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| Lindsay Kaplan ENG 38b David Bottorff April 7, 2004 Girls Gone Wild Feminist Paranoia and Oppression in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale Bran Nicol argues that the realization that one "cannot achieve absolute knowledge has not wiped out the desire for it. The result frequently manifests itself as a kind of paranoia: a desperate desire to make sense of what [one] knows does not make sense" (Nicol, 44). This lack of knowledge drives paranoid individuals to associate their pet conpiracy with a mysterious other, a connection especially conspicuous in women's paranoia. Whether it is a striking rapist in the dead of night, diehard pro-life advocates, or the entire Republican Party, women believe that their paranoia is always justified. After all, feminism itself is a reaction to a common perception of a society that is exceedingly patriarchal. However, in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, it is actually the women who eagerly oppress other women. Women take their inferiority complexes and translate them into passive aggressive anger directed at their own gender. By denying their own malicious will to oppress others, these women put the blame on their own feminist conspiracy theory, also known as the male sex. Therefore, the patriarchal paranoia which feminists insist plagues modern woman is often times perpetuated by these feminists themselves. Atwood's protagonist, Offred, naturally fears the Commander and the Angels, with their guns and their phallus. As a woman, Offred cannot acknowledge the truth-- that women are actually doing the oppressing -- for it inconceivable to her, and therefore her paranoia is turned upon men. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, feminism "is one of the worst developments of the general uglification of Europe" (Nietzsche, 162). Though one might argue that Nietzsche was a chauvinist who promoted misogyny, one cannot deny the fact that he is widely known as the father of psychoanalysis. If Freud's material is acknowledged in paranoia studies, then Nietzsche must certainly also be considered for his valuable incite on women's behavior in regards to men and towards each other. He argues that the liberated self-reliant woman as such is the ultimate downfall of society. Because these women do not take their own will to power into account, they react to their slave mentality by trying to gain the upper hand over men. Unfortunately, if biology is not recognized as destiny than self-respect retrogrades. Modern woman cannot even begin to strive for equality of the sexes before she realizes her physical position as a human. In The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood makes it clear that society does, indeed, recognize woman's position as the weaker, childbearing sex. However, rather than denying this inadequacy like our society does, this dystopic population chooses to take advantage of women and call it progress. Women, namely the Aunts, train other women to be mere birthing devices, to think that their role is both necessary and noble. ''For generations that come after, Aunt Lydia said, it will be so much better. The women will live in harmony together . . . There can be bonds of real affection . . . under such conditions. Women united for a common end!" (Atwood, 161) Barbara Ehrenreich does not see Atwood�s dystopic society of oppressed females as anything much different from the past, because "century after century, women have been complicit in their own undoing" (Ehrenreich, 35). Like Atwood's sadistic Aunts, ''it was women who bound their granddaughters' feet, women who turned over their little girls for clitoridectomies, and often even women who denounced their neighbors as witches" (Ehrenreich, 35). Although the development of feminism has brought about more awareness in female persecution, it is mostly directed towards oppressive men. Feminists use paranoia as a unifying force to bond women together, to integrate all women into their plans by using fear to drive them away from men and seek refuge with other women. "Since the early 1970s, the [radical] strand of feminist thought has tended to see all of history as a male assault on women and, by proxy, on nature itself" (Ehrenreich, 33). This extreme feminist separatism is advocated by the Aunts, who choose see the future, if all goes by plan, as perfect as a panoramic Thomas Kinkade painting. Helping one another in their daily chores as they walk the path of life together, each performing her appointed task. Why expect one woman to carry out all the functions necessary to the serene running of a household? It isn�t reasonable or humane. Your daughters will have greater freedom. We are working towards the goal of a little garden for each one, each one of you -- the clasped hands again, the breathy voice -- and that's just one for instance. The raised finger, wagging at us. But we can't be greedy pigs and demand too much before it's ready, now can we? Atwood, 162 These radical women feel that they must create a culture of their own, a society that they envision "as intrinsically loving, nurturing, and in harmony with nature" (Ehrenreich, 35). If they should do not succeed, they fear they will be driven back to "servitude as breeders and scullery maids, or else, when reproductive technology is refined enough to make wombs unnecessary, being eliminated altogether" (Ehrenreich, 34). The Aunts want their ideal world so badly that they are willing to sacrifice other women in order for their goals to be achieved. But it is not just the Aunts who are so malevolent. In fact, all of the subjugated women treat each other just as horribly. Although Offred and one of the household's servants, Rita, were both forced into their positions, Rita refuses to show sympathy towards the handmaid. Offred recounts a typical morning in which Rita sees "me and nods, whether in greeting or in simple acknowledgment of my presence it's hard to say . . . Her face might be kindly if she would smile. But the frown isn't personal: it's the [handmaid] dress she disapproves of, and what it stands for. She thinks I may be catching like a disease or any form of bad luck" (Atwood, 10). Offred also once "heard Rita say to [another servant] that she wouldn't debase herself like that''' (Atwood, 10). What is most painful to Offred is the obvious fact that she had no choice but to become a handmaid, unless death was an option. Rather than make an attempt at friendship, Offred is just as guilty. '''All right,' I say. I don't smile. Why tempt her to friendship?'' (Atwood, 11) It is then Offred tries miserably to convince herself that, ''where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said, who was in love with either/or'' (Atwood, 8). Citing many reasons why women should be shameful, Nietzsche explains why many of women�s flaws are recognizable within her interactions with children, such as "pedantry, superficiality, schoolmarmishness, petty presumption, petty licentiousness and immodesty" (Nietzsche, 163). These traits are especially exhibited around children, with whom they are most comfortable in portraying their personalities around the products of their womb. Women are physically designed to produce children, and act most naturally when teaching and directing their offspring. Luckily, these unsavory characteristics are "best repressed and kept under control by fear of men" (Nietzsche, 163). Yet, in a world that is not conducive to childbirth, Atwood's dystopia deprives women of all these normal attributes. Offred recalls that, "modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen -- to be seen -- is to be -- her voice trembled -- penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. She called us girls" (Atwood, 28). Although the fearful handmaids assume that they are being oppressed by the strength and master mentality of men, it is the Aunts that force the handmaids to succumb to persecution, but fear the men. The handmaids must completely obey the Aunts, yet try not to appear, "overenthusiastic, which sometimes has the force of denial" (Atwood, 131). |
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