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Vicki League

Farrah Cato

Independent Study

9 December 2014

Feminist Speculative Fiction: A Reflection of the Woman's Experience

Introduction

Scholars have shown that speculative fiction can reflect reality and that feminist literature

can be used as a means to effect change, but few have drawn connections between the conditions

of women in our world and the conditions of women in speculative fiction worlds and

contemplated what these parallels mean. There is little research about the ways that feminist

speculative fiction serves as an exploration and reflection of gendered rhetoric in society and

highlights the woman’s experience by showing the negative effects of gender roles and the

gender binary. Scholars have shown that speculative fiction can reflect reality and that feminist

literature, including speculative fiction, can be used as a means to effect change, but few have

drawn connections between the conditions of women in our world and the conditions of women

in speculative fiction worlds and contemplated what these parallels mean. This paper will

analyze two speculative fiction (SF) novels through a feminist lens to investigate and understand

the critical commentary about the reality of our world and its unequal nature in regards to

gender.

The relationship between fiction and truth is a debatable topic and scholars from various

fields have different understandings of it. It is not difficult to find philosophical scholars arguing

that fiction cannot possibly contain truth as fiction, by definition, centers around make-believe

stories.1 (see Lamarque and Olsen). However, many literature and fiction scholars argue that

these “false” stories contain information about the truths of our world for various reasons and by

1 See Lamarque and Olsen.

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various methods. This paper agrees that fiction contains certain degrees of realism and real-world

reflection that prompt connections and understandings by and for the reader. As Debra Benita

Shaw says in her book Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance, the best way

to read fictional texts is to see “the very real conditions for which they are metaphors” (179).

Realism, even if it is only present in small portions, is why fiction is important and can change

how readers view the world (MacKay 14).

Feminism is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the theory of the political, economic, and

social equality of the sexes.” Feminist texts “seek, no matter on what grounds and by what

means, to end the subordination of women” (Felski 13). Fiction gives feminist writers a way to

discuss and analyze the framework surrounding a woman’s life by applying general themes and

experiences faced by all women to a fictional world with the intention of highlighting certain

aspects that the writer wants to discuss with the reader and with the larger discourse surrounding

the single text. Writers trying to raise awareness about feminism and influence others with a text

would naturally gravitate toward formats that can reach a wider audience: one option is genre

fiction, which possesses a wide and varied readership and can include SF as a subcategory

(Cranny-Francis 2). By nature, SF is a widely debated topic with no clear consensus for a

definition (Canavan and Ward 238). SF is an umbrella term that can include a variety of other

subgenres that are more commonly known, like fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism.

Perhaps the easiest, yet potentially vaguest, definition of SF is that it is fiction that speculates and

causes speculation. Women choose to write SF tales because SF offers freedom: freedom to

discuss, freedom to criticize, and freedom to reimagine. SF as a genre offers women a “language

[that] enables the expression of radical and feminist ideas” that otherwise cannot be conveyed

(Makinen 145), a language that makes use of fantastical metaphors and stories to tell truths.

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Speculative Fiction

By nature, speculative fiction is a widely debated topic with no clear consensus

for a definition (Canavan and Ward 238). Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that can include

a variety of other subgenres that are more commonly known, like fantasy, science fiction, and

magical realism. Perhaps the easiest, yet potentially vaguest, definition of SF is that it is fiction

that speculates and causes speculation.

Speculation about what? Some may argue that SF speculates upon the future and other

worlds and is therefore unrealistic, but many argue that SF actually speculates upon reality

because it imagines the future and things that could potentially happen. In her novel The Left

Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin explains that “all fiction is metaphor. Science fiction is

metaphor” (xviii). These texts use elaborate, fantastical stories to tell truths that cannot be said

clearly and accurately in words. SF writers are not trying to tell the reader what the future might

be; instead, all they can tell the reader is what they know and what they have seen by observing

reality (LeGuin xv). Even though these stories are very different from the reality we see around

us, they allow the reader to step back from, “and thus offer a critical perspective on, her present”

(Shaw 2). This critical perspective “can have a social or political” purpose (Shaw 2), which

becomes even stronger and clearer when feminism is brought into the novel. SF has

“revolutionary potential because of its structural premise to question things-as-they-are”

(Makinen 139), and is the perfect vehicle for feminist discourse to show the inequalities that

women face. Women choose to write SF tales because SF offers freedom: freedom to discuss,

freedom to criticize, and freedom to reimagine. SF as a genre offers women a “language [that]

enables the expression of radical and feminist ideas” that otherwise cannot be conveyed

(Makinen 145), a language that makes use of fantastical metaphors and stories to tell truths.

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Writers are able to question the status quo of patriarchal society and provide critical commentary

on the ways that women have to live. Readers must ask themselves what they can learn from

reading feminist SF novels in relation to our world, its truths, and its possibilities.

Case Studies

To show how feminist speculative fiction reflects contains aspects of realism that reflect

on our world by discussing other worlds, this paper will look at two different texts as case

studies. Although these texts were written thirty to forty years ago, Ttheyir examinations ofe

current societal structures and norms surrounding gender through are still relevant today. By

speculating on the here and now by imagining “the future consequences” and projecting

seemingly unconnected future realities that could logically follow if our world remains as is

(Cranny-Francis 68),, these texts and by presenting entirely different worlds seemingly

unconnected to ours to provide a commentary and critique on the patriarchal structures of our

world and the inequalities caused by the gender binary.

Joanna Russ’s The Female Man

The Female Man is driven by Joanna Russ’s desire to “engage the reader in a

consideration of patriarchy and the damage it does on women” more than a desire to tell a story

for the sake of telling a story (Makinen 155). Many passages and events are paired with Russ’s

“textual aggression towards patriarchy” as a way to further the storyline, and Russ “uses

caricature and invective to delineate the normal mid-Western relationships between men and

women” in the 1970s, which are still common today and easily recognizable (Makinen 154).

Some may note that the novel is outdated, but Russ’s novel still holds relevance for female

readers because many things about society’s rules for women have not changed as much as

readers might expect.

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The novel follows four women: Jeannine and Joanna, who live in various versions of

1975; Janet, who lives in a world without men; and Jael, who is from a world where the split

between genders led to warfare and has become geographical. Their lives converge and overlap,

leading to interactions that highlight gender inequality. Each character embodies different

aspects of women’s existence and can draw the reader’s attention to Russ’s critiques.

Jeannine essentially symbolizes the ideal woman in the eyes of the patriarchy. She is

focused on finding a man and settling down with him to start a family and live as a dutiful wife.

Jeannine ends up depressed from a lack of ability to fulfill the typical female role of falling in

love, getting married, having kids, and taking care of her home; instead, she pines away for men.

Through Jeannine’s character, the reader readers can see the epitome of the

patriarchy’spatriarchal expectations for women and how this affects women. When Jeannine

visits her family, the narrator tells her, “You don’t want to be a dried-up old spinster at forty but

that’s what you will be if you go on like this. You’re twenty-nine. You’re getting old. You ought

to marry someone who can take care of you, Jeannine…It’s all right to do that; you’re a girl”

(Russ 114). Jeannine is supposed to end up married and be supported by a man, because she is a

“girl” and needs a man to take care of her. Further showing the gender roles, the narrator

describes Alternately, Jeannine’s brother ias “a firm, steady man who makes a good living for his

wife and children,” and his wife as a woman who “wants nothing more in the world than her

husband and her little boy and girl” (Russ 113). This couple demonstrates exactly what each

gender is supposed to do and what Jeannine’s future should look like. These two quotes also

scold Jeannine, who knows she is not fulfilling her role in society and becomes upset at her

failure. She spends much of her time lying around, bemoaning her fate, and altogether not

enjoying life.

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Jeannine’s behavior also reflects how a woman should act: “She…pauses, catching sight

of herself in the wall mirror: flushed, eyes sparkling, her hair swept back as if by some

tumultuous storm, her whole face glowing. The lines of her figure are perfect, but who is to use

all this loveliness, who is to recognize it…?” (Russ 109). Jeannine tries to achieve the ideal

feminine beauty and look the way men want her to look. Her goal is to attract a man, thus

centering everything in her life around men and eventual marriage. Joanna, previously ensnared

in the same patriarchal trap as Jeannine, notes that she used to spend “my whole day combing my

hair and putting on make-up...all I did was dress for The Man, smile for The Man, talk wittily to

The Man, sympathize with The Man, flatter The Man, understand The Man, defer to The Man,

entertain The Man, keep The Man, live for The Man” (Russ 29). Jeannine, for the majority of the

novel, spends her time doing exactly these things.

When Jeannine is with her boyfriend, she feels unable to discuss things because “he’ll

say she’s nattering again; worse still, it would sound pretty silly; you can’t expect a man to listen

to everything (as everybody’s Mother said)” (Russ 108), degrading her own voice and elevating

a man’s attention above the topics and ideas that she wishes to share. She attributes this

knowledge to her own mother, showing that women are raised to think of men as superior.

Another character, Laura, discusses the construction of gender roles and gender superiority from

childhood, venting her frustration about being denied her goals and dreams because they weren’t

feminine enough. She sarcastically explains: “Everyone knows that much as women want to be

scientists and engineers, they want foremost to be womanly companions to men (what?) and

caretakers of childhood” (Russ 60). This is, supposedly, an inherent truth, a role that women are

supposed to embrace. As her therapist says, “Men make the decisions and women make the

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dinners” (Russ 67), delegating each person to their specific role that they have been taught since

childhood. No deviation is allowed; yet still, Laura wants to be more than just a woman.

Joanna tries to achieve the transcendence of “woman,” becoming what she calls “the

female man.” She aims to do exactly what Laura was always taught not to do: inherit male roles

and achieve the successes that only men are allowed to achieve. In her book Feminist Popular

Fiction, Merja Makinen notes that Joanna’s choice of identifying as a “female man” allows her

to “assum[e] the nominal title of ‘man’ [and]…inhabit all the positive binary constructions

within the culture” (155). In her description of her transformation, Joanna explains that she

became a man by first becoming completely female, learning what it means to be female. One of

her sections shows the man’s idea of female: “You really are sweet and responsive after all.

You’ve kept your femininity. You’re not one of those hysterical feminist bitches who wants to be

a man and have a penis. You’re a woman” (Russ 94), placing female as completely opposed to

male. To merge the two, Joanna then embraces traditionally non-female roles to become a female

man and inhabit the world of men as a woman.

Existing as a woman in the workplace meant that Joanna had “been neuter, not a woman

at all but One Of The Boys,” yet still objectified by her body. “If you get good at being One Of

The Boys [the objectification] goes away…I suppose they decided that my tits were not of the

best kind, or not real, or that they were someone else’s, so they split me from the neck up” (Russ

133). It was impossible for her to exist as a woman in a professional space; either she did not fit

in, or had to dissociate parts of herself to be accepted. Makinen agrees, saying that women are

“trying to ignore their sex in order to be treated equally, but…they are turned into a negative

construction of femininity by male denigration” (155). Once women fit in the workplace, they

lose their femininity and are therefore not true women, which is undesirable. After Joanna

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reworked herself to remain female yet occupy male roles, she had a different view of men and

the world: “For years I have been saying Let me in, Love me, Approve me, Define me, Regulate

me, Validate me, Support me. Now I say Move over” (Russ 140). Instead of tailoring her needs

and decisions around the opinions of men, she creates her own space to be successful by her own

definitions. Using the label “the female man” puts her in a unique place that is neither

traditionally male nor female and allows her to move among the ranks of men.

While Joanna is able to do this and be successful, the gender binary does not allow two-

way movement. Jeannine describes her boyfriend as “such a baby” and finds it pathetic that

“when he does it [sex], you know, sometimes he cries. I never heard of a man doing that…”

(Russ 83). When he crosses the gender line by crying, Jeannine is disgusted and concerned. If he

does not behave like a man, then there must be something wrong with him. She even notes that

“sometimes he likes to get dressed up…Is that what they call transvestism?” (Russ 83). Behaving

like a woman and wanting to look like a woman is completely wrong for men in our society; a

man trying to move across the gender binary is unacceptable. This double standard of gender

fluidity is a side effect of the patriarchy because it paints women as weak and pathetic, and when

a supposedly strong man demonstrates those qualities, he is ridiculed, especially by other men. A

woman like Joanna moving into a more man-like state is at least acceptable in the sense that she

can still function in the workplace and achieve recognition and success, while Jeannine’s

boyfriend would never receive respect for his womanly behavior.

Jael, the fourth major character, exists among men and sometimes as man, but in an

entirely different way than Joanna. In her world, men and women occupy separate sides of the

planet, the culmination of unequal gender roles and expectations turned into warfare. The

Manlanders and Womanlanders, as they are called, hardly see each other due to their separation.

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The Manlanders, without women, cannot have children. Instead, they “buy infants from the

Womanlanders and bring them up in batches, save for the rich few who can order children made

from their very own semen” (Russ 167). All of the purchased infants are male, and if they grow

up deciding that they do not want to be a man, they can become “changed” by body

modifications or “half-changed” if they decide too late in life for modifications. These changed

and half-changed function as women in the society, used for sex and domestic activities. The

narrator notes sarcastically “that the half-changed are weak and can’t protect themselves; what

do you think femininity is all about?” (Russ 172), reminding the reader and the characters that

the patriarchy places women and non-men in a very specific role and that being like a woman is

bad. Without women around them, the men Manlanders have fallen even further into degrading

women.

Jael is an assassin who targets high-rank enemy Manlandersmen, but she also specializes

in portraying men and occupying their roles as a spy or infiltrator. She has a high status within

the Wwomaenlanders and is thus granted fairly free movement among enemy troops and higher-

ups, none of whom know that she is usually among them as an assassin. Jael describes her

situation: “I come and go as I please. I do only what I want. I have wrestled myself through to an

independence of mind that has ended by bringing all of you here today. In short, I am a grown

woman” (Russ 187). The freedom she has is the freedom that men are afforded in our world; a

grown woman here would rarely describe herself in such a manner. Jael is able to inhabit a

traditionally male role, which shows the gap between what women can achieve and what men

can achieve.

In addition to being able to move around with the freedom of a man, she revels in her

ability to destroy men and maintain her power over them, almost reversing patriarchal standards

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by placing herself as the oppressor in her extreme hatred of men. After one of the other

characters asks her if it was necessary to kill a male leader in her signature violent manner, she

says, “I don’t give a damn whether it was necessary or not…I liked it” (Russ 184), and as a

narrator explains that “there’s no doing business with them; you have to kill them anyway, might

as well have fun” (Russ 182). Her attitude toward the life of men Manlanders exaggeratedly

mirrors the disdain and disrespect men have for women. Russ presents this as a poor alternative

to the patriarchy – it is still dangerous and unequal, and Jael’s all-consuming rage and

justifications for her actions are neither healthy nor productive. Instead, her situation and planet

prove the need for equality rather than a reversal of the patriarchy that would place women at the

top. Makinen addresses this in her analysis: “The narrative [of Jael's role reversal of the male

world leader], aided by [Jeannine, Janet, and Joanna’s] horror, problematizes the issues of role

reversal as an effective feminist strategy, whilst bitterly explaining the attraction of such a

course” (153).

Unlike everyone else’s worlds, Janet’s world, Whileaway, has no men at all. Their

technology is advanced enough that women do not need men to reproduce, and society has been

moving smoothly for the centuries without men: “there have been no men on Whileaway for at

least eight centuries – I don't mean no human beings, of course, but no men” (Russ 9). The

official reason is that a disease killed all of the men on the planet, and that words like “men” are

no longer in use, although Jael argues that Janet’s people eliminated all men themselves, possibly

as a conclusion to the warfare in her own world. Janet’s world brings up an entirely new view of

patriarchy and other problems with gender and sexuality. Janet is allowed to do all of the things

that men traditionally do because there are no men there to occupy those roles or tell her that she

cannot do them. Women have choices and freedom, which brings the reader to realize that there

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are not as many choices and freedoms in our world. Janet can be both masculine and feminine

and both are expected and acceptable; in our world, the genders are divided and crossing that

boundary brings ridicule.

On Whileaway, even without men, love still exists. Women love women and form

relationships and families based off this love. This brings up the question of lesbianism and its

implications. When Janet meets with a reporter on our planet, he asks her how women on

Whileaway cope with the lack of sexual love, even though he has no doubts that “mothers of

Whileaway love their children” and are still capable of love (Russ 11). Confused, Janet asks,

“you say we don’t have that?...How foolish of you. Of course we do” (Russ 11). In our

heteronormative world, where males and females are supposed to be in love with each other, not

the same sex, it seems impossible and wrong to have women love women. Laura, discussing her

upbringing again and the discrimination she faces for not loving men, says, “I’ve never slept

with a girl. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t want to. That’s abnormal and I’m not, although you can’t be

normal unless you do what you want and you can’t be normal unless you love men” (68). Same-

sex love on Whileaway is quite obviously the standard and can show the reader how normal and

acceptable same-sex love is and how the heteronormative, patriarchal state of our society harms

those who are not deemed “normal” because of their love of the same sex.

Upon her entry into our world, Janet cannot become acquainted with the rules and

regulations that women face. Interacting with men and assuming the role of woman do not come

naturally to her, and she cannot fit in. The voice and agency she has on her planet do not belong

to her here. When a man grabs her and she says, “Let me go,” Joanna as narrator tells her to “say

it loud. Somebody will come rescue you.” Janet replies, “Can’t I rescue myself?” Joanna says,

“No.” Janet argues, “Why not?” (Russ 45). On our planet, as a woman, Janet does not have the

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authority and power to save herself. She has to rely on another man to come save her. This is

completely different from her planet, where she is able to do what she wants and stand up for

herself. Her freedoms are stripped away in our world, and by seeing her shoved into our box of

“woman,” the reader identifies with the limitations and sees the inequality. Although we are

thirty-nine years past the publication of this novel, Russ’s description of the female experience

still rings true with readers and is still relevant. Some things may have changed and improved,

but the fact that Russ’s critiques are still recognizable shows that feminism and her main points

about gender inequality still matter.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Written in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale describes the life of a woman named Offred who

lives as a Handmaid, valued for her reproductive capabilities in a world where pollution has

contaminated people’s bodies and caused a shortage of healthy babies and mothers. Each

Handmaid is assigned to a high-status man, a Commander, whose Wife cannot reproduce. She

acts as a sort of surrogate mother, and the Wife owns the child. This world, called Gilead, is a

projected future of our world; Offred’s generation saw the switch from the world as we know it

to a world where people are categorized based on their status and reproductive capabilities.

Women have no freedom; everyone performs a specific role to keep the functioning of the

country in check; and every deviance from the desired order of society is punishable. Offred’s

situation reflects and amplifies inequalities and problems that exist in our world.

One main theme is that a woman’s only value comes from her body and reproductive

capabilities. Men and even other women only view Offred as useful and worthwhile because she

is able to produce a healthy child for her Commander. They do not see her personality and mind

as the most important parts of her existence. Offred explains that the Handmaids “are containers,

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it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important” (Atwood 124). When she was trained to be

a Handmaid, punishments for deviance resulted in bodily harm to hands and feet, which their

instructors, called the Aunts, explained was fine because “for our purposes your feet and hands

are not essential” (Atwood 118). The Handmaids can be used and abused so long as they remain

capable of reproduction; other aspects of their existence are negligible.

Because of this, Offred is constantly talking about how she wants to be more than just a

body; she wants to exist for herself. Her value of her soul struggles against society’s value of the

body her soul inhabits. In our world, there seems to be a slightly larger importance on the soul,

although women are clearly still objectified and seen as bodies instead of people. In Gilead,

however, there is no focus at all on her soul; the new world only wants her body, its capabilities,

and biological destiny. Offred is constantly talking about becoming empty and feeling empty:

“what we prayed for was emptiness, so we would be worthy to be filled: with grace, with love,

with self-denial, semen and babies” (251). In a literal way, their bodies will become filled with a

child, but their personalities, values, goals, and dreams have to be eradicated as well to make

room for their purpose as a Handmaid.

One could argue that Gilead is very woman-centered because it places so much value and

importance on women. Wouldn’t this be an improvement from the way that women are devalued

in our society and placed below men in their level of importance, since without the Handmaids,

humanity’s potential to reproduce is significantly reduced? Isn’t feminism looking to increase the

worth of women? Yet Gilead’s idea of “woman-centered” means that everything revolves around

the worth of a woman's body, not a woman’s potential as a person and as an equal to men.

Feminism wants to level the playing field and see men and women as equals; Gilead does quite

the opposite, placing men in positions of power and giving them the sole decision-making

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capabilities while women simply conceive, bear children, and eventually die. Each world, ours

(in terms of feminism) and Gilead, looks at the worth of women in completely different ways.

Gilead’s argument for valuing women is completely destroyed when the reader realizes that only

healthy and child-bearing women are important: women unfit for birthing children or for being

trophy wives to prominent men are cast aside into designated places called the Colonies, where

they are forced to do hard manual labor, sometimes cleaning up dead bodies or radioactive spills,

with an increased chance of death. The Colonies are the dumpster for useless women. A

Handmaid’s reward for bearing a healthy child is that “She’ll never be sent to the Colonies,

she’ll never be declared Unwoman” (Atwood 163).

The Handmaids are further objectified and devalued when their Commanders take them

to an underground, secret club called Jezebel. Here, the men parade their women around as

trophies to prove their masculinity and power. One of the women at Jezebel, not a Handmaid but

a sort of prostitute, explains that the men “like to see [the Handmaids] all painted up. Just

another crummy power trip” (Atwood 316). Offred, upon being taken to Jezebel and walking

around in a promiscuous, ridiculous pin-up outfit under the guiding hand of her Commander,

realizes that “he is showing me off, to them, and they understand that, they are decorous enough,

they keep their hands to themselves, but they review my breasts, my legs, as if there’s no reason

why they shouldn’t” (Atwood 307). His ownership of her is even more evident when the reader

realizes that her Commander’s name is Fred, leading to her being named Offred – “Of Fred” –

while she is his Handmaid. The other men at the club approve of each Commander bringing his

Handmaid to prove that he is still a man, that he has control of women, and that he has

possession of his Handmaid. There are no reasons why they should not continue to objectify and

evaluate the women based on their bodies when that is their entire role in society. Women

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readers will recognize and understand Offred’s unease at the men’s prying eyes as it is

something we experience in our world as well.

In Gilead, the women are taught that they deserve these injustices from men around them.

During Handmaid training, the Aunts and the Handmaids themselves had to convince victims of

rape that they deserved it and had led on their rapist. At first, the victims insisted that they were

innocent and did not deserve blame, but when one of the Aunts asks the crowd, “But whose fault

was it?” the other Handmaids-in-training chant, “Her fault, her fault, her fault” (Atwood 92).

This might sound like an event far removed from our reality, but victim blaming occurs very

often in our own society. Some individuals believe that the victim was “asking for it” due to her

(or his) clothing or behavior, even though no one wants to be sexually violated against their will.

This passage reminds readers that their reality is not so different from the world that the

Handmaids experience; cruelty and injustice toward women exist in both Gilead and our world.

Women may continue to be objectified in Gilead, but sex is not a choice or a freedom for

the Handmaids. In their role as surrogate mothers, they perform a Ceremony with the

Commander and his Wife in which the Commander has sex with the Handmaid, who is laying on

the Wife. These positions are strict and required, and no physical contact besides what is

necessary is permitted. As Offred explains, “It has nothing to do with passion or love or romance

or any of those other notions we used to titillate ourselves with. It has nothing to do with sexual

desire” (Atwood 122). It is simply a ritual to have the Commander impregnate the Handmaid. If

the Handmaids try to make their own sexual choices, they are taken away by law enforcement.

Offred, in her desperation to have some choices in her life and do things for herself instead of for

others, visits the Commander’s chauffeur, Nick, for sex. She explains herself: “I went back to

Nick. Time after time, on my own, without [the Wife] knowing. It wasn’t called for, there was no

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excuse. I did not do it for him, but for myself entirely” (Atwood 344). She makes these choices

in order to have control and agency, but she also feels shame for behaving in this way. This is

not a Gilead-only trait; women in our society often feel shameful for having sexual freedom, or

others around them shame them. It’sIt is ingrained in everyone, in both Gilead and our world,

that if a woman wants to do anything sexual or have sex for her own reasons, then she’sshe is a

slut, horrible, and deserving of shame. Men do not face this stigma; they are encouraged to be

sexually promiscuous because that increases their masculinity. These double standards enforce

the gender binary and inequality between the sexes.

Gilead adheres strictly to gender roles, which is already evident through the existence of

Handmaids as baby carriers. There are women in charge of the house as well, a Wife for each

Commander, and the Commander himself, who runs the house and contributes directly to

society. Atwood is reestablishing the “traditional” roles of women as another facet of their

oppression in this society: home-makers, mothers, and trophies. Instead of allowing them to do

things outside of their gender role, enforcing the traditional gender roles sticks them more firmly

in their boxes. They must play the part of a true woman and that means acting like a woman.

There is no room for deviance and it is accepted that everyone does what they are expected to do;

no one can risk acting outside of their gender roles. The men are constrained too, and it is

important to remember that they are affected by the oppression of women as well. Commanders

are supposed to be respectful, follow the rules, and run the household perfectly, but Fred breaks

rules by changing some scripted roles, like the Ceremony where he is not supposed to have any

emotional or sexual connection with the Handmaid, in an attempt to have control of his situation

instead of being controlled by society.

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He also brings her to Jezebel and allows her to visit him privately to engage in

discussions, games, and illicit activities like reading and writing. Jezebel is another example of

the performance of gender roles; although everyone feels like they have gained agency by

breaking rules by visiting and being promiscuous, they are essentially moving into different

assigned roles. The women who work there are performing their role of prostitutes. The men, the

Commanders, are performing their role as a powerful, masculine, in-control figure. The

Handmaids are performing their role as objects to be paraded around the club. The society’s

emphasis on performance and roles continues to separate genders and encourage the oppression

of women.

Atwood also makes use of language to show the oppression of women. Women in Gilead

are not allowed to read or write, and certain words and phrases are banned while others are

required in situations. Language is used to control thought and shape perceptions about the

world. Merja Makinen observes that “feminist SF has tried to challenge patriarchal language

structures” (147), and Atwood is no exception. Offred spends a lot of time considering words

and implications. When Offred is in her bedroom, she explains that “The night is mine, my own

time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet. As long as I don’t move. As long as I lie still.

The difference between lie and lay. Lay is always passive….I lie, then, inside the room”

(Atwood 49). Choosing the active verb gives her agency over her actions instead of continuing to

be controlled by society. Her obsession with language is the one thing she holds onto because

she has control over it: control over her knowledge, thoughts, meaning, and uses of language,

even though it is so entirely controlled by society.

When she visits town, she sees that “In front of us, to the right, is the store where we

order dresses. Some people call them habits, a good word for them” (Atwood 33). “Habits”

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reflects the structured nature of the society and how the Handmaids function in habitual ways.

When she remembers the past, she says, “They [the people before Gilead] wore blouses with

buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities of the word undone. These women could

be undone; or not. They seemed to be able to choose” (Atwood 33), considering how clothing

reflects choice and how women in Gilead are no longer able to make choices. When she says

goodbye to her shopping partner Handmaid, the Handmaid replies, “Under His Eye,” which

Offred notes is “The right farewell” (Atwood 59). Their conversations are rigid and only certain

phrases and responses are acceptable, showing how the language has cut off any real

communication between women and forces them to adhere to their roles. Controlling the

language controls what people can say and communicate to each other. The expected responses

that the Handmaids have to say to each other are completely limited by what society deems

appropriate and correct. Complete control of the language is complete control of the people. Rita

Felski, in Beyond Feminist Aesthetics, notes the “the constraining, legislative, and socializing

aspects of language” (34) as well, lending credibility to Atwood’s manipulation of language and

its effects on the inhabitants of Gilead. The Handmaids end up creating a code within the “closed

system” of language in Gilead to create a kind of “women’s language,” using phrases like

“Mayday,” already acceptable to indicate the first day of spring, to signal distress. Maneuvering

within the patriarchal and oppressive language structure is difficult for the Handmaids and can

lead to imprisonment or death if they are caught – but they do it anyway to have agency,

freedom, and communication.

Writing is powerful too; women are not allowed to write, and when Offred offers to spell

a word for the Commander and write it, “he hesitates at this novel idea. Possibly he doesn’t

remember I can” (Atwood 240). Writing, as an indicator of power and knowledge, is no longer

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associated with women, thus demoting them to a lower and less respectable position. When she

holds then pen, she says, “The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its

power, the power of the words it contains” (Atwood 241). She realizes the power and control that

the pen gives her over language, communication, and meaning. Reading is a luxury not afforded

to women, either; the entirety of literacy is not theirs to claim. Women are incapable of learning

through words at all due to the barriers on spoken language, writing, and reading. When Offred

reads with the Commander, she says, “I read quickly, voraciously, almost skimming, trying to

get as much into my head as possible before the next long starvation” (Atwood 239). The chance

to read comes sto rarely to her that she has to take advantage of it and binge read when she can.

The Commander also lets her play Scrabble with him, which Offred enjoys because it

gives her power over language. She can use Scrabble to retain her hold over her language and

demonstrate her proficiency in it even though everything she says otherwise has to follow strict,

controlled guidelines. As she plays, she says, “I hold the glossy counters with their smooth

edges, finger the letters. The feeling is voluptuous. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it. Limp, I

spell. Gorge. What a luxury. The counters are like candies, made of peppermint, cool like that.

Humbugs, those were called. I would like to put them into my mouth” (Atwood 180). There is an

almost erotic pleasure in regaining control of language and embracing the power that comes with

it. Being able to use and mold language is normally so beyond the role of women in Gilead that

when she is able to regain that aspect of her previous life and achieve some semblance of power

and agency, she must savor it. Offred’s attempts to gain power and live life for herself point to

the lack of freedom she has in her world and the parallels in our world. Readers can draw

connections, see trajectories of our society even as we move forward in time from the publication

of this novel, and understand Atwood’s critiques about patriarchy.

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Conclusion

These two texts demonstrate how feminist SF critiques and raises awareness about the

condition of women in our world. Even though SF, on the surface, primarily concerns itself with

worlds and situations far removed from our present reality, there is an underlying connection and

commentary about our own world and the conditions in which we live. Feminist SF brings this

connection to another level as it highlights aspects of a woman’s existence that seem normal but,

once exaggerated and shown through SF, are revealed to be unfair, oppressive, and unequal to

the benefits that males receive from the patriarchy. Through the experiences of the women in

these SF worlds, readers can see how feminism is important and necessary to end the

subordination of women. These texts, although dated, still resonate with readers who can

recognize their own experiences in the stories of these women and see how far we have or have

not come in these few decades. The messages of these older novels are even more crucial

because they are still relevant and descriptive of conditions that women today face.

But feminist SF is more than just a commentary. As we might expect, these texts have

another purpose: to “inspire real-world change” (Barr 8). Feminist SF writers are not writing into

a vacuum; readers can take what they learn from these texts and apply it to the real world,

instigating change. In The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel, Marina MacKay explains that

these texts “act upon us all” and “potentially change the world in the act of describing it” (14).

By changing our perspective of our world, feminist SF can change the way we act in our world:

“when we ‘feel right,’ we act rightly” (MacKay 14). Once readers understand the underlying

messages in feminist SF, they can work to change the world around them and do what is right for

the inhabitants of our planet. Social change can be inspired by SF simply because SF really does

contain information about the conditions around us and critique aspects that need improvement.

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With this information, readers can start to speculate about and discuss, potentially even fix, what

is wrong with the world around them. Awareness, action, and change are the ultimate goals of

these feminist SF texts. As Russ says while addressing her own novel, “Do not complain when at

last you become quaint and old-fashioned…Do not get glum when you are no longer understood,

little book. Do not curse your fate…Rejoice, little book! For on that day, we will be free” (214).

When we can say that these depictions of reality are no longer talking about our reality, and that

feminist writings do not resonate deep within readers, we can celebrate the progress our society

has made and know that these inequalities in the lives of people around us are dated and gone.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York, Ballantine Books: 1986. Print.

Barr, Marleen S. Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond. Chapel Hill, The

University of North Carolina Press: 1993. Print.

Canavan, Gerry, and Priscilla Ward. "Preface." American Literature 83.2 (2011): 237-

249. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.

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Cranny-Francis, Anne. Feminist Fiction: Feminist Uses of Generic Fiction. New York, St.

Martin's Press: 1990. Print.

Felski, Rita. Beyond Feminist Aesthetics. Cambridge, Harvard University Press: 1989. Print.

Lamarque, Peter, and Stein Haugom Olsen. Truth, Fiction, and Literature. New York, Oxford

University Press Inc.: 1994. Print.

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness. New York, The Berkley Publishing Group:

1969. Print.

MacKay, Marina. The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel. New York, Cambridge University

Press: 2011. Print.

Makinen, Merja. Feminist Popular Fiction. New York, Palgrave: 2001. Print.

Russ, Joanna. The Female Man. Boston, Beacon Press: 1975. Print.

Shaw, Debra Benita. Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance. New York,

Palgrave: 2000. Print.