The legitimation of objectification and violence against women in The Handmaid's Tale

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the correlation between religious discourse and the objectification and gender-based violence in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, published in 1985, and its television adaptation created by Bruce Miller, aired from 2017 onwards. The narrative presents a dystopian reality in which the panic generated by the decline in birth rates leads the American elites to establish a theocratic and totalitarian regime. In this context, women's freedom and rights are systematically suppressed, and they are reduced to the condition of property and objects of the State, being used primarily as instruments of reproduction and order. The violent and oppressive practices are justified through misogynistic interpretations of sacred texts, in the name of God and the preservation of social order. This work is marked by various forms of violence, particularly against women, exposing misogynistic and sexist practices. In this paper, I propose to characterize and demonstrate how religious discourse acts as a tool for legitimizing the objectification of the female body and violence against women within this oppressive system created by Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale. To this end, it is necessary to present the work, the dystopian society created by the author, and its characters, with emphasis on female figures, in order to understand the references and discussions that arise from it.