A woman’s place is in the resistance : self, narrative, and performative femininity as subversion and weapon in The Handmaid’s Tale / by Courtney Landis.

This paper examines the role of gender and femininity in Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, particularly in the character of Offred. Offred performs her/Gilead’s idea of womanhood as a conscious defense to preserve her own life. Simultaneously, she resists assimilation by weaponizing her femininity in a way that transcends “feminine wiles,” subverting gendered expectations while finding and preserving an underground/unspoken culture of women. In a patriarchal, prescriptive culture where women have become pieces of property, maintaining her mental/spiritual identity, memory, and sense of selfhood is an essential and defensive subversive act that safeguards her personhood. In a world where women are to be seen and not heard, Offred regains agency through narrative power and literally survives through her own voice. This paper applies a performative perspective of gender to the novel based largely on Butler’s idea of gender as social performance, one that is both consciously and either submissively or subversively done. Offred is in a strange position to do both: gender is being compelled upon her; gender imprisons her; and yet it is gender in both her internal sense of self as well as her outward manipulation of it that sets her free.