In certain corners of the Internet, it’s hard to escape the marketing blitz for Hulu’s new miniseries, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. While production of the series began before the 2016 Presidential election, the story of a not-too-distant future where women have lost so many rights, including the right to bodily autonomy, has taken on new relevance in the age of Trump. Speaking in 2012, Atwood described her novel’s reception in the United States as “How long have we got?” Drawing comparisons between Trump’s America and the handmaid’s Gilead may draw a few eyerolls and accusations of pathetic melodrama, but like Neo in the Matrix, take the red pill and follow me.
In certain corners of the Internet, it’s hard to escape the marketing blitz for Hulu’s new miniseries, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. While production of the series began before the 2016 Presidential election, the story of a not-too-distant future where women have lost so many rights, including the right to bodily autonomy, has taken on new relevance in the age of Trump. Speaking in 2012, Atwood described her novel’s reception in the United States as “How long have we got?” Drawing comparisons between Trump’s America and the handmaid’s Gilead may draw a few eyerolls and accusations of pathetic melodrama, but like Neo in the Matrix, take the red pill and follow me.
Late last March, we had yet another Republican, this time from Oklahoma, mix religion and politics. During a debate on Oklahoma House Bill 1549, which restricts abortion and provides no exceptions for instances of rape or incest, George Faught (R-Muskogee) used Bible stories to justify his position. According to Faught, women should be legally deprived of important aspects of bodily autonomy, not necessarily because his religion’s laws say so, but because rape and incest are “the will of God” and God may be using these illegal, immoral, and frankly traumatic invasions of someone’s body to, you know, work in mysterious ways. Apparently Faught’s version of a sovereign God would be unable to find less horrific ways to work his miracles if he’s stymied by women not loving the idea of carrying their daddy’s or rapist’s pregnancy to term.
Speaking of Republicans and rape, New Hampshire’s Robert Fisher (R-Belknap County) was recently outed as the founder of the Red Pill, a pro-rape internet community. Posting in the Red Pill forum under a pseudonym, Fisher, the son of a preacher, allegedly pointed out that rape isn’t always bad. “I’m going to say it—Rape isn’t an absolute bad, because the rapist I think probably likes it a lot. I think he’d say it’s quite good, really.” Well alrighty then! Could he also think that Stalin’s Great Purge was pretty worthwhile, because some of the secret police were likely sadists that got off by making people suffer? Perhaps Fisher could even find something positive in the events of 9/11, since Osama bin Laden must’ve thought that was quite good, too?
The Daily Beast contacted Fisher about his connection to the Red Pill, where Fisher once bemoaned his troubles with women, despite “possessing all the qualifications of an alpha male.” Within hours of receiving the Daily Beast’s email, multiple online usernames and blogs associated with Fisher were deleted or made private. Apparently, when confronted, “alpha males” run and hide instead of behaving honorably.
Described as a “discussion of sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men,” the Red Pill forum is named after the Red Pill in the Matrix, which Neo chose when he wanted to learn truth instead of comfortable illusion. The purported truth revealed by this Red Pill is that the feminist movement is largely about hating men. Golly, I can’t imagine why women would have uncharitable opinions about men like Fisher, who said on Red Pill that he feels “zero regret or shame for pumping and dumping” (that is, having sex with women and then leaving them in short order). Other Red Pill members shared strategies for giving women lousy self esteem to keep them vulnerable to sexual predation.
Here’s a thought, dear “Manosphere” – maybe it’s not that feminists hate men. Maybe it’s just that women don’t like being manipulated, stealthed, emotionally blackmailed, and raped by men, and then being forced to watch that crime scar their minds and bodies for life. Dick is abundant and low value. Worthwhile partners are not. Treating women with dignity is no guarantee of success (nobody owes you anything for being a non-horrible, baseline decent human being), but it sure improves the odds.
In dystopian ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’ a warning for a new generation not to take rights for granted, posted by PBS NewsHour.
We already have a culture where a potent mix of authoritarianism, Christianism, and patriarchal legislation to revoke women’s bodily autonomy combines with Red Pill style misogyny, a pussy-grabbing President, and casual online rape strategy sessions. Nobody is forcing women into the white bonnets and red robes of Handmaids (yet?), but cosmetic trappings are the least important part of any given dystopia. Women of lesser privilege are already treated as ambulatory wombs. How long have we got, indeed?
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
Join the conversation!