Oct 13, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
One of our wonderful Year 12 pupils delivers her views on the novel, exploring some of our current context of reception.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is an eye-opening and somewhat horrifying dystopian fiction following a suppressed young woman who has had her freedoms ripped away from her and metaphorical shackles locked around her.
She, along with many other women in Gilead, were forced to wear a floor-length red gown and white headdress shielding her face and body, is forbidden from singing, laughing, and speaking freely.
Her sole job is that of a breeding machine to supply life and bodies to the men she is a slave to.
She cannot attend school, seek abortive care at risk of death, or even stimulate her bored mind with reading or writing.
But at least it's only a story, right? At least it's not real? Wrong.
Today, in Afghanistan, women are legally forced to cover their bodies from head to toe with even their eyes hidden from view.
Sounds a lot like a certain red dress to me.
If you remove the coloring, they're practically identical.
They cannot speak, they cannot sing, they cannot leave their homes or the country without male permission, and are forbidden from schooling and healthcare.
The USA overturned Roe v.
Wade in 2023, nullifying women's right to access certain reproductive care, and the current twad wife-- trad wife epidemic in the US has both men and women advocating for the women to be removed from the workplace, lose their right to vote, and remain at home.
The problems discussed within this novel are much closer than you'd think.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is an eye-opening and somewhat horrifying dystopian fiction following a suppressed young woman who has had her freedoms ripped away from her and metaphorical shackles locked around her.
She, along with many other women in Gilead, were forced to wear a floor-length red gown and white headdress shielding her face and body, is forbidden from singing, laughing, and speaking freely.
Her sole job is that of a breeding machine to supply life and bodies to the men she is a slave to.
She cannot attend school, seek abortive care at risk of death, or even stimulate her bored mind with reading or writing.
But at least it's only a story, right? At least it's not real? Wrong.
Today, in Afghanistan, women are legally forced to cover their bodies from head to toe with even their eyes hidden from view.
Sounds a lot like a certain red dress to me.
If you remove the coloring, they're practically identical.
They cannot speak, they cannot sing, they cannot leave their homes or the country without male permission, and are forbidden from schooling and healthcare.
The USA overturned Roe v.
Wade in 2023, nullifying women's right to access certain reproductive care, and the current twad wife-- trad wife epidemic in the US has both men and women advocating for the women to be removed from the workplace, lose their right to vote, and remain at home.
The problems discussed within this novel are much closer than you'd think.
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