Capitalism’s reliance on commodity production manufactures oppressive societal structures that treat people as tools for expanding the capitalist state. It is dependent on the subjugation and dehumanization of marginalized groups of people used to further gains in power and wealth for the upper echelons of society––an overwhelmingly white population. As scholars like Laura Pulido show, there is no substantive difference between white supremacy, capitalism, and extractive environmental practices. Capitalism is rooted in acts of taking that lead to extractive ideologies, reinforcing systems of white supremacy through its touting of ecofascist ideologies––essentially, far-right environmentalism that targets marginalized groups of people. This essay analyzes how Hulu’s TV adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale” portrays how white supremacy and patriarchal structures bolster these ideologies to garner total control of land, power, property, wealth, and most importantly, bodies.
Settler-colonial states function by devaluing marginalized groups of people and land. The environment, for the settler-colonial state, is a place to exploit and take. It is property. Often, the treatment of the environment and women’s bodies overlap. Stacy Alaimo states, “female corporeality, has been so strongly associated with nature in Western thought” (5). With this association, it makes sense that women’s bodies are treated as another source for the settler-colonial state to exploit and take from. Fausto-Sterling states: “From the start of the scientific revolution, scientists viewed the earth or nature as female, a territory to be explored, exploited, and controlled (Merchant, 1980). Newly discovered lands were personified as female (…)” (22). This connection between women and the Earth perpetuates the subconscious, yet blatant, narrative of women’s bodies as property. When portrayed as such, it becomes acceptable to exploit the female body to further the gains of people in power and the settler-colonial state.
Further, when the female body is posited as closer to nature than the male body, it becomes less than human. Catherine Roach highlights two points contributing to the harm of positing women as closer to nature and the environment. The first works in conjunction with Fausto-Sterling’s argument about women’s bodies as sites of exploitation. Roach states:
(…) in patriarchal culture nature is overpersonified and women are underpersonified. Women are perceived to merge with nature, to be part of the nonhuman surround and only semihuman. Similarly, nature is perceived as female, as virgin resource to be exploited or raped, as sharing in woman’s semihuman quality (51).
When women are equated to nature by the patriarchy, they become lesser. Roach’s second point dictates how nature has evolved from being perceived as nurturing and full of life to a “lifeless machine.” Roach states:
The prevailing image of nature changed in these two centuries from an organic model of the cosmos as living being to a mechanistic model of the cosmos as machine or inanimate, dead, physical system. Nature was no longer seen as ‘nurturing…sensitive, alive, and responsive to human action’ but as a ‘disorderly and chaotic realm to be subdued and controlled (51).
Women, when seen as nature, become something that must be managed. Perceptions of women and the environment are deeply intertwined. Where nature is perceived as a resource, so are women. Where nature is perceived as dangerous, so are women. Thus, both are sources of extraction that must be controlled.
Furthermore, Hulu’s dystopian adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale depicts the violent extractive practices used by a new far-right, fascist, and white supremacist regime that has overthrown the United States government. In this new society–– “The Republic of Gilead” –– women are completely stripped of their rights, people of color are scarce, and members of the LGBTQ+ population are eradicated or severely punished. In the show, the leaders of the “The Republic of Gilead” promote their regime as a response to the fertility crisis––caused by pollution and environmental toxins. In this way, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts methods of ecofascism. In the show, men in power “address” the fertility crisis by creating a system based on religious extremism that subjugates and dehumanizes women.
Further, while the show functions as both a warning and critique of what the future could look like, it is not wholly anti-racist and/or decolonial. It is worth noting that even with a “diverse” cast, the show engages a white-savior narrative as it follows the story of its white female protagonist. The show makes its impact by hitting close to everyone’s home by depicting a scary reality that does not simply affect people of color but also white people––a reality where whiteness does not always protect access to safety, resources, and security. However, these are the past and current realities for people of color in the United States. For example, Latinx communities continue to face family separation, disparagement of character, and threats of deportation. Latinas, specifically, have unknowingly and forcefully experienced transgressive medical practices, such as forced sterilizations. The United States has and continues to enforce these practices because of the “threats” that Latinx peoples pose to United States hegemony. Leo Chavez states:
The Latino Threat Narrative, as a discourse, is an example of Michel Foucault’s notions of knowledge and power. The objects of this discourse are represented as the Other and as a ‘threat’ and ‘danger’ to the nation through such simple binaries as citizen/foreigner, real Americans/ ‘Mexicans’ or real Americans/ ‘Hispanics,” natives/enemies, us/them, and legitimate/illegal. Once constructed in this way, Mexican and other Latin American immigrants, and even U.S.-born Latinos, can then be represented as ‘space invaders’––as Nirmal Puwar has put it––whose reproduction, both social and biological, threatens to destroy the nation’s identity (45).
Because of the threat to United States hegemony and the “nation’s identity,” Latinx people face unfair and, in some cases, violent treatment in the same way other people of color have experienced since the birth of the nation. The Handmaid’s Tale depicts how people in power wield identical and similar methods of violence to further their agendas of white supremacy, except in the show, people of color are not its only victims.
After the fall of the United States, Gilead’s society functions on the exploitation of women. There are four categories women fall into: Wives, Marthas, Handmaids, and Unwomen. All four silence and deem women as lesser than in Gilead’s patriarchal society. They are relegated to domestic spaces, forced to be silent, forced to reproduce, and if not meeting these standards, forced to die.
Moreover, Gilead’s construction is a response––a response to the environmental and social climate in the United States. While the United States itself is a capitalist nation, marginalized communities exist and take up space (the way they deserve to). Space is thus taken from whiteness, creating violent responses from white supremacy. Laura Pulido discusses how white supremacy can be identified and how it functions. Pulido states:
[White supremacy] can be seen in the fears of a nonwhite nation, whites’ sense of ownership and the right to exclude, and deeply racialized thinking that systematically undermines the well-being of people of color (Rattant and Eberhardt, 2010) (…) at their root they are predicated on the belief that whites are entitled to more, which, in turn, is predicated on the belief that they are more deserving, or ‘better’ than other groups (812).
White supremacist ideologies lead to the construction of Gilead. Pulido describes three major tenets of white supremacy. She highlights the way that it “takes,” is “aware,” and deems whiteness as “racially superior” (813). The Handmaid’s Tale features these tenets working within its scenes, albeit to an extreme level. In each of the three scenes I will analyze, elements of “taking,” “awareness,” and “racial superiority,” can be observed as they intertwine with ecofascism.
The Handmaid’s Tale depicts the events of the before and present of Gilead. The scenes I will be analyzing center discussions surrounding the construction of Gilead by its leaders before the coup, the gruesome rape of handmaid June, and life for women in the colonies.
Scene 1: “Sons of Jacob” (Episode 8)
In this scene, three men sit in the back of a car discussing the creation of the Handmaid’s system. Their conversation goes as follows:
Guthrie: “Pryce, ease up. We can’t afford all that window dressing. The human race is at risk. What is important is efficiency (…) All remaining fertile women should be collected and impregnated by those of superior status, of course.”
Pryce: “You’re talking about concubines.”
Fred: “The wives would never accept it.”
Guthrie: “Well, that’s a non-issue.”
Fred: “No, we won’t succeed without their support. You know that.”
Pryce: “Maybe the wife should be there, for the act. It would be less of a violation.”
Guthrie: “There is scriptural precedent.”
Fred: “‘Act’ may not be the best name, from a branding perspective…The ceremony?”
Here, “taking,” “awareness,” and “racial superiority” bolstered by ecofascism can all be observed. The three men nonchalantly discuss the enslavement of fertile women to save humanity. Guthrie states, “The human race is at risk;” thus, “justifying” the enslavement and subjugation of fertile women.
The entirety of the scene displays the “awareness” of white supremacy. The three men are keenly aware that they are creating a gruesome and harmful system––shown in their doubt that their wives will accept it. Pryce acknowledges that fertile women would be little more than “concubines;” hence, their “rebranding” of the rape itself. They are aware of the implications of their actions, and yet, continue forth with them to benefit their accumulation of power and religious agenda. Further, Laura Pulido’s idea of “taking” exhibits how white supremacy exploits resources at the expense of marginalized groups. This “taking” is intertwined with racial superiority in this scene. Guthrie emphasizes that all fertile women “should be collected and impregnated by those of superior status” ––being those who are white and in power. This scene displays that white supremacy is the driving force behind the creation of Gilead. It also shows the way white supremacy disguises and obscures itself to garner more power.
Scene 2: “The Ceremony” (Episode 1)
The first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale immerses viewers in the world of Gilead from the perspective of the already enslaved, “Offred,” whose real name is June. The episode follows June and her journey into forcibly becoming a handmaid. The most gruesome part of the episode, though, is the household’s participation in “The Ceremony,” pictured below.
Every month, members of the household gather. The household driver, Martha, wife, and commander stand around as its handmaid kneels before them. The commander leads the household in prayer before the handmaid is raped. The Ceremony is seen as a necessary religious ritual that is “pure” and enacted in the hopes of repopulating society.
The Waterford’s household ceremony begins with a reading from the Bible. Accompanied by classical music that features the tell-tale sound of a choir and organ, the Commander states:
“And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob, ‘Give me children or else I die’ (…) “And she said, ‘Behold my maid, Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah, their handmaid, to wife, and Jacob went unto her.”
Mr. and Mrs. Waterford enact this bible verse exactly. During the ceremony, June lies between the legs of Mrs. Waterford who holds her down as she is raped by the commander. As a wife, Mrs. Waterford acts as both a perpetrator and bystander to violence. She watches the rape and reinforces June’s subjugation. Discussions from episode eight come to fruition as June is treated as nothing more than a vessel for exploitation and extraction.
Scene 3: Unwomen in the Colonies (Season 2, Ep. 2)
This final scene takes place in an environmental wasteland where “unwomen” are dumped.
The picture above displays the land where the “unwomen” are forced to work until they die. The land is characterized by dirt, dead plants, and even smoke emanating from the ground they are toiling. The women range from young to old and are sent to the colonies for their “crimes.” Many are part of the LGBTQ+ community and even some of the resistors of Gilead when it first came to be. Most importantly, they are all women.
These women do not have access to clean water, healthcare, food, and living spaces. They are covered in dirt and sores. Their skin is peeling, teeth and hair are falling out, and coughing can be heard throughout the communal living space. Women work untilthey die one by one and are replaced by more “unwomen” as Gilead finds them disposable and not fit for society.
The colonies display the intersection between environment, women, and white supremacy. Gilead is aware that they are sending these women to a nuclear wasteland to die. It is also aware that its society has taken clean land and resources; as well as taking and extracting labor from these women until their deaths. Women are forced into harsh conditions to benefit the comfortable livelihoods of those in power. The colonies display that women and the environment are tightly connected. They are both resources to be exploited yet abandoned when no longer beneficial for Gilead’s goals.
To conclude, Gilead’s leaders use ecofascist ideologies to further their gains in power and to subjugate and exploit women. Women are deemed lesser than human. Thus, like the environment, they are considered simply as resources of extraction. The Handmaid’s Tale provides a lens into a world that allows for white supremacy to thrive under the guise of bettering humanity. And while in some ways problematic, the show reminds us that we cannot be complacent in identifying how logics, such as capitalism, white supremacy, ecofascism, and racism are deeply intertwined and connected.
Works Cited
Alaimo, Stacy. Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self. Indiana University Press, 2010.
Chavez, Leo. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation, Second Edition, Stanford University Press, 2013.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “Gender, Race, and Nation: The Comparative Anatomy of ‘Hottentot’ Women in Europe, 1815-1817.” Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 19–41.
Miller, Bruce. The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 1, episode 1, Hulu, 2017.
Miller, Bruce. The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 1, episode 8, Hulu, 2017.
Miller, Bruce. The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 2, episode 2, Hulu, 2017.
Pulido, Laura. “Geographies of race and ethnicity 1.” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 39, no. 6, 21 Jan. 2015, pp. 809–817, https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132514563008.
Roach, Catherine. “Loving your mother: On the Woman-Nature Relation.” Hypatia, vol. 6, no. 1, 1991, pp. 46–59, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1991.tb00208.x.