On April 26, Hulu will release its adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel about a country under the rule of religious extremists whose false piety is only matched by their hatred of women. The first teaser, above, shows Elisabeth Moss in the role of Offred, a “handmaid” whose job, in an age of declining fertility, is to bear children for the ruling class.
Speaking of forcing women to bear children, here’s a statement from Tom Price, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services. He issued this on Sep. 18, 2015, shortly after voting to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of the heavily doctored videos released by anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress:
Anyone who has not viewed the disturbing videos recently released should do so. It is only with that knowledge that one can know, in horrific detail, the barbaric practices being committed with federal taxpayer dollars. These actions cross a moral line beyond comprehension. The revealing picture is of a supported routine for abortion practices that result in the harvesting and sale of baby parts, some of which are secured in barbaric process. This, if seen, will shake anyone’s conscience. Today, I voted to end taxpayer funding for the organization responsible and add criminal penalties in the event of born alive abortions.
Price made that statement weeks after Planned Parenthood submitted a report to Congress showing that the videos were maliciously edited and after comprehensive media coverage detailing the “carnival-barker techniques” anti-abortion activists used to create the videos and manufacture outrage. It was, however, a little more than a month before Robert Dear went on a murder spree at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood while mumbling about “baby parts,” just like Tom Price. Tom Price is the kind of leader who inspires people, is what I’m saying, and as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he’ll be overseeing the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, with a special focus on taking health care away from women. Who knows who he’ll inspire next?
The teaser looks pretty faithful to the novel, from the red cloaks and white bonnets to the text, and includes a direct quote of this rather ominous passage, which seems worth keeping in mind lately:
Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you’re used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.
Aunt Lydia offers this as a consolation, but it really isn’t. And here’s a passage that isn’t in the trailer, but maybe should have been:
We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
