Killing Joy in Ustopian Gilead: Girlhood and Subversion in The Handmaid’s Tale “Media Franchise”
Abstract
This article explores the representations of girlhood introduced in the recent additions to The Handmaid’s Tale franchise: Bruce Miller’s 2017 Hulu series and Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel The Testaments. Drawing on affect theory and girlhood studies, I analyze how the girls do not conform to the cultural expectations of ustopian Gilead but manage to challenge and contest them. Heterotopian spaces, where the girls are expected to undergo a process of self-transformation into stable identities, are employed by the nation to direct them towards their prescribed happiness markers. Sara Ahmed’s notion of the feminist killjoy is used as key mode of dissent that arises when the girls encounter the dissonance produced between the objects that are collectively imagined to cause happiness and how they are affected by them. I argue that, through Kathleen Stewart’s notion of ordinary affects and their liminal position as girls, they find radically joyful alternatives that clash with Gilead’s fixed prescriptions. This article analyzes three depictions of girlhood across media in The Handmaid’s Tale franchise, focusing on girlhood as a liminal category that empowers girls to become feminist killjoys to fulfill their own desires.
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Ahmed, Sara. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. Random House, 2023.
—. The Promise of Happiness. Duke UP, 2010.
Appleton, Sarah A. “Margaret Atwood’s Female Bodies.” The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, Cambridge UP, 2021, pp. 61–75.
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties. Oxford UP, 2014.
Atwood, Margaret. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Doubleday, 2011.
—. The Handmaid’s Tale. 1985. Vintage, 2017.
—. The Testaments. Chatto & Windus, 2019.
“Ballet.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 5, episode 2, Hulu, 2022.
Bellas, Athena. Fairy Tales on the Teen Screen: Rituals of Girlhood. Springer International Publishing, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64973-3.
Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Duke UP, 2011.
Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. Ballantine Books, 1993.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1999.
Connell, Noreen, and Cassandra Wilson. Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women by New York Radical Feminists. New American Library, 1974.
Daley-Carey, Ebony. “Testing the Limits: Postmodern Adolescent Identities in Contemporary Coming-of-Age Stories.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 49, 2018, pp. 467–84, doi: 10.1007/s10583-017-9317-7.
Driscoll, Catherine. Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Cultural Theory. Columbia UP, 2002.
García Zarranz, Libe. “Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Methodology; or the Joys of Being a Feminist Killjoy.” 452oF. Revista de Teoría de La Literatura y Literatura Comparada, vol. 14, 2016, pp. 16-25.
Greensmith, Cameron, and Jocelyn Sakal Froese. “Fantasies of the Good Life: Responding to Rape Culture in 13 Reasons Why.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 85–100, doi: 10.3167/ghs.2021.140108.
Harkin, Stephanie. Gender, Identity, and Coming of Age in Videogames. 2022. Swinburne University of Technology, PhD dissertation.
James, Robin. Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism. Zero Books, 2015.
Jiwani, Yasmin. “Tween Worlds: Race, Gender, Age, Identity, and Violence.” Seven Going on Seventeen: Tween Studies in the Culture of Girlhood, edited by Mitchell Claudia and Reid-Walsh, Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 173–90.
Kuznetski, Julia. “Disempowerment and Bodily Agency in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and The Handmaid’s Tale TV Series.” The European Legacy, toward New Paradigms, vol. 26, no. 3-4, May 2021, pp. 287–302, doi: 10.1080/10848770.2021.1898108.
“New International Version.” Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Ober Mannon, B. “Fictive Memoir and Girlhood Resistance in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol. 55, no. 5, 2014, pp. 551–66, doi: 10.1080/00111619.2013.811400.
“Postpartum.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 2, episode 12, Hulu, 2018.
Sabo, Peter, and Rhiannon Graybill. “Testifying Bodies: The Bible and Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 38, no. 1, 2022, pp. 131–47, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/856253.
Somacarrera-Íñigo, Pilar. “‘Thank You for Creating This World for All of Us’: Globality and the Reception of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale after Its Television Adaptation.” Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, no. 78, 2019, pp. 83–95, doi: 10.25145/j.recaesin.2019.78.006.
Stewart, Kathleen. Ordinary Affects. Duke UP, 2007.
“Together.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 5, episode 6, Hulu, 2022.
Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. 1967. Cornell UP, 1982.
van Dam, Daný, and Sara Polak. “Owning Gilead: Franchising Feminism through Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments.” European Journal of English Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, May 2021, pp. 172–89, doi: 10.1080/13825577.2021.1950362.
van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. 1960. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, introduction by David I. Kertzer, 2nd ed., U of Chicago P, 2019.
Vidler, Anthony, Michel Foucault, and Pamela Johnston. “Heterotopias.” AA Files, no. 69, 2014, pp. 18–22.
Wills, Deborah, and Amy Bright. “‘On the Cusp’: Liminality and Adolescence in Arthur Slade’s Dust, Bill Richardson’s After Hamelin, and Kit Pearson’s Awake and Dreaming.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 36, no. 1, 2011, pp. 100–23, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/18631/20318.
—. The Promise of Happiness. Duke UP, 2010.
Appleton, Sarah A. “Margaret Atwood’s Female Bodies.” The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, Cambridge UP, 2021, pp. 61–75.
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties. Oxford UP, 2014.
Atwood, Margaret. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Doubleday, 2011.
—. The Handmaid’s Tale. 1985. Vintage, 2017.
—. The Testaments. Chatto & Windus, 2019.
“Ballet.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 5, episode 2, Hulu, 2022.
Bellas, Athena. Fairy Tales on the Teen Screen: Rituals of Girlhood. Springer International Publishing, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64973-3.
Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Duke UP, 2011.
Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. Ballantine Books, 1993.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1999.
Connell, Noreen, and Cassandra Wilson. Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women by New York Radical Feminists. New American Library, 1974.
Daley-Carey, Ebony. “Testing the Limits: Postmodern Adolescent Identities in Contemporary Coming-of-Age Stories.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 49, 2018, pp. 467–84, doi: 10.1007/s10583-017-9317-7.
Driscoll, Catherine. Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Cultural Theory. Columbia UP, 2002.
García Zarranz, Libe. “Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Methodology; or the Joys of Being a Feminist Killjoy.” 452oF. Revista de Teoría de La Literatura y Literatura Comparada, vol. 14, 2016, pp. 16-25.
Greensmith, Cameron, and Jocelyn Sakal Froese. “Fantasies of the Good Life: Responding to Rape Culture in 13 Reasons Why.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 85–100, doi: 10.3167/ghs.2021.140108.
Harkin, Stephanie. Gender, Identity, and Coming of Age in Videogames. 2022. Swinburne University of Technology, PhD dissertation.
James, Robin. Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism. Zero Books, 2015.
Jiwani, Yasmin. “Tween Worlds: Race, Gender, Age, Identity, and Violence.” Seven Going on Seventeen: Tween Studies in the Culture of Girlhood, edited by Mitchell Claudia and Reid-Walsh, Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 173–90.
Kuznetski, Julia. “Disempowerment and Bodily Agency in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and The Handmaid’s Tale TV Series.” The European Legacy, toward New Paradigms, vol. 26, no. 3-4, May 2021, pp. 287–302, doi: 10.1080/10848770.2021.1898108.
“New International Version.” Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Ober Mannon, B. “Fictive Memoir and Girlhood Resistance in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol. 55, no. 5, 2014, pp. 551–66, doi: 10.1080/00111619.2013.811400.
“Postpartum.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 2, episode 12, Hulu, 2018.
Sabo, Peter, and Rhiannon Graybill. “Testifying Bodies: The Bible and Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 38, no. 1, 2022, pp. 131–47, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/856253.
Somacarrera-Íñigo, Pilar. “‘Thank You for Creating This World for All of Us’: Globality and the Reception of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale after Its Television Adaptation.” Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, no. 78, 2019, pp. 83–95, doi: 10.25145/j.recaesin.2019.78.006.
Stewart, Kathleen. Ordinary Affects. Duke UP, 2007.
“Together.” The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, season 5, episode 6, Hulu, 2022.
Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. 1967. Cornell UP, 1982.
van Dam, Daný, and Sara Polak. “Owning Gilead: Franchising Feminism through Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments.” European Journal of English Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, May 2021, pp. 172–89, doi: 10.1080/13825577.2021.1950362.
van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. 1960. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, introduction by David I. Kertzer, 2nd ed., U of Chicago P, 2019.
Vidler, Anthony, Michel Foucault, and Pamela Johnston. “Heterotopias.” AA Files, no. 69, 2014, pp. 18–22.
Wills, Deborah, and Amy Bright. “‘On the Cusp’: Liminality and Adolescence in Arthur Slade’s Dust, Bill Richardson’s After Hamelin, and Kit Pearson’s Awake and Dreaming.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 36, no. 1, 2011, pp. 100–23, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/18631/20318.
Tabuyo-Santaclara, S. (2024). Killing Joy in Ustopian Gilead: Girlhood and Subversion in The Handmaid’s Tale “Media Franchise”. Canada and Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies, 13, 87–104. https://doi.org/10.14201/candb.v13i87-104
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