I feel like “romanticize your life” actually means “perform for an imaginary voyeur.” Men don’t do this shit.
You’re literally correct. Every iteration I’ve seen of someone “romanticizing” blah blah blah has been about skincare, diet, gaslighting themselves into being pleasant about something uncomfortable, etc
Or it’s about viewing your life as if it’s a film, focused on creating beautiful imagery for an external viewer, and that’s so…. unhealthy?
“Romanticizing my life by reading by candlelight in my silk nightgown” do you actually enjoy that? Or do you enjoy the image you think it’s creating? Do you enjoy the tableau that you can’t even see, but you imagine you must be creating for someone who isn’t even watching?
This post has made a lot of people very angry and that’s how I know it’s a good post and I’m right.
i want to know you forever and i wish i’d never met you
waiting room, phoebe bridgers | true stories, margaret atwood | cleopatra, the lumineers | unfortunately, it was paradise: selected poems, mahmoud darwish | chinese satellite, phoebe bridgers | crush, richard siken | maurice, e.m. forster | waiting room, phoebe bridgers
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1: If you were a teacher, I would fail your class Take it over and over ‘til you noticed me If you were a waiting room, I would never see a doctor I would sit there with my first aid kit and bleed
2: I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed & that necessary.
3: But I must admit it, that I would marry you in an instant Damn your wife, I’d be your mistress just to have you around.
4: We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are.
5: But you know I’d stand in the corner Embarrassed with a picket sign If it meant I would see you when I die.
6: You said I could have anything I wanted, but I just couldn’t say it out loud.
7: I should have gone through life half awake if you had the decency to leave me alone. Awake intellectually, yes, and emotionally in a way; but here–” He pointed with his pipe stem to his heart; and both smiled. “Perhaps we woke up one another. I like to think that way.
8: I know it’s for the better Know it’s for the better (x19)
Set in a dystopian world and military dictatorship called the Republic of Gilead, the novel explores themes such as censorship, oppression and rebellion; a society where women have extremely limited freedoms and are assigns ‘roles’ such as being an Agatha – a cook and house servant or Handmaid – to provide children for powerful households through ‘the ceremony’ whereby Housemaids have sex with the male head of the household with his wife present due to the decrease in births as a result of sexually transmitted diseases.
Religious fanaticism is an undertone that runs throughout the novel, with the regime having doctored the Old Testament to legitimise and empower their cause. The narrator Offred is a Handmaid and often flicks between past and present events as well as memories throughout the novel to allows the reader to have insight into the events leading up to the patriarchal takeover. Events such as the burning of lingerie due to their ‘hyper sexualisation’ of women and the new view that the female body must be covered at all times with exposure leading to execution. In the new regime, women are robbed of many basic rights such as the freedom of speech, banned from talking to anyone outside of their household and reading.
I absolutely loved this book, it was such an interesting read and the way the novel is structured means that you are constantly drip fed new information from how the Republic was established and Offred’s life Pre-Gilead with her husband and daughter. This is one of the few books that I would definitely read again and again because the concept and execution are so captivating that you can’t help but be enticed and drawn in by it. To me the novel echoes satire of politics and social constructs in the 1980’s at the time of Atwood’s writing and can be critically analysed through feminism, politics, sociology and the hierarchal structure of society – more specifically regarding the patriarchy.
Overall this was an intensely captivating and interesting read that I can’t recommend highly enough. Deserving of 9/10 because I really really enjoyed this book and didn’t want it to end! I definitely will be reading it again, and you should definitely give it a try if you’re looking for something that’s going to get you thinking this summer!
Make sure to check out my giveaway ending 11th August if you haven’t already!
It’s set in a future America taken over by religious maniacs, who reform all public institutions to an Old-Testament style theocracy. As fertility rates crash, women’s bodies have been co-opted by the government. This is the story of one of these women.
Wait. Is this a feminist thing?
Yes. This is a feminist thing. As with Nineteen Eighty-Four, it’s a warning about what it means to have certain opinions and support certain politicised ideologies.
I don’t want to be bashed over the head with a “message”.
You would only feel like that if you have some problem with women, in which case, you’re probably not reading this blog. If you’ve read Game of Thrones and you think The Handmaid’s Tale is too rough in its treatment of women, you should present yourself to the relevant authorities at first light.
What should I say to make people think I’ve read it?
“You had a sensitive nervous system. You had an enhanced reaction to reality. You were very affectionate. You appreciated things. You appreciated them more than other people. You practically went into trances of rapture. You wanted the world to be better than it was.”
@booksociety’sAll Things Victorian event: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
“Murderess is a strong word to have attached to you. It has a smell to it, that word. Musky and oppressive, like dead flowers in a vase. Sometimes at night I whisper it over to myself.
Murderess. Murderess.
It rustles like a taffeta skirt across the floor.”
Great news! If you are a geek girl (or even if you’re not) and would like to read comics and stories written by other geek girls about love and dating and relationship advice, have I got the book for you!
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is packed with all of your favourite geek girls including Kate Leth, Marguerite Bennett, Sam Maggs, Soha Kareem, ALB, Emma Woolley, Cara Ellison, and so many more, including MARGARET FREAKING ATWOOD.
You should definitely support this project, and reblog this post. It is going to be epic.
Also! I am writing a thing for it. About the apocalypse and marriage. Which isn’t as dire as it sounds. But if you want to read it, you have to support the project!
