These labels come with a steep price handmaids who are unsuccessful in conceiving a child are deemed barren and are sent to work in The Colonies, areas in the former U.S destroyed by nuclear bombs. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law,” Atwood writes. In Gilead, “there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. The new regime in Gilead forced the rare women who were biologically capable of reproducing but have been in unmarried relationships (labeled as “sinful”) to serve as handmaids and carry children to the infertile, powerful couples leading the country. Chemical exposures lead to a huge decline in birth rates, and sterility and deformity of newborns leads to a drastic oppressive change in governance-a new country called Gilead. Lands became infertile, and so did humans. The story revolves around the deterioration and collapse of the nation as a result of nuclear weapons use, pollution, and other irresponsible actions against nature.
Ītwood pays special attention to the degradation of the environment in her reimagination of the United States as The Republic of Gilead. It also made me realise that the show amplifies what queer ecofeminism stands for. While binge watching all three seasons and impatiently waiting for the fourth one, I could not help but think about how many acts of cruelty against women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and marginalised people are actually the norm in a number of societies. The Hulu adaptation of the novel, created by Bruce Miller and starring Elisabeth Moss and Samira Wiley, was released in 2017 and has attracted millions of viewers, including myself. In her well-known novel, Atwood links nature’s oppression and women’s subjugation by showing the consequences of environmental degradation on women, the LGBTQ+ community, and marginalised groups. If you ever wondered what the world would look like as a right-wing, conservative, white supremacist dystopia, then Margaret Atwood’s masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale is for you.
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