I read Margaret Atwood’s dystopian book the Handmaid’s Tale when I was young and naïve. Hated the book and found it unrealistic as all get out. And the overblown hysteria really got in the way of anything resembling a message in said book. But I figured it was just a drama-filled cry of angst. The miniseries made me say “Meh” and the protesting cosplaying handmaids? First, they made me snicker before getting really annoyed. See, the book is about this post-nuclear world where the wives of the elite cannot conceive. Ms. Atwood decides to cure primary infertility by having hands on (literally) surrogacy. In her world, the elite get kids and the handmaids shut up and are wombs with feet.

Except Primary Infertility and Surrogacy don’t work that way. My atheist and pagan friends call that an orgy. My religious friends call it sin. And Ms. Atwood missed those ten commandments including Adultery which is covered in Exodus 20:14. And in my experience, Christians and Jews (this is important) know their ten commandments. Devout Christians who she seems to target would not create this mess: extramarital sex is anathema. The irony is that her theocracy just does not match any historical or modern theocratic society. It does however match the behavior of modern feminists towards their pro life sisters….

The Boston Globe addresses this new protest technique here complete with pictures:

Borrowing from the imagery of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a Hulu TV series that started in April, activists dressed as handmaids are providing perverse optics at demonstrations for women’s rights at state houses across the country. Quiet and demure, they mimic the women forced to bear children for a childless elite in a theocratic dystopia envisioned by Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book, which returned to the bestseller list after the bruising gender wars of the 2016 election.

Theocratic dystopia and Trump? Um no. Absolutely not. He is about the last person their protest would be about. But the disconnect between cosplay and reality is not stopping these brave cosplayers, um, protesters.

“That’s why it’s such a perfect visual for this — because you see these women who are completely hidden,” said coordinator Emily Morgan, a 33-year-old mother who lives in Milford, N.H. “That is how they would have us, if they could, really and truly.”

This is painful. Really, really painful to read. First of all, gender wars? Where were these? Last I saw was pussy hats and women getting loud about issues. The ironic part is all these groups have a view that if you are not pro-death, you are not one of us and can march if you shut up about life. That was the clear message sent to pro-life feminists here and here and here. The last link is from an interview with Wendy Davis in Texas:

Davis says, “My version of feminism believes that if women cannot control our reproductive destinies, then we cannot control our economic opportunity. It’s so intricately tied together.” She goes on to explain, “And so if we stand for women’s advancement, we have to stand for the idea and the ideal that women are in possession of their own bodies, the freedom to make decisions about our bodies, and the ability to create opportunities for ourselves as a consequence of being able to do that.”

Decision means to abort. Or as I like to call it, murder the unborn. Because that is what abortion is, cupcake. And the irony continues:

While she is hesitant to pointedly exclude anyone from feminism, Davis makes it clear where she stands on the tie between a feminist and being pro-choice. “My brand of feminism says you must support reproductive rights in order to fully embrace and stand behind the advancement of women.”

Good to know I am not a feminist despite believing in equal work for equal pay, in women being able to compete for jobs with men, and make decisions for themselves. Because grown women have a brain and we know how to use it. Anyway, Ms. Davis and her handmaid pals ironically want to silence women who are pro-life. So guess what: feminist foremothers who went to jail and stuff were not feminists to these lunatics.

But back to the handmaid wannabes:

“The Handmaid’s Tale” is a bleak, science-fiction twist on an extreme anti-feminist state. In it, women lose all rights — to work, to earn or spend their own money, even to read — after a crackdown by a theocratic regime following terrorist attacks and amid diminished fertility rates. Those who remain fertile are forced into sexual slavery, while other women become servants for the privileged couples who claim the offspring.

Sexual slavery? Ummm, no. Again, the cupcakes may want to try reading Exodus 20. Adultery and covetousness are no-nos for any patriarchial or “theocratic” group that are considered evil by the cosplaying cupcakes. I can guess they mean they actually try and live their religion, I guess? Or find murder of the unborn distasteful? Funny thing about that: the cosplayers are highlighting right-to-kill the unborn as their main issue. So the nice people from Texas Right to Life have a great answer:

Joe Pojman executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion organization, thinks that’s a bit much. He didn’t recognize the point of the handmaids in the Senate chamber until his wife explained it to him later, he said, and she took issue with their imagery.

Reality vs cosplay

His wife explained (and disagreed). Hmmm. Not exactly how Ms. Atwood’s world worked.

“She didn’t think it is at all an appropriate way to protest, because she thinks there’s actually no chance our society is sliding into a dystopian society of that kind,” he said.

Exactly. And calling Donald Trump a “theocrat” is simply hilarious. He is not. He is a lot of things, but theocrat?

While he said he admires the activists for getting involved, Pojman noted that women are leading the fight against abortion, too. And in Texas, they appear to be winning.

Women are in leadership roles. Whoops!

And, he was amused to spot the handmaids, in their otherworldly costumes, still furtively clutching one modern luxury.

Accuracy for cosplayers is key. Note to handmaids, you are doing it wrong.

“Presumably in this dystopian society they’re alluding to,” Pojman said, “women would not be permitted to have cellphones.”

Frankly, I am wishing for the pussy hats: cosplay without context is nothing but filler for a bored evening news crew. There is a terrible irony when pro-life women being pushed out and told they are not feminists or to keep silent seems more in character for the bad guys in Atwood’s book, right?