Discrimination Against Women

The Handmaid’s Tale brings up many modern day issues that continue to occur, but the major one is the mistreatment of women in religion. We all already know how Islam has a male dominant culture, but a lot of other religions have sexism ingrained in them too. This article, by the Huffington Post, talks about how sexism exists in Christianity. “In many world religions, women are making inroads in religious professions but the trend is resisted by the Catholic Church that allows women to serve as nuns but bans ordination.” Women are not allowed to hold the same position of a man, which is unreasonable, because there is no logical reason prohibiting women to hold the same religious reason as men. In fact, other countries like Denmark or Sweden “ordains women and admits them as bishops.” Women have more religious freedom in other countries than they do here. In the olden times, in Greece, women had a leading role in religious rituals. “This was true in ancient Greece, for example, where priestesses presided over festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, but this was nevertheless a heavily male-dominated society and the priestesses did not advocate female domination.” Despite them being important in religion however, they were still unequal to men in a societal way. 

Concentrating on how society has sexism within it reveals parallels to sexism in religion. I brought up Sweden and Denmark as an example before, and it illustrates perfectly how where women are allowed to achieve the highest professions, they’re also more equality between men and women in church positions. “So countries like Sweden and Denmark in which women achieve at the highest level in most professions -- and are broadly represented in political life -- are also places where women serve as ministers and adopt other leadership roles in churches.” Now looking at the society in the US, it’s easy to see that not many women are in politics. Comparatively, not many women are allowed to be part of higher church positions, like bishops in Sweden and Denmark. All in all, religion, in general, is more in favor of men than women. It’s clearly seen in The Handmaid’s Tale because the men have all the power, like the Commanders, but the women are essentially just used for breeding purposes.  

Children of Men

In Children of Men we catch a glimpse of a torn world that no longer has children, the youngest being around 18 years old, Diego Ricardo. Just the first part of the movie, to when Diego dies, we can see that people treat Diego almost like a God, weeping over is death in masses. Only his age made him special, made him famous, nothing else. I personally found it odd that people would exalt Diego in such manner when he was just another person. There was no reason to make him the most famous person alive, just because of his existence as the youngest person. He didn't hold any salvation for humankind, he was just another person. So why did they treat him in such manner? My own guess was that he was symbolic of humanity's last hope. He was their shining beacon of salvation, that he could manage to rescue them from the pit of extinction. Maybe if they believed hard enough he was special, he would be special. Although one thing I noticed between Diego Ricardo and someone truly special was the situations they were in. When we see Diego, he's swarmed by a massive, screaming crowd, everyone trying to see him, and then he's dead. The truly special person is the Fuji, the person considered by everyone else to be worthless. Kee, when she walks through the war torn building with the baby in her hands, ceases all fighting. Everyone stands in awe at seeing a real baby, and war is forgotten. There is a serene moment of peace, completely unlike Diego, who caused chaos and turmoil.

Focusing on the names, the first obvious one is Theo. Theo, in greek means God. Also, another thing related to Theo, the character in the movie, is that all animals love him. When he first arrives at the hideout, two dogs run up to him, and the owner comments how they normally hate everyone. Another allusion of Theo being related to god is the very last scene of the movie. Theo, now in the boat with Kee, is bleeding to death. The wound is on the right side of his chest, a striking similarity to Jesus Christ. The last and final wound Jesus Christ suffered was a stab from the Holy Lance, straight to his right side of his chest, killing him, just like Theo. Another name was Jasper, the father of Theo. Jasper was one of the three wise men present at Jesus Christ's birth. It also means, "Bringer of Treasure." That "treasure" that Jasper brought was Theo, who was there to protect Kee's child from everyone. Speaking of Kee's child, in the end we learn the name of the baby's name she finally decided on, Dylan. In this scene, they are adrift on the sea, Theo slowly dying, and Kee decided upon the name. Looking up the meaning of Dylan, I saw it meant "Born near the sea," which is exactly where Kee was when she gave birth, near the sea. Lastly, focusing on Kee's name, it sounds highly similar to "Key." If you consider her name to be Key instead, you get to see that she essentially is a key. Because of her ability to get pregnant, she is the key to possibly unlocking the pandemic of women being unable to conceive. She is a key that unlocks the door to humanity's continued survival.

All in all, the movie was great, and thought provoking. It did bring some questions to me, like how did it all start, what caused it? There was a reference to a flu, and that it killed many children, but why didn't affect the adults, and how did it cause the miscarriages? Was it because of the massive amount of pollution, or something else? Do you think that because Kee is able to conceive, other Fuji can too, or is it just her? Will she manage to raise the entire world back up with just the baby girl she has, or will they force her to remain in a certain place, giving them the most power over everyone else? And lastly, what happens to the Fuji? Will their living condition and treatment be improved? Or will they essentially becomes "breeders" like how there are in A Handmaiden's Tale. But that's all just left to the power of imagination if things will improve or worsen.

Our Worst Fear

It’s hard to imagine living in a world where nearly everything that is dependent on something is rendered useless. Computers, phones, fridges, etc, all run on one single source of power: Electricity. In Life As We Knew It, our nightmares come to life, and there is no electricity anymore. It only comes one for brief amounts of time, maybe from 10 to 30 minutes, or for a couple hours, but not every single day. It’s a situation hard to imagine in our life, but it happens everyday across the globe. This article by the Huffington Post speaks about the electricity shortages that happen in Pakistan everyday. I have been to Pakistan myself, and because my family lives in a more privileged area, the power shortages aren’t as severe, only for two hours every day. “Power can be out for up to 20 hours a day in the summer.” This applies to everyone, an issue not in Life As We Knew It. People have electricity in hospitals, where in Pakistan, sick people have to suffer the intense heat and their sickness for nearly 20 hours without electricity. “Public hospitals like the one in Gujar Khan, which care for the majority who can't afford private hospitals, generally draw power from two grids, but nowadays, especially in the hot months, there's sometimes no electricity coming from either grid.” The hospitals in Pakistan suffer the same fate as everyone else, not receiving the power they so desperately need for operations and comfort of the patients. The issue of not enough electricity is highlighted in Life As We Knew It, but it has been prevalent in the world for quite a while.