Over the course of six seasons, the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale it was known for its cruelty. Women who reveal any hint of rebellion against their oppressors, including government officials some of whom have been married by force, lose their eyes, tongue, and sometimes their lives. The image of women dressed in red bowing their heads down serves as a clear cut to the oppression of women in what the series portrays as. dystopian, totalitarian America.
The Handmaid’s Tale it features intense suffering. Hulu sequel, Covenants-which, like its predecessor, depends on a Margaret Atwood the novel—explores a subtle instrument of discipline: desire. The series, set four years after the events in The Handmaid’s Taleit unfolds in the authoritarian state that replaced the United States, which has been named Gilead. It follows a young, attractive group of characters: the daughters of the ruling aristocracy. This group of teenage girls are known as “Plums”; they are nubile and always dressed in unclean clothes, and hope to become perfect wives for the most powerful men of the nation. For that, they go through intense training on how to be prim, proper, and hyperfeminine.
Gilead convinces its young people that this system is not only necessary but better. Here, Covenants makes a wise observation: It is easy to control people whose subjugation seems desirable. The illusion of desirability doesn’t last long, however. As viewers see the girls’ training–which switches between simple and compelling, even violent—the more it becomes clear that Gilead’s message hides a sad truth.
Covenants it comes amid a worldwide fertility crisis, which Gilead leaders have used as justification for introducing a new conservative government order that strips women of their agency. Motherhood is a supreme value, and Gilead administrators believe that their country’s survival depends on deploying some kind of soft power to persuade its young women and convince them that homemaking is the only way to a life of godly happiness. The regime also uses more brutal methods: Fertile women must act as surrogates for wealthy couples struggling to conceive, and endure monthly sexual harassment until they conceive.
The nation’s patriarchal values are enshrined in its school curriculum. Instead of English, science, and math, the Plums study subjects such as embroidery, culinary arts, and literature. Every girl seems to share the same desire: to marry someone who can provide stability and security, to worry only about running the house.
As part of their education, the Plums organize elaborate events for their peers and superiors—events that are, in fact, high-class sessions meant to practice the girls’ married life, when they will be expected to party after the party to proselytize about the joys of domesticity. During one key combination, the girls serve carefully crafted drinks and delicious sweets to a crowd of suitors and trainers, who have all gathered to judge Plums’ taste and composure. The mature women will decide who among the students has proven worthy of a high-quality husband; so the shortbread and teacakes are very messy, and show the attention that Gilead elites demand of housewives. When one of the Plums trips on a rug while serving tea, she breaks down in tears, convinced that her future may be ruined. Scenes like these remind viewers that for all their competitiveness and single-mindedness, the Plums are actually scared little girls.
Parties also test Plums’ management skills. Although the focus is on the expectant housewives, the show makes it clear that each has a domestic worker who quietly handles the grunt work. Despite their preoccupation with pastries, the girls don’t even bake sweets—their servants do. And that stress affects not only young people but also their hired help—like when a student blames his servant for improperly preparing tea.
It’s hard to watch Covenants without thinking about another group of women known for their domestic performance: “midwife” lobbyists.known for developing an internet persona based on their supposedly desirable home life. The show’s focus on the illusion of authenticity may bring to mind, for some viewers, real content creators who have been accused of being careless about their lifestyles—relying on stable staff, hide use of prepackaged ingredients even if they painfully claim to make everything from scratch, or to pretend to be someone you are not. (Parents differ from Plums in one respect: Many find an astronomical sum of money through brand agreements.)
Although Plum enjoys a level of privilege, they clearly struggle to adhere to the standards Gilead has set for them. And when they stumble, the government’s harsher tactics become apparent. If a wife in training breaks the rules (by, say, insulting or hitting another girl), the administrators demand that her fellow students participate in her shameful and caning punishment. The message is clear: Anything less than perfection causes more pain. Still, fear is only half the formula. Gilead needs its women of high status to want live like this. When the wealthiest young women accept the regime’s customs, they create a desirable image of its principles—inspiring others to do the same.
This is why Plums’ daily lives are full of social gatherings, designed to demonstrate the emotional and—most important—marriage benefits. At one point, a married former classmate invites several young women for a house tour that may seem familiar to any viewer who has watched a influencer show off his airy, well-organized home.. Although the Plum family dreams of getting husbands, they spend the same time imagining all the luxury items that will soon follow: The most clueless girl among them says that she wants triplets because when one of their classmates had twins, “her husband bought her Mercedes rings and diamonds.”
Relying on marriage for security leaves these women’s destinies in the hands of their husbands—and so on The Handmaid’s Tale before him, Covenants he is pessimistic about how men will use that power. In the series, a dentist abuses his young patients; fathers do not know their daughters; old people make jokes about young people trying to marry them. By the end, one of the Plums has committed a murder after having the realization of the world.
A lower scene may have taken a satirical view, condemning the wives of the kings of Gilead for the Faustian profit they have made. Instead, it evokes empathy, and in doing so it lands more nuanced. Whenever one’s life begins to look like an advertisement, it is worth asking what, exactly, the product is – and whether it will benefit the buyer.
