MARGARET ATWOOD’S AIA’S TALES

Abstract

Margareth Atwood’s Tales of Aia (1985) is a futuristic feminist critique that uses satire to present the “danger” that radical feminism can pose by providing elements for patriarchal extremism to appropriate the feminist struggle, as it did with the Gileadan society. The essence of inequality is the misanthropic misogynist notion in the case of women - that some are intrinsically more worthy than others and therefore rightly belong above them because of the group of which they are (or are perceived to be) a member. The substance of each inequality, hence the domain in which it operates as a hierarchy, is different for each, but it is the hierarchy that makes it an inequality. The gender hierarchy is the transnational social system of masculinity over femininity that makes men over women based on the lie of male superiority. Inherently, equality is relational and comparative. The critique of the patriarchal system and the feminist movement established by the author is a necessity to avoid dystopian societies such as the Republic of Gilead. Finally, the adopted strategy of silencing the other is also discussed, within the perspective of David Le Breton (1997).