Virgin Mary, Offred and the frightening lessons of 'The Handmaid's Tale'

AMERICAN MAGAZINE
By Eloise Blondiau

The state religion depicted in The Handmaid—pro-birth, anti-abortion but also anti-life—will be seen by many Christians as a distortion of their own faith, but it still bears hallmarks of Judaeo-Christianity.

The Blessed Virgin’s radical female presence opens up the possibility of a relationship with God for many Catholics. Unfortunately, a historical overemphasis on Mary’s assumption, virginity and Immaculate Conception, to the eclipse of her other qualities, has led to....incomplete images have also been used to create a rigid view of women, including Mary herself. If anyone doubted the damage a shallow, sanitized Marian ideal of womanhood could inflict—on women, on faith and on the church—Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale shows us. The Handmaid shows us that that terrible things happen when there is only one acceptable religion to practice or when there is only one way to be a woman. [link]