Is The Handmaid’s Tale a story of collective struggle or individual heroism?

Emily Graetz wonders if The Handmaid’s Tale has strayed too far from its feminist roots.

This article contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale. 

The Handmaid’s Tale is arguably one of the most powerful feminist dystopian texts in popular culture today. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name is a modern classic and the critically acclaimed TV series (2017-) has drawn in viewers across the globe. Famously, Atwood says that all of the atrocities committed against the women and LGBTQIA+ people in the book are based on real historical or contemporary events. 

For the most part, the TV series has also taken this oppression very seriously. Imagining a world where extreme Christians take control of the American government and turn fertile women into sex slaves or “Handmaids” as they call them, is harrowing, but as many have said, it feels like it could be real. 

It’s a given then that the feminist struggle for liberation in the dystopic world of Gilead is central to the ongoing storyline. The Handmaids have offered hope and strength to one another, resisted with force and found bravery in everyday acts of solidarity. 

In the first season, the Handmaids gather around a grieving mother in solidarity. In season 2, they rallied together to protest against their continued suffering with a (warranted) violent resistance, taking down many of Gilead’s leaders with them. Most poignantly, the concluding episode of season 3 saw the Handmaids, lead by protagonist June Osborne, work together with the Martha’s (enslaved housekeepers) to deliver dozens of children to the safety of a free Canada. 

The Handmaids gather around Janine, who has just had her newborn baby taken from her.

The Handmaid’s Tale has been a story of oppression and subjugation, yes. But it has been a hopeful story of resistance. I think this is the main reason why viewers struggle through the violence and trauma of the TV series. We hold on to those glimmers of hope as we battle with ongoing inequalities in our own lives. 

But as the season’s have progressed and presumably, as producers seek new ways to keep audiences entertained, I’ve noticed a concerning turn away from collective action towards a focus on individual heroism. This is a heroism that defies collective struggle and ignores the resisting work that many women do without recognition. 

June Osborne has always been at the centre of this story. It is understandable that viewers need a figure to empathise with and a solid storyline to keep them entertained. But this doesn’t warrant the way in which the series has continued to valorise her at the cost of the other prisoners of Gilead. Whilst June has always relied on other vulnerable women, such as when she risked the lives of Martha to send her daughter to safety at the end of season 1, this has always been justified - it was moderated and resulted in more lives being saved than those lost. 

Season 4, Episode 3, ‘Milk’, demonstrated, however, the extent to which Gilead’s resistors must go in order to protect June’s interests. After delivering her friends to a safehouse, June takes one too many risks to find herself captured - caught between saving her friends and the lives of other trapped women. In a harrowing scene, two Marthas are held at the edge of a building. June must tell her captors where the rest of her friends are or else the Marthas will be pushed over the edge. Both Marthas - after expressing solidarity with June - are pushed (in a sick twist, June’s friends end up dying anyway - but June lives, of course). 

Given, there is no right choice for June to make here. Their deaths are not her fault, but the valorisation of her mission over other rebellions in Gilead means that other oppressed women must continue to sacrifice their lives for her safety. One Martha, Lori, says “Fuck June Osborne. A lot of brave women died trying to protect her. Everyone that helped her ends up on the fucking Wall”. Lori suggests that not all of the women in Gilead benefit from June’s bravery and in fact, her efforts have depended on other women being willing to sacrifice their lives. 

To be clear, June isn’t to blame for the ongoing terrors that the women face - the rulers of Gilead are. But it would be misleading to think that she is the only one rebelling against the order and that the rest of Gilead’s prisoners should be expected to fight for her. The show also can’t go on without acknowledging that June’s ability to be the hero that everyone fights for is connected to her relative privilege in her world - her whiteness and romantic connection to a Commander are undeniably contributing factors to her ongoing survival. 

In Season 4, Episode 6, we finally see June acknowledge the disparate support she is given . After being saved by a Humanitarian mission who must decide whether to hand her in or keep her and risk the longevity of their service, June says “hand me in… my life isn’t worth more than anyone else's”. 

June interrupts a discussion about whether she should be handed in to say: “My life isn’t worth more than anyone else’s.

Perhaps this is a recognition that the series is going to engage in a bit more self-reflexivity and grapple with the consequences of their decision to make June a hero at all costs. I think it’s the only feasible option for The Handmaid’s Tale. They must continue to make space for a more complicated understanding of resistance that draws on collectivity rather than individualism. To continue valorising one person’s struggle over everyone elses would simply go against the very ethos of feminist rebellion that The Handmaid’s Tale relies upon.