The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian state known as the Republic of Gilead. The novel explores themes of loss of female agency and individuality, suppression of women’s reproductive rights and how women resist and gain individuality and independence.

Fewer Teen Births Is Good, Unless You’re the Patriarchy

PUBLISHED 4/17/2026 by

How on-brand for the federal government to announce that U.S. birth rates are falling—just as The Testaments, the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, dropped on Hulu.

In the fictional nation of Gilead, first envisioned by Margaret Atwood in her 1985 dystopian novel and expanded on screen for nearly a decade now, declining fertility catalyzed a Christian nationalist revolution in modern-day America, spawning a society rooted in patriarchal dominance and state-sanctioned violence. The Testaments, now three episodes in, is making a deliberate appeal to Gen Z and young viewers, featuring the spectacularly savvy Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday among Gilead’s tradwife-in-training rebels.

Doubly fascinating then, that it is the real-life status of teen birth rates in particular now driving the news. In a drop considered “extraordinary” by statisticians, the number of babies born to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 fell by 7 percent in 2025.

Nevertheless, many on the right jumped directly into the fray to publicly lament that teens are having fewer babies.

How a Liberal DA in Louisiana Is Fighting for Reproductive Rights in a Post-Roe South

PUBLISHED 6/18/2025 by

In a post-Roe America, where reproductive freedom depends not just on where you live but who your prosecutor is, New Orleans District Attorney represents a growing number of local officials refusing to criminalize care. His goal: to protect bodily autonomy and keep women out of prison.

As one of the few progressive prosecutors in the Deep South, Williams operates under intense pressure—from conservative lawmakers, a hostile state government and a legal landscape increasingly tilted against reproductive rights. But he’s doing so with clear priorities: decriminalize pregnancy outcomes, defend healthcare providers and prioritize the health and dignity of Black and low-income women in his parish.

Women, Christianity and the Politics of Submission in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘The Righteous Gemstones’

PUBLISHED 6/14/2025 by | UPDATED 6/20/2025 at 8:08 A.M. PT

The popular and critically acclaimed series The Handmaid’s Tale and The Righteous Gemstones each recently wrapped a successful series run.

When placed in conversation, The Righteous Gemstones and The Handmaid’s Tale expose the dangerous consequences of women participating in the cultural backlash against feminism. The tradwife ideologies that Amber and Judy negotiate, and that Serena Joy embraces in theory, become a totalitarian nightmare for women in The Handmaid’s Tale.

A Red Dystopia

PUBLISHED 9/12/2017 by

Any dystopia that I try to imagine to write about as part of a science fiction future draws from a documented history of the abuse of women in nearly every culture.