"The handmaid's tale": between reality and dystopia

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to debate the culture of the instrumentalization of the female body in relation to reproduction and, likewise, to discuss in the absence of legislative protection the cases in which there is pregnancy resulting from psychological violence and sexual violence, conduct typified in the Maria da Penha Law. The aim is, therefore, to analyze the cases of exclusion of illegality in abortion situations and to investigate how psychological violence would be classified in this area. Therefore, the question is whether a woman is born with a “pregnancy contract” with a society and the possible psychological damages arising from such a contract, seeking, based on two studies by Elódia Xavier, to make a break with a theory that women are cases of a biological commitment, and that you are honored, “heroes”, possess the intellect to guide these women in body and mind. These stages will be organized from reading The Handmaid’s Tale, authored by Margaret Atwood, I propose to verify how far we are from the dystopia present in the narrative. This study is justified considering the current scenario of mourning for the rights of women, especially not regarding their individual reproductive rights. There is, therefore, a need to construct social narratives in which women are subject to their own history, and not the biological toys of patriarchy.