The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale is a cautionary tale warning about a future in which women are stripped of their rights and forced into reproductive slavery. Atwood's use of biblical references throughout the novel accentuates the role that religion plays in the story, particularly as a tool for controlling women's bodies and limiting their freedoms. At the time of the novel's publication in 1985, Atwood was concerned about the rise in political power for Christian groups, particularly the conservative Christian political organization known as the Moral Majority. Today, similar concerns can be seen in the political activism of some Christian groups in America, particularly in the areas of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, Christian

The title of Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is itself a biblical reference, specifically to a passage in Genesis 16:1-4 that tells the story of Sarah and her handmaid, Hagar. In the biblical story, Sarah, who is unable to have children, gives her handmaid Hagar to her husband, Abraham, in order to conceive a child on her behalf. Hagar becomes pregnant and bears a son, Ishmael, but Sarah later becomes jealous and mistreats Hagar, who flees into the desert. The novel's use of the term "handmaid" suggests a similar situation, in which women are used as surrogates to bear children for infertile couples or powerful men. We can confirm the connection by analyzing the ceremony “Above me, towards the head of the bed, Serena Joy is arranged, outspread. Her legs are apart, I lie between them, my head on her stomach, her pubic bone under the base of my skull, her thigh on either side of me. She too is fully clothed, my arms are raised; she holds my hands, each of mine in each of hers. This is supposed to signify that we are one flesh, one

Wade. In recent years, several states in the South have passed laws that target drag queens and transgender citizens, often justifying these laws on religious grounds. For example, in 2019, the state of Louisiana passed a law that would require public schools to notify parents if their child was participating in a class that addressed gender identity or sexual orientation, a law that was opposed by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups as an attempt to stigmatize and ostracize LGBTQ+ youth. Similarly, the state of Arkansas passed a law in 2021 that would prohibit gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender youth, a law that was also criticized by medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates as a violation of human rights. In addition, the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, which effectively bans abortion in many parts of the country, has been championed by religious conservatives who see it as a victory for their anti-abortion stance. These examples illustrate the ways in which some Christian groups are using their religious beliefs to push for policies that restrict individual freedoms and reinforce traditional gender roles, often at the expense of marginalized