The end (?)

I, like Ximena, would like to bring up the end.  Because not only has our class now finished The Handmaid's Tale, but we are essentially finished with blogging as well.  This represents my last required post (though hopefully not the end to my blogging career).  I can't believe that less than a year ago I was totally stumped on how to write my selections for World Lit.  It took me several hours just to commit to the first post I wrote and rewrote and rewrote.  Now, I feel as if I'm simply talking to an old friend.  One who has watched me grow (and maybe mature a little bit) into a true college student.  And now, with the end of freshman year on the horizon, I can't help but feel a little intimidated once again.  In the words of Offred, "whether this is my end or new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can't be helped." (295)

Of course, in Offred's story, this future has the possibility of being much more bleak than mine.  She is either going to be freed or submitted to the eyes for god-knows-what kind of punishment.  The worst I can claim happening to me is dealing with O-chem in my near future.  But I also feel that I am experiencing an end and a beginning.  I will no longer be the naive freshman who secretly carries a map in her backpack.  I will no longer be in world lit, which has become a source of thought and reflection for me, even outside of class.  And, I will no longer be living on campus where chores like cooking and cleaning the bathroom are done for me.

It's rather hard to believe that it's only been a year and yet much in my life has ended and even more has yet to begin.  I could try listing off the future possibilities but it wouldn't do justice to reality.  But I think I can connect myself to the second part of Offred's statement as well.  I have, in a way, given myself over to strangers.  Or former strangers would be more accurate.  I came to UT knowing a small hand-full of kids from my high school.  From there, I threw myself into groups like Plan II and Texas Taekwondo and gave myself to the activities that both participate in.  I've become friends with all sorts of people and in a way, given my life over to them and this new life I have.  It's part of growing up and moving into college I suppose, and I can't wait to see where it leads me next!

Just a few of the people I've given my life and time to.
Picture thanks to Tina Tran.

But I digress.  The point of this last blog was to cover gender discrimination in The Handmaid's Tale as well as in real life.  And I must say, the commander offers a perfect example of sexist stereotyping with much of what he says and does.  For example, while at Jezebel's, he postulates that "Nature demands variety, for men.  It stands to reason, it's part of the procreational strategy.  It's Nature's plan...Women know that instinctively.  Why did they buy so many  different clothes, in the old days?  To trick the men into thinking they were several different women.  A new one each day." (237)

How the hell he got this idea, I haven't a clue.  Women do not buy clothes to put on different personalities.  They do not try to appear varied simply for the sake of a man.  It's like he read an abstract on one of Freud's papers (such as his strange theory of "penis envy") and took it as truth.  My real concern is that there are actually people who believe hookum like this.  Yes, there are polyamorous creatures in the animal kingdom but there are a surprising number of animals who mate for life.  It's not "nature's way" to be a man-slut.  That's just an excuse.  And of course, I can argue on the other side as well.  Maybe I'm old fashioned but anyone taking multiple lovers is just asking for emotional (and potentially financial) trouble.  It just ticks me off that the commander find it "natural" to sleep around. It is an ignorant and scientifically unfounded idea!

This is degrading, and honestly, pretty silly when you think about it.
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