Creating Gilead

Kyle Petras

5/9/16

Gubanich

Blog #4

Creating Gilead

      While Offred and the Commander are sitting down for one of their evening mingles, The commander explains how Gilead came to be. He tells Offred that "The problem wasn't only with the women... The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore"(210 Atwood). At this point, man was nothing. Since women could do anything and everything man could do, what was the point. There was no more higher status for men.
     

      As man began to become more and more equal, sex did as well. Sex had become so easily accessible that it wasn’t “that good” anymore. Knowing this, men felt useless. They didn’t want any relationships or even marriage. They wanted a role, and that is where Gilead comes in. The whole point of Gilead was to create a society where men gained back the power they once had. In the process, people ended up losing privileges, men and women, such as having no recreational freedom.
      

      In the article we read called Teaching Men to be Emotionally Honest, by Andrew Reiner, he explains how men don’t show emotion due to how society views men. We should be seen as tough and never to cry, but in studies, it shows that male toddler cry more that female toddlers. Men teach their sons to “be manly” and to “take it like a man”. Andrew says in his articles that people say that it’s “Better to earn your man card than to succeed like a girl”(3 Reiner). This is said because there is such a stereotype for guys to be tough. This is why the Commander thinks that men didn’t have a purpose. If maybe they didn’t have the stereotype to be seen as the dominant person or the man of the house, things might have turned out differently.