Ladies, you’re probably enjoying watching Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a (formerly) dystopian novel set in the “future,” where, after an epidemic of infertility, a totalitarian government has taken over and is forcing women to bear children for infertile couples in power.
You may have read the novel when it came out in the ’80s and felt a sense of relief that you didn’t live in a country that would do such a thing. But now, as it becomes less likely that President Trump will finish his term and we face the possibility of a Pence presidency, it’s time to decide which role you’ll play in our inevitable future in Atwood’s Gilead. (It’s just right outside of Boston, so start looking at airfares now for the best deals.)
It’s hard to decide. I’m still fertile, so I could conceivably do the Handmaid’s job.
Plus: I look great in red.
Minus: Velvet would be pretty oppressive in the summer.
Plus: Cute bonnet! And who really uses their peripheral vision?
Minus: State-mandated intercourse with a stranger while lying in the lap of another woman seems awkward.
So that’s a wash.