Handmaids Tale

I did not enjoy The Handmaids Tale as much as I thought I was going to based on the films synopsis summary. There were parts of the film that I did enjoy and made very bold and intriguing statements. I enjoyed the theme of this dystopian film (not because women were oppressed and treated as second class citizens) but because of how the film shows how women in society are still treated with different standards and this film gave a futuristic reality of what gender discrimination and oppression could be. Without offending ones beliefs, the film also put a strong emphasis on how religion can be the cause of war through its extremist and fundamentalist of creating war and using propaganda to force its beliefs onto a society. The film uses the maids as symbolism for how woman (even to this day) are still seen as house cleaners, meal makers and baby producers. Woman are subjected to discrimination that might be equivalent for cases of the 15th century. Obviously the film is dystopian themed but I think that the filmmakers wanted to show rather than a typical government oppression based film, I believe that the clear intent was to showcase the societal standards and treatment of women but at an extreme, visual of how woman in the future are treated and are realistically not that different than the society that we live in today. For example, a maid explain how she was at a high school party, got drunk and was raped by six friends she said she knew well and then had to have an abortion. First, the fact that an abortion is still controversial is beyond me but the reaction of the crowd being shocked that after she was raped, she got an abortion because clearly a woman who is raped against her will, should carry that child to full term (sarcasm). Quickly, the crowd is encouraged by the Aunts that its her fault and that she is a whore in a collective chant. Even in this dystopian film, free thought and will is still banned and is a continuously popular theme. We see this every where whether it is on Facebook, at work, in a bar, etc that woman are often socially persecuted because rape is somehow her fault. This scene alone is one giant metaphor for the rest of the film and its message. What should disturb people that most is that regardless that it is a film, the fact that the film was produced back in 1990 and to this day we see these same problems. Although we have made progress, we haven't been able to fix society and cultural construction. Not even in the United States, but all over the world the oppression of women continue to get worse. Even in this dystopian film, free thought and will is still banned and is a continuously popular theme. I thought that even though the film was a little lackluster, I thought the message was strong and should be a must watch and not just in film courses.