Sociological Perspectives on Gender and Sexual Violence in The Handmaid's Tale

• Main Author: Nyberg, Björn
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier 2018
• Subjects: feminism; gender; gender shaping; sexual violence; The Handmaid's Tale; General Literature Studies; Litteraturvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-151322

This essay aims to highlight and explain the gender inequality, the sexual assault and the rape in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from a feminist perspective, using the theory of the individualist, interactionist and institutional approach to gender found in Wharton’s The Sociology of Gender. Research questions: How does gender inequality shape the characters in the novel? What does it mean for them? How can the gender inequalities seen in Gilead society, as well as the sexual violence in the novel, be explained using sociological perspectives on gender? Gender inequality, which is what leads to the sexual violence, is produced on every level of society, and especially at the institutional level of society, that is, the culture of the society.