Handmaid's Tale

So I just finished reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and I could not be more in agreeance with its messages. In case you don’t know, the book was written during the first waves of feminism and civil rights movements and depicts a dystopian society known as the Republic of Gilead which took over what used to be known as the United States in 1985. The book addresses various social controversies which were present at the time, and frankly most of which are issues I still see today such as governmental power, the power of language, and most importantly feminism and gender conflict. As I'm sure you guys know, I believe gender equality is a major issue in society today and I believe it needs to be talked about and advocated for more
She is Offred’s best friend in the book and also a stark lesbian who believes in female resourcefulness and independence. Moira is only ever mentioned through Offred’s flashbacks where she mentions the numerous times Moira tried to escape as, since she was a lesbian, she rejected male-female sexual interaction which is the only kind Gilead values. Moira essentially held the notion that living solely with women would solve many of the problems women were currently facing. What interesting however is that in many ways Gilead does provide an individual society for women. Most Women have very little interaction or contact with men. Women are expected to treat each other in times of sickness and birth. Of course this is not the ideal society but it is certainly more gender separative than it was. For this reason it seems as though Atwood is suggesting that one of the flaws of the feminist movement is the belief that women should automatically feel loyalty to one another. I could not agree more with this notion as I do not see how gender separation could possibly be the answer to gender
Offred in the novel represents the complacency of women as before Gilead she didn't necessarily consider herself a feminist. She feared influencing her life with feminism would alienate her from men. Offred is a fairly passive character throughout the book and in my eyes it seems as though she actually started to see life in Gilead as almost bearable following her relationship with Nick. To me, it became clear that Offred began to understand that feminism simply forces women to recognize their own natural alienation from men, and it is the feminine itself who creates this