the shops to get the groceries, something she's envied by the Marthas no matter how she tries to ingratiate herself. They still treat the need to bathe her as just one more chore, one they'd rather be rid of because her being gone would mean that they might be able to take a walk.
And, there'd be more to be said on it if it wasn't more establishment of what's already been established. Gilead makes everybody into things... often things you're better off without.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-19 01:41 pm (UTC)Based on FLDS and similar societies, my theory is that the usual form of polygamy is merely a consequence of a tiny elite of men monopolizing all the power. While that type of society does reduce the other men and all women to objects, in the case of the latter they become symbols of the elite’s wealth and power, like a collection of expensive cars. The lower-status men become threats to the elite. From what I know of history, Orwell’s Goldstein was right that hierarchical societies have used ongoing warfare to squelch dissent, and perhaps the lower-status men sent off to fight were encouraged to rape women on the other side, as a substitute for competing for the elite’s women.
Treachery is a strange word in this context, because it suggests that Gilead viewed nonconformance to gender rules as a betrayal of trust rather than a simple rule violation.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-19 01:52 pm (UTC)But, even that has its limits.
I see two reasons for "Treachery" to be the word applied. One is that conservative Christians do have an expectation of gender-conformity and do tend to respond as though not living up is a grave crime.
The other is that they were looking for some word that already had emotional associations of criminality and just about any would do for that need, but some were eliminated. "Gender Murder" would quickly become silly when one thought about it.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-28 04:24 pm (UTC)Which in turn means that gender-nonconforming cisgender hetero folks would also be in danger--but we could already guess that.