The right quoting the Handmaid's Tale...

Might want to read it first.

Author

Sophie M Jonas-Hill
November 11, 2024

It is a sad day when I find my mind dwells on The Handmaid’s Tale, not because it’s not a good book, it’s a bloody great book, but because I never wanted it to be used as a ‘How To’ manual.

If you have never read it, I would, and then maybe watch the TV show, which is worth watching (not least for the incredible cinematography,which draws heavily on Atwood’s inspiration for the book, a picture from the 16th century Dutch Master paintings - the whole show is lit like ‘A girl with a pearl earring.) If you’re interested in thoughts around it other than mine, this article from the New Yorker is a good one -

But the reason I mention it here, is of course around the American election which has just shuddered to what I always thought was going to be its soul deadening conclusion, and the delightful explosion of misogyny this has provoked.

A lot of the ‘Men on the internet’ who voted for Trump, and some of the women too, have been claiming the State of Gilead as their model for America, with jokey tweets ( I will never say ‘X’s, not least because Commander Elon hates people saying twitter) about how they are awaiting their Handmaid being delivered with anticipation, and marching on University’s with banners proclaiming that ‘Women are property,’ though it is unlikely that the later group have ready anything much above posts on Four Chan or weird Reddit threads.

(If you don’t know what these are, that’s the way to keep it!)

Being prone to making pronouncements, some of which I really wish had not come true (like that time in 2019 I wrote a novel about a pandemic, because I needed a reason for the society in my book to have lockdowns, which of course seemed so unlikely in those heady days…) I have another one to share with you - if Trump is assassinated during the next four years I will a) not be surprised and b)it will not be by the left in America.

Let me explain why, with the Handmaid’s Tale as my example.

Why this time round the Orange Nazi’s rein fills me with more dread and the internet with more casual misogyny, is not the Monster Munch himself. Storming off like a spoiled child when he lost the last time round, it’s painfully obvious that he really was only able to swallow his hurt pride, when he realised that being president for a second time would allow him to pardon himself, should he need to. He is an opportunist, like all entrepreneurs and sex workers, both of whom rise to the top their professional when they are able to always say exactly what the other person needs to hear to seal the deal. The trouble is that he is also a narcissist, which means he will listen to anyone who makes him the center of that deal.

This means that, to get back into the Republican party, a good percentage of whom were really quite glad he had lost as he really wasn’t quite the right sort, he had to find an audience he could say what they wanted to hear to, and that audience contained people who are actually smarter and nastier than he thinks. To get them on board, in order to serve his own personal gains, he has been blind to their agenda - after all, if there is anyone you could imagine paying for a woman to have an abortion, it surely must be the Trumpster Fire that is the now president elect - or at least, prepared to get behind their agenda without any real sense of perspective.

Why this makes me think about the Handmaid’s Tale, is a scene in the fifth series. I know that all though Atwood consults on the series she didn’t write this, but it is in the world she created. (A world which is 100% based on real events and historical fact, nothing she outright invented - the ‘Rachel and Leah’ center where Handmaids are schooled in their role has enforced child-bearers, comes from an Old Testament Bible Story.)

In the world of the book, the elite ‘Commanders’ who’s wives can no longer have children, due to an unspecified ecological disaster, as assigned Handmaids, who they ritualy rape monthly with their wives, in order to have a child. One commander is eventually found to be using what he feels is an unassailable position of power, to force himself on Handmaids outside of the allotted ceremonial time and without the presence of his wife, mostly in his study. When one falls pregnant and is forced to confess what has happened to her and by whom, in a twist it is to commander and his wife who are arrested and, in a matter of hours, executed and hung on the wall, not the one Donald Fuckface is so keen on, but the site of state sanctioned killing in Gilead.

This thing is, when you create iron moral codes, there are no exceptions and, for the true believer, such as Commander Vance, Trumps Vice (irony at work) president, to flout these commands is always the worst of crimes.

Vance and his ever more frightening allies, want to enact what they call ‘project 25,’ a set of (a)moral societal codes which would massively attach the LGBQAI+ community, restrict all access to birth control, remove sex education from schools, other than abstinence, and of course all access to abortion under any circumstances. It would also make the watching, owning or production of porgography illegal, and I can’t imagine it will do much for the sex toy industry. If you wanted to find a man who would be unhappy with at least some of those demands, I’d say that Ronald Thump would be a good candidate, and like I said, no one likes a hypocrite. The difference here, is that these religious zealots have guns, a bit like the Taliban, and some of them are pretty good shots, and of course, willing to die for the cause, convinced of their own rightness.

The Duke of Wellington, who was famous for finally defeating Napoleon by virtue of being an even bigger bastard, reportedly said of his army,’ ” I don't know if they frighten the enemy, but they scare the hell out of me."

Forest Trump might do well to watch his back in the coming years, as now he’s back behind the White House desk like Jabber the Hut in his land cruiser, the biggest threat to him will not come from the demoralised Democrats, but the commanders he is blithely installing behind him, or at least those who follow them. He may well find that he moves rather rapidly from an asset, to a hindrance.

Things may feel pretty dark right now, not helped by the seemingly unending grey weather, but there is always hope, not least that there is nothing as vengeful as a crowd who finally see their Idol’s feet of clay, and it is surprisingly easy to be part of the revolution.

You can support a pro-choice charity - such as these - https://abortionrights.org.uk/ or https://www.msichoices.org/ - you can fly the flags of allyship, you can reach out with love and a listening ear, instead of being drawn into shouting and name calling. You can look after yourself and surround yourself with things which makes you feel a bit better every day, because you are great and good people need to stand together and remind each other that we are here. You can tell young men that they don’t need to be Alpha anythings, that they are good enough and strong enough to treat women as equals and partners. You can affirm the choices of young women, you can listen to them and believe them and offer them support when you can see they are feeling threatened - you can, in other words, keep being the god person you are.

I’m working on new stuff and I will be sharing things with you are the happen. I also have a NuMonday shop - where I am selling 12 beautifully glazed and framed prints for my art work, and if you use the code ‘12prints12days’ at the check out, you will get 15% off - and a beautiful gift for someone who is also a good person at Christmas - and if that person is you, that counts too!