The writer posted a photo on Instagram of herself sitting on a chair and holding a mug with the phrase “I told you so.”
In case her meaning should be misinterpreted, her caption reads “Nova Scotia Coffee with an appropriately sloganized coffee mug…”
As laws governing women’s bodies have proliferated over the past few years, Atwood has become something of an unexpected pop prophet. Her 1985 novel tells the story of Gilead, a fascist theocratic America where women are used as breeding pigs for upper-class families. A Hulu adaptation that first aired in 2017 brought the dark story even further into the cultural conversation.
People dressed in history’s iconic red robes and white bonnets have been a staple of public demonstrations from the women’s march during Donald Trump’s presidency to the recent abortion rights protests after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Atwood admits she had no idea her fiction would ever be so close to reality.
“You write these books so they don’t come true,” she told People in 2017. However, the subjugation and sexual coercion of women has always been a deeply rooted truth in American history. There was nothing fictional about the experiences of black women under slavery, nor is there anything fictional about the experiences of women in poverty, immigrants, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ people, children, and others who are disproportionately at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. Atwood is a vocal supporter of reproductive rights. Following her Instagram post, she further clarified her position on Twitter: “When HandmaidsTale came out in 85, there was disbelief. I thought a religious-right takeover was possible in the US and it was Mad Margaret. Premature but unfortunately too close .. It doesn’t make me happy.”
Add Comment