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“ We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly .” Atwood

“ We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly .” Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale & Feminism. “Mother, I think…Can you hear me? You wanted a woman’s culture. Well, now there is one, It isn’t what you meant, but it exists, Be thankful for small mercies.”.

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“ We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly .” Atwood

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  1. “We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.” Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale & Feminism “Mother, I think…Can you hear me? You wanted a woman’s culture. Well, now there is one, It isn’t what you meant, but it exists, Be thankful for small mercies.”

  2. ‘Born a Woman’ Sandy Posey 1966 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWDZ0YpgViU It makes no difference if you're rich or poorOr if you're smart or dumbA woman's place in this old world Is under some man's thumbAnd if you're born a womanYou're born to be hurtYou're born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated onAnd treated like dirtAh if you're born a womanYou're born to be hurtA woman's lot is to give and giveAnd go on givingA woman's got to love and loseAnd go on livingWell I was born a womanI didn't have no sayAnd when my man finally comes homeHe makes me glad it happened that wayBecause to be his womanNo price is too great to payYes I was born a womanI'm glad it happened that wayOh I was born a woman I'm glad it happened that way

  3. I am woman, hear me roarIn numbers too big to ignoreAnd I know too much to go back an' pretend'Cause I've heard it all beforeAnd I've been down there on the floorNo one's ever gonna keep me down againOh yes, I am wiseBut it's wisdom born of painYes, I've paid the priceBut look how much I gainedIf I have toI can do anythingI am strong (strong)I am invincible (invincible)I am womanYou can bend but never break me'Cause it only serves to make meMore determined to achieve my final goalAnd I come back even strongerNot a novice any longer'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soulOh, yes, I am wiseBut it's wisdom born of painYes, I've paid the priceBut look how much I gainedIf I have toI can face anythingI am strong (strong)I am invincible (invincible)I am womanI am woman watch me growSee me standing toe to toeAs I spread my lovin' arms across the landBut I'm still an embryoWith a long, long way to goUntil I make my brother understandOh, yes, I am wiseBut it's wisdom born of painYes, I've paid the priceBut look how much I gainedIf I have toI can face anythingI am strong (strong)I am invincible (invincible)I am womanOh, I am womanI am invincibleI am strongI am womanI am invincibleI am strongI am woman • Helen Reddy, 1972 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMESM8JKOg

  4. The Lifeless Wife Atwood The lifeless wife Kisses with pursed lips Her grim husband (thin Pinstriped businessman); She is his safe Deposit box and bank The nickelodeon That plays his favourite tune She was just an ordinary Woman: all he had to do To make her fully his In pure domestic bliss Was just break through Her backbone, empty out her head Stuff her heart with money And bury her in bed.

  5. Plan of attack Handouts Frieden and de Beauvoir English Review With the people around you share what you ‘coloured-in’and be able to share what you’ll take from the readings into the novel? Examples from the novel & how is the feminist message subverted in Gilead?

  6. Examples of how Feminism has been subverted in the novel? • There is more than one kind of freedom…Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it. (5, 34) • We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society dying…of too much choice. (5, 35) • There is no such thing as a sterile man any more, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law. • But whose fault was it? Her fault, her fault, her fault (13, 82) • For the generations that come after..it will be better. The women will live in harmony together, all in one family; you will be like daughters to them…women united for a common end…Why expect one woman to carry out all the functions necessary to the serene running of a household? It isn’t reasonable or humane…But we can’t be greedy pigs and demand too much before it’s ready, now can we? (26, 171/2) • Don’t you remember the terrible gap between the ones who could get a man easily and the ones who couldn’t? ….This way they all get a man, nobody’s left out….what did we overlook? Love, I said. (34, 230) • Consider the alternatives, said Aunt Lydia. You see what things used to be like? That was what they thought of women, then. Her voice trembled with indignation (20, 128) • FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. EVER BABY A WANTED BABY. RECAPTURE OUR BODIES. DO YOU BELIEVE A WOMAN”S PLACE IS ON THE KITCHEN TABLE? Under the last sign there’s a line drawing of woman’s body, lying on a table, blood dripping out of it. (20, 130) • We are for breeding purposes(21, 146)… we are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.

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