Women In The Handmaid's Tale By Margret Atwood

The concept of a safe space for oppressed groups has existed throughout history. Women in particular have built numerous communities to help and support one another. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margret Atwood explores bathrooms as a safe space for women away from men. The Handmaid’s Tale follows Offred, who is the protagonist as well as a Handmaid in Gilead, a dystopian society where women are divided and valued only for their ability to fulfill certain roles. These include the ability to reproduce, as well as the ability to fulfill stereotypically feminine roles, such as doing housework or being a wife. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood invents the bathroom as a safe space for the women in dystopian Gilead where they experience comfort, safety,
Offred presents her day-to-day life as being constantly watched for any acts of subversion. On their daily walks, the handmaids are encouraged to inform on one another. In the Red Center, the Aunts would quickly quell any signs of discontent. Nonetheless, restrooms provide women with the chance to speak freely. The bathroom in the Red Center had a hole in the wall that Offred and Moira used to communicate because that was the only place that they can speak of forbidden things, such as Moira’s escape plan, without being overheard and informed upon. Bathrooms are one of few places where the handmaids can enjoy a degree of freedom even remotely close to what they had in their previous lives. A similar phenomenon occurs at the club that the Commander takes Offred to. There the women feel free to speak their minds, despite the possibility of being recorded by the government, either because they no longer fear the government or simply do not care what happens to them anymore. While in the bathroom, Offred does not censor herself as she might normally do because she knows that the way that she can act in the bathroom differs greatly from the rest of her