Every individual who gains something can never bath in that happiness for long because they are struck by what they have lost by gaining it. In this case, gaining feminism has robbed them of their main happiness which lies in the hands of men. Men continue to have high dominance over woman because women are unstable due to their desires to please and impress them. Not only have they lost this element but they have also been blamed for many things that media and books have promoted. This includes the rise in slasher movies and how abortion made acceptable makes graphic murders on screen seem alright.
In A Handmaid’s Tale , something completely opposing this situation occurred. Faludi states that gaining feminism robbed them of their happiness in men. Atwood states that losing liberation robbed them of their happiness in men. Offred and Luke were married, had a daughter and were equals to each other. When policies were set straight and freedom was robbed from all, romance was forbidden and true love was destroyed.
Megan Marshall, a Harvard-pedigreed writer says, “Myth of Independence has turned her generation into unloved and unhappy fast-trackers, dehumanized by careers and uncertain of their gender identity.” (544) “Dehumanized” is the word that struck out to me here. In A Handmaid’s Tale, losing their freedom has caused a similar effect. They are not dehumanized but they are meant to act as if they have no feelings at all, almost as if they are machines. One situation that illustrates this thought very well is when Serena Joy is lying on the bed and Offred’s head is placed in her crotch. The commander then comes in and has sex with Offred. The reason why Serena is present in the room is to firstly make sure that no romance will occur and secondly the positioning makes it seem as if Serena Joy is the woman having sex with the Commander. The fact that this is a duty to all Handmaids’ disgusts me because they have no emotion in this sexual act which is meant to be pleasurable. No romance or emotion is shown from any of these three characters.
Women have not been liberated if there is so much loss that comes out of it. Woman’s misery has only increased since feminism has risen to power. “The ranks of women protesting discriminatory treatment in business, political and personal life climbed sharply.” (545) Achieving freedom hardly proved to do anything beneficial for women overall. “Man shortage” and “Infertility epidemic” (546) that occurs is not the cause of unhappiness to woman in the last decade but rather society propaganda that stirs up anxieties in women. Women care too much for the approval of both men and society which are the two main obstacles that obstruct a woman’s way to freedom. In I AM NOT A BARBIE DOLL, “it asks that women be free to define themselves – instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and men.” (548)
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