Just because a book is getting a lot of publicity or is written by a famous author, does not mean that it is good, helpful or appropriate for our children to be studying in school. This is definitely the case with The Handmaid's Tale.
This is a dystopian, feminist tirade exploring (and graphically describing) sexual themes. Various scenes include rape (described as "Fucking") while the wife of the "Commander" rapist participates vicariously in the rape. Sex and violence are constantly linked and the Handmaiden (sex slave) in the story often fantasises in her head about murder and suicide. At the end of the book, a mob of women are encouraged to viciously attack and kill a man and scenes include a club where the protagonist is dressed up as a prostitute and talks with a lesbian prostitute while she considers the possibility of signing up herself. The book portrays men as useless except for sex/creating babies and the mother-daughter relationship is again, portrayed as very negative.
I certainly do not want my daughter exposed to this kind of filth (and I don't see how this can possibly contribute to the mental health of the boys in our society either!):
Here is an example of the kind of disturbing book this is. Taken from Chapter 20, pg. 124:
Aunt Lydia didn't show these kind of movies. Sometimes the movie she showed would be an old porno film, from the seventies or eighties. Women kneeling, sucking penises or guns, women tied up or chained or with dog collars around their necks, women hanging from trees, or upside-down, naked, with their legs held apart, women being raped, beaten up, killed. Once we had to watch a woman being slowly cut into pieces, her fingers and breasts snipped off with garden shears, her stomach slit open and her intestines pulled out.
Reviewed by Kate, Co. kerry
The Handmaid’s Tale is a disturbing and thought-provoking dystopian novel that chronicles the life of a woman known as “Offred” as she suffers through life in the patriarchal and oppressive land known as Gilead. Set sometime in the future (but written in 1985), the book give us a glimpse into a new and horrifying world where fertile women have all their human rights stripped and are farmed out to powerful (married) men to be used solely for sex, with the hope that they will conceive and save the dwindling human population. The book is clearly written to an adult audience and should not be on any secondary school reading list.
After reading this novel, I am deeply concerned at the thought of teens reading a book so full of violence and extremely disturbing sexual content. Furthermore, the entire setting of Gilead is painted in Biblical terms, which leads to a subtle and often not so subtle attack on those of Christian faith. If the hope is to stimulate discussion about feminism, totalitarian regimes, religious oppression, and corruption, there are plenty of age appropriate books that will accomplish this.
Below are some scenes and quotes that I found particularly disturbing.
*This book contains violent pornography.
I would be horrified if I knew that my children had these images put into their head at such a vulnerable age. Obviously the shock value is there to prove a point, but the graphic imagery is too extreme. This quote alone makes the book inappropriate, regardless of any lessons or points being proven. It’s not even necessary to the storyline:
“Sometimes the movie she showed would be be an old porno film, from the 70s or 80s. Women kneeling, sucking penises or guns, women tied up or chained or with dog collars around their necks, women hanging from trees, or upside down, naked, with their legs heldapart, women being raped, beaten up, killed. Once we had to watch a woman being slowly cut into pieces, her fingers and breasts snipped off with garden shears, her stomach slit open and her intestines pulled out.”
*Sex with the “Commander”, while she lays in the lap of the Commander’s wife
“My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body….”
*Babies born with disabilities are known as “unbabies” and are killed.
“What will Ofwarren give birth to? A baby, as we all hope? Or something else, an unbaby,with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet? There’s no telling.”
*Offred hopes that a few of the guards will “get hard” while looking at her and have to “rub themselves on the barricade.”
*During an examination, the doctor puts his hands between Offred’s legs and offers to help her get pregnant himself.
*Phrases like “getting laid”, “on all fours”, “spread your legs”, “woman on woman” and much more.
Reviewed by Renee G, Mother of 3, Co.Cork
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