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The Handmaid’s Tale in Context

The Handmaid’s Tale in Context. Feminism. Overview. Definitions of feminism History of feminism First wave feminism Second wave feminism Atwood’s interpretation of feminism. Key Terms. POWER. What is feminism?. I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves. 

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The Handmaid’s Tale in Context

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  1. The Handmaid’s Tale in Context Feminism

  2. Overview • Definitions of feminism • History of feminism • First wave feminism • Second wave feminism • Atwood’s interpretation of feminism

  3. Key Terms

  4. POWER

  5. What is feminism? I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.  • Mary Wollstonecraft Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.  • Mary Wollstonecraft I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is:  I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute.  • Rebecca West, "Mr Chesterton in Hysterics: A Study in ejudice," The Clarion, 14 Nov 1913

  6. What is feminism? Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood. • Gloria Steinem This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. • Gloria Steinem

  7. What is feminism? Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.  • Betty Friedan Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.  • Erica Jong

  8. What is feminism? Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up. • Margaret Atwood Feminism has led the way in demystifying personal relations, forcefully insisting they are political to the core. • Elizabeth Fox Genovese Feminism Without Illusions

  9. The Backlash

  10. I listen to feminists and all these radical gals - most of them are failures.  They've blown it.  Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom.  These women just need a man in the house.  That's all they need.  Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home.  And they blew it and they're mad at all men.  Feminists hate men.  They're sexist.  They hate men - that's their problem.  • Jerry Falwell

  11. The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians. • Pat Robertson I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that’s the way it is, period. • Pat Robertson The 700 Club, Jan. 8, 1992

  12. Turning points in the role of women

  13. Married Love • Marie Stopes • Scandalous sex manual published in 1928 • Stopes pioneered family planning • Controversially an advocate of eugenics An impersonal and scientific knowledge of the structure of our bodies is the surest safeguard against prurient curiosity and lascivious gloating.

  14. World War II • Women required to leave the home and enter the factories to aid America’s war effort. • Following WWII women were forced back into the home as the men returned from war. • Despite this, female participation in work has increased.

  15. The Pill • Women’s contraception had been a controversial issue with Margaret Sanger a vocal advocate. • The first oral contraceptive became popular throughout the 60s. • Reinforced the ability of women to make choices about their own sexuality. • Women could adopt attitudes to sex not unlike those of men.

  16. Roe vs Wade • Supreme Court made abortion legal under the 14th Amendment, which established a right to privacy. • This case still polarises the left and right of US politics. • For good or ill, the case legally empowered women over their own bodies.

  17. Sandra Day O’Connor • First woman on the Supreme Court • Appointed by Reagan in 1991 • Retired in 2006

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