In order to get my undergrad degree the university required me to take some general BA coursework to fill some generic requirement or other, prove I was functionally literate, you know the drill. So one semester I signed up for a ‘Women of Science-Fiction’ class from the English lit department.

It was about what you’d expect. Well, worse, since it was a women of sci-fi class that barely touched on Ursula K. LeGuin or any decent authors, taught by an aging hippy professor who picked some of the worst books I’ve ever had to read. (Including this little pro-eugenics piece of trash)

When we came to The Handmaid’s Tale, I was exasperated. The book opens with a brief description of the United States succumbing more or less overnight to theocratic military despotism. In our classroom discussion, I tried to explain what I thought was the political impossibility of a the world’s most powerful democracy made up of slightly under 50% women quickly and willingly becoming such a place. The majority of women, I said, would have had to support such a change, not just the majority of men. And that, surely, would never happen. Why would women, let alone women in positions of power, willingly throw themselves under the bus to become second-class citizens?

I suppose we’ll find out if I owe Margaret Atwood an apology in a couple of days.