How Violence Against Women In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Awakens an Important Awareness to Current Events

As part of their ongoing analysis of the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale, Debra Minoff and Susannah McCullough of ScreenPrism take a hard look at the extreme amount of violence used against women in the series and poses the question, “Why are we still watching?” It’s not that the violence is titillating or enjoyable. It is not fun to watch nor is it even realistic. Instead, the series offers a worst case scenario against which viewers can prepare. It awakens an important awareness to what’s happening in current events and to fight like June if necessary.

We are currently in a divided contentious era. Politically the story by following its own internal logic will naturally arrive at emotional and thematic resonances with events in our world …what we’re really recognizing here is an emotional reality. There is a mirror of our American society in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It’s not a literal one but a reflection of something that we recognize.