Sexism and Society: How Women of Gilead and Women of Modern America Endure Similar Trials, Tests, and Tough Times Women of modern day America can relate to the women of Gilead in the manner in which they are treated. In Gilead, many women were merely, to the government, slaves to be used for domestic practices: childbearing, food production, housekeeping, and leadership. Treatment of these women was harsh; consequences of going against Gileadean laws could equal deportation to a dangerous nuclear waste land, mutilation, or execution, among other forms of physical punishment. Nowadays, in modern American women’s lives, many injustices are experienced. These can come in various forms, such as trivialization in the classroom, receiving less pay …show more content…
For both the Handmaids of Gilead and women of modern day America, there are a lack of occasions or events for women to partake in. In the Gileadean society, at the Centers where Handmaids were trained, they were able to do little --eat, sleep, and be trained--causing a boring existence with no time for recreation, athletics, or freelance time. There was no time for the Handmaids to be physically active other than the forced labor exercises on the floor and breathing drills that were supposed to prepare them if they ever underwent childbirth (Atwood 70). In the modern age of America, women have long been limited as well in exercise and sports. In the beginning of the twentieth century, sports for females were limited to private clubs for white women to play sports like golf. Additionally at this time, some black females at segregated colleges and schools were enabled to participate in sports in their educational institutions, and some girls’ basketball teams were formed in some rural schools (Lumpkin). Jumping to the present day, while there has been improvement in the opportunities open for women, men still seem to dominate the sports world. Concerning the ratio of male to female coaches, for example, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) institutions, “78.7% of directors in athletics...are males…57.2% of the coaches of women’s teams are males” (Lumpkin). …show more content…
In recent years, a large trend in American culture has been one that promotes unattainable physical perfection. Many women strive for this impossible feat, hurting themselves in the process. There are frequent presentations “of atypically thin and conventionally beautiful models in advertisements,” not allowing representation or celebration of larger-framed women, or women with features that do not fit into a conventionally beautiful set (Turner). Also, advertisers target women by utilizing association; they may implement an upset woman into an advertisement where she then goes and gorges on an unhealthy food. Through advertisements like these, women “are urged to become obsessed with chocolate, cake, and ice cream” when upset (Turner). Women are expected to achieve an impossible perfection, such as being asked to cram chocolate ice cream constantly into their mouths while still being a size zero. This is similar to Offred’s situation as a Handmaid, in which she is told at the Center that she is among those who will “save” the society, and is given training only on how to be a perfect child bearer through “floor exercises [and] the breathing drill” (Atwood 26). Objectification lies in both the Handmaid’s lives and women of modern American lives, in which they are degraded to one to be used for sex or bearing children, one to be associated as weak, or one who “should” be physically