Margaret Atwood tweets:

[eilen]

"Near shut-down of U.S. Gov't, cutting off jobs, pensions, ++, & recklessly endangering economy & social stability - Handmaid'sT looms closer"

[BuelahWitch]

1. "A Handmaid's Tale" should be required reading

especially for girls.

[sasha031]

2. who knew then that book was a prophesy of things to come...

[ljm2002]

3. A lot of us feared it might be... n/t

[Tesha]

21. Indeed! It was only a slight extrapolation from what the Religious Right was clammoring for! (NT)

[Luminous Animal]

5. 15-ish years ago, on discussion boards, I was telling people that the Handmaid's tale was prophesy..

and advising young women to take be ever vigilant and join fight that their elders had been battling for decades. Based on their reaction, you'd think I'd asked them to cut off their heads... I was ridiculous, old, a fear monger, passe, blah blah blah...

And yet, here we are.

[MadMaddie]

9. I was saying the same thing

[Mojorabbit]

18. We need women's studies in the schools

or at least some good history. I had a younger friend in her 40's tell me she thought all that feminist stuff was an overreaction in the day. She has no idea where women were at in the 60's and 70's. I told her I was there and told he how things used to be. I used to have to get a husband's signature before a woman could have a hysterectomy when I graduated from nursing school and started working. I had to have my checking account co signed by my father after my divorce in the early 80's and he had to cosign for me to buy a car even though I had perfect credit, had already paid off two cars with a perfect record, and had a good job because I was a divorcee. Hell we still do not have equal pay for equal work. I remember when you were supposed to give up your seat in the nurses station to the doctors and fetch them coffee and put up with groping.

[cali]

7. really? oh for pity's sake.

we are not living in that world or even fucking close. drama. silly drama.

[eilen]

8. Granted, women are not required to wear color-coded

clothing yet. And they haven't destroyed the environment quite enough to make the men sterile. Give them time.

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. True that. Give them time.

:grr:

[AndyTiedye]

14. Not Yet. We Are One Lost Election Away From It Though

If Fuckabee or Palin ever get into the White House, that will be one of the results.

[femrap]

4. I agree and throw in

'1984' as well.

[ejpoeta]

12. i have never heard of it. i guess i will have to read it now.

[leftstreet]

16. I disagree. It's a HORRIBLE book for girls

It's just more slop in the overproduced Terrorize Women industry. It simply desensitizes both genders to patriarchy.

A far FAR better read: Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg

Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg (born October 27, 1941) is a Norwegian author, teacher, and feminist writer. She is also the cousin of radio and TV entertainer Lars Mjøen.

Her most famous novel is Egalias døtre ("The Daughters of Egalia"), which was published in 1977 in Norway. In the novel the female is defined as the normal and the male as the abnormal, subjugated sex. All words that are normally in masculine form are given in a feminine form, and vice versa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Brantenberg

...But for better or for worse, as the masculist party begins to organize and protest, the landscape of Egalia threatens to change forever. More than just a humorous romp, Egalia's Daughters poses the provocative question of whether the culprit in gender subjugation is gender itself or power-no matter who wields it.

-from Google books

[demmiblue]

6. Rachel made a Margaret Atwood reference the other night regarding the GOP and Planned Parenthood.

The GOP's obsession with uteri is creepy.

[babydollhead]

10. 1989 Woman's March For Equality D.C.

we all wore white. It was my first March on Washington. We walked right by the White House chanting, "Free Barbra Bush!"

I stayed in a house with women from all over the country. I had just read The Handmaids Tale, and I was sorry because it scared me. One woman looked right at me and said, "You'd better be glad you read it. It could happen!"

[janet118]

13. Doesn't the book begin with Offred trying to . . .

escape to Canada with her husband and child? It's been a long time since I read it. It's a 1984 for girls and women.

[eilen]

20. They do try to escape.

I haven't reread it in a long time. I remember when it was first published and I read it in the 80's. I think I read it again in 2001 or 2. Obviously, they do not escape and her daughter is adopted by another couple. I don't think they say what happened to her husband. Maybe he gets sent out to the labor camps. Since she has had a child, she is made a handmaid. It is what fundie views on women lead to--taken to their logical conclusion.

[themadstork]

15. Kind of tacky plugging her own book.

[MadHound]

17. Well, first of all, I don't see it as plugging her own book,

But rather making a common cultural reference.

Remember, tweets require extensive shorthand in order to communicate, and by making the Handmaid's Tale reference, Atwood was sending a very direct and complicated message.

[kestrel91316]

19. FAIL

[backscatter712]

22. My roommate just read that book.

I just put a copy of it on my smartphone, so I'll probably read it sooner or later. Sounds like a really good book.