Becoming a Perfect Wife, by Any Means Necessary

The Handmaid’s Tale depicts brutal persecution in a totalitarian America where women who show rebellion lose eyes, tongues, and sometimes their lives. Red-cloaked women bowing to the ground functions as a visual shorthand for female oppression. The Testaments, set four years after those events, takes place in Gilead, the authoritarian state that replaced the United States. It follows “Plums,” teen daughters of the ruling aristocracy, who are trained to be prim, proper, hyperfeminine, and perfect wives for powerful men. Gilead sells the system as ideal, using the worldwide fertility crisis as justification. Control becomes easier when subjugation appears desirable, but the training reveals a sadistic reality through coercion and violence.

"Over the course of six seasons, the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale became known for its brutality. Women who reveal any hint of rebellion against their oppressors, including the government officials to whom some are forcibly betrothed, lose their eyes, their tongue, and sometimes their life. Women who revealed any hint of rebellion against their oppressors, including the government officials to whom some were forcibly betrothed, lost their eyes, their tongue, and sometimes their life."

"The image of red-cloaked women bowing their head to the ground is used as a blunt visual shorthand for female oppression in what the series depicts as a dystopian, totalitarian America. The Handmaid's Tale focuses on vicious persecution. Hulu's sequel, The Testaments-which, like its predecessor, is based on a Margaret Atwood novel-examines a subtler tool for discipline: aspiration."

"The Testaments offers a shrewd observation: It's easier to control people to whom subjugation seems desirable. The illusion of desirability does not hold for long, however. The more viewers see of the girls' training-which toggles between simple andcoercive, even violent-the clearer it becomes that Gilead's messaging obscures a sadistic reality."

"The Testaments unfolds in the authoritarian state that replaced the United States, which has been renamed Gilead. It follows a young, impressionable group of characters: the daughters of the ruling aristocracy. This group of teen girls is referred to as "Plums"; they are nubile and always immaculately dressed, and hope to become perfect wives to the nation's most powerful men. To that end, they undergo strict training in how to be prim, proper, and hyperfeminine."

Read at The Atlantic