This is part three in a nine-part series on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. A full TOC, complete with links for easy navigation, is included at the bottom of each post.

Spoiler alert: Danger ahead, oh the horra! Plot spoilers abound! If you haven’t yet read the book, consider yourself warned. In fact, back away from this blog asap, go borrow The Handmaid’s Tale from your local library, and come back when you’re done. We’ll still be on the internets, promise.

Race, Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation: Gilead is a Society of Isms

In addition to being a misogynistic society, Gilead is also a racist and homophobic society. Unlike misogyny, however, The Handmaid’s Tale is notable for what it does not say about race and homosexuality.

In her narration, Kate very rarely mentions race. When describing people, skin color is almost never explicitly referenced. Through subtle clues, we can discern that many of the main characters in The Handmaid’s Tale are white: Kate describes her brown hair, the Commander’s silver hair, Serena Joy’s blond hair, Nick’s angular French facial features, Ofglen’s pink, plump face, Janine’s pink nose. Nameless Guardians have peach-colored mustaches and pale faces. Gilead is overwhelmingly white - except for its laborers. Rita and Cora, Commander Fred’s Marthas, are women of color. We know this of Rita because Kate describes her “brown arm”, but can only assume this of Cora.

Kate describes Marthas as women whose previous work in the domestic sphere has instilled in them a compliant, subservient nature. Wiki defines Marthas as “infertile women whose compliant nature and domestic skills recommend them to a life of domestic servitude.” (I’m paraphrasing Kate’s description, as I was unable to locate the exact quote.) While there’s some speculation as to whether Marthas are African Americans - thus conjuring America’s history of slavery - it’s unclear whether all the Marthas share the same race and ethnicity, or if any women of color who are appropriately subservient and compliant are given the option of working as Marthas as opposed to dying in The Colonies. It is my impression that Rita and Cora are Latinas, based on Rita’s “brown arms” and their first names. Additionally, while I was unable to locate the demographics of domestic workers in the U.S., Diana Vellos claims that “Latinas today constitute the largest category of women entering the domestic labor force in the United States. Many of these women are undocumented workers.”

Whatever their heritage, it seems as though Marthas are the only people of color living in Gilead. Most likely, any other non-white Americans were killed or sent to The Colonies as manual laborers.

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Via People for the American Way (PFAW):

“I do.”

After 55 years together, lifelong progressive activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon proclaimed their commitment at 5:01 pm last night and became a legally married couple in the eyes of the state of California.

Del and Phyllis, and more than 20 other couples, fought a long battle challenging the constitutionality of California’s marriage law. And on May 15, they won, on the basic principle that all Californians are equal under the State Constitution, and none of them should be discriminated against.

Today we’re celebrating this milestone with these remarkable women, and with other couples like them. In many wedding ceremonies, friends and family pledge to support the couple in their new life together. I’m asking you to join as a witness to history by adding your name and comments to a guestbook in celebration of Del and Phyllis and the thousands of other gay and lesbian couples tying the knot in California. We’ll be presenting Phyllis and Del with a hardbound version of the book as a wedding gift.

Please add your name and wishes to the guestbook.

If the photos coming out of California since Monday don’t melt your heart…well, you don’t have one.

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Tagged: Del Martin Phyllis Lyon gay marriage california people for the american way pfaw action alerts glbt

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom brought something old to the wedding ceremony he officiated Monday afternoon—traditional marriage vows that elicited laughter from the guests who came to see Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon get hitched.

“The contract of marriage is most solemn. It is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously,” Newsom told Martin, 87, and Lyon, 83, who have been together for 55 years.

The audience of friends, relatives and elected officials burst into good-natured chuckles.

After the pair exchanged rings and promised to keep each other in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live, the mayor reminded them that “Love’s compassion is the glory of life. Never take each other for granted,” another comment that seemed to strike an odd note under the circumstances.

Newsom got his last laugh from the appreciative crowd when he said he was pronouncing Martin and Lyon “spouses for life” under authority “vested in me as a deputy marriage commissioner,” not mayor.

Under California marriage laws, only judges, state officials and members of Congress are automatically entitled to solemnize marriages.

Just, blub.

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Tagged: glbt gay marriage california video

What follows are real listings from real Freecycle ™ lists. (Srsly, I am not making this shit up!) Identifying info omitted to protect the gender rigid among us.

new mom is struggling and has nothing for her new baby boy that is due in 6 wks i told her about the good things off free cycle and all the good people and the help that everybody tries to give to other people and it has helped me a great deal so anyway i have given her some things i had that is not pink and a bath tub but here is the list thanks to all.

Looking for a small TV that works and twin sheets for a little boy. (anything but pink).

I am in search of a decent SINGLE STROLLER- nothing fancy. We have one of the $10 umbrella strollers & its great for concrete etc but we are needing something a little more sturdy & with bigger wheels (to handle gravel, mud, grass, and a chunky tot lol). We do alot of outdoor stuff so it would really get used! We are not particular about the brand or color. The main thing is that its not PINK as our munchkin is a BOY lol. Under the seat storage, a tray and a sunshade would be a plus.

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‘Cause it takes a real maverick to condemn genocide:

After enduring criticism for weeks months [seriously, LA Times, where the fuck have y’all been!?], John McCain broke Thursday with two controversial televangelists whose endorsements he once trumpeted in a bid to win support from religious conservatives.

At a late-afternoon rally in Stockton, McCain said he rejected the endorsement of John Hagee after learning of a recording in which the San Antonio pastor portrayed Adolf Hitler as being sent by God to force Jews “to come back to the land of Israel.”

McCain said he had not been aware of the comments — which were made in a sermon in the late 1990s and turned up recently on the Internet — when Hagee endorsed him in February.

In context (because it only gets better in context), Hagee’s Holocaust-hearting sermon goes something like this:

Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: “‘And they the hunters should hunt them,’ that will be the Jews. ‘From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.’ If that doesn’t describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can’t see that.”

He goes on: “Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

“Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

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You just gotta love this:

Just days after the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage, Ellen DeGeneres invited John McCain to appear on her talk show and — rather amazingly — he agreed. At one point during the interview, which airs Thursday, DeGeneres said: “Let’s talk about the big elephant in the room.” She, of course, is that big elephant; DeGeneres recently made headlines by announcing her plan to wed longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi, and McCain is anti-gay marriage. McCain responded: “I just believe in the unique status of marriage between a man and a woman and I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue.”

Shorter John McCain: We have a respectful disagreement as to whether your kind is fully human and deserving of basic rights.

Even shorter John McCain: Ewww! Butt sex and she-males!

It’s like the President of Gambia saying, “Hey you queers, no hard feelings, we just have a respectful disagreement as to whether you should be allowed to remain in the country without fear of losing yer fucking heads!!!1!!!1″

There’s nothing respectful about it. In fact, it’s fundamentally disrespectful, bigoted and prejudiced. John McCain is a homophobe who’s perfectly content in denying the GLBT population their Constitutional rights just because he thinks they’re icky. And attitudes such as Yahya Jammeh’s are the inevitable result of such open, unchallenged bigotry.

Ain’t nothing “mavericky” about that.

Good on Ellen, though!

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Oh Hills, your campaign has already disgraced itself with some ugly race baiting. Now ya’ll are hopping on the sexist/homophobic bandwagon, too?

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. The Governor formally expressed his support saying that there was “nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” Easley concluded his remarks saying Clinton — “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy”. (Via ABC News.)

“Hillary ‘08: She makes Rocky look like a cock-sucking, vagina-having girlyman faggot.”

Way to stay classy, Dems.

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Tagged: 2008 elections Hillary Clinton Rocky Rocky Balboa homophobia sexism misogyny North Carolina Mike Easley