Why The Handmaid's Tale Is So Timely

In a dystopian near future, war and infertility have turned America into a totalitarian police state. The few fertile women are bought and sold as breeders for rich families, and are forbidden from working, handling money or even reading. The themes of gender equality, sexual freedom and religious persecution are, worringly, even more relevant in 2017's Hulu adaptation that in Margaret Atwood's original 1985 novel.

Indeed, many conservatives are already vilifying the days-old series as a reaction against the Trump presidency and the subsequent threat to women's rights. But the issues raised within the show go far beyond the United States. The first episode alone features children being torn from the arms of desperate refugees, homosexuals tortured and hanged, and religious despots railing against the evils of birth control and abortion.

The everyday sexism in the show is far more subtle, yet equally chilling. Two women are called 'sluts' by a strange man for no reason, their bank accounts are assigned to male relatives, and even their jobs are given away to less qualified men. It's not just the evil perpetrators who are at fault here; it's the ordinary men, who stand aside and enjoy their privilege, even as the women around them are rounded up and disappear. The truly chilling thing about the story is that there is no one women can trust, from men in power to the ones in their own homes. This is an aspect of life that many women around the world can relate to, and something that will only worsen unless drastic, global changes are made.