draining's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See, I'm Not the Only One, 2006 "In Margaret Atwood's novel "The Handmaid's Tale," set in the near future, the Republic of Gilead has been taken over by ultraconservative Christians. Though most of the women in Gilead are infertile because they've been exposed to a toxic environment of nuclear waste, pesticides, and chemical weapons, there are a few women who can still bear children. They are taken to camps where they are forced to become Handmaids, birth mothers for elite families. The main character in the book is one of these Handmaids. Each month during her fertile time she must lie on her back and pray-- in a Ceremony based on a Biblical verse in which Abraham has a child with his wife's maid-- that the head of the household makes her pregnant. ...In the Republic of Gilead, women are useful only as vessels to bear children. Written in 1985, Atwood's novel now seems less like science fiction than prophecy. If that sounds like an exaggeration, it's time to open your eyes to the legislation and regulations the politicians currently in power are trying to pass, or have already passed, to give fertilized eggs, zygotes, embryos, and fetuses more power and rights than the "vessels" who carry them-- women." --Gloria Feldt, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, from "The War On Choice" 1:40 a.m. - 2006-03-16 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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