As a way of coping with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, I’ve been immersing myself in dystopian novels that give us a view into what happens when our country decides to take away the rights and independence of women and/or pregnant people. All of that didn't fit into a catchy title, so I went with "dystopian feminist novels," but you get where I'm going with this.
What’s most disturbing about these novels is that the things that are occurring are frankly very close to things that are going on in our actual country RIGHT NOW. Reading these books is helping me stay very clear on why it’s important to continue to be a strong advocate for the rights of women and pregnant people. AND it's always important to keep our eyes on what's going on with the rights of other marginalized folks...because when they come for the rights of one group, it doesn't stay limited to that group at all....the rights of all marginalized folks are at risk.
All of the books I’m going to talk about are available at the Erie County Public Library, and I encourage you to go check them out!
First on our list is Vox, by Christina Dalcher. Mirroring an America not unlike our own in it’s current state, the Christian Right rises to power in the White House, and the powers that be sneak up on American women and girls to turn back the clock to a 1950’s ideal. A world where women are seen and not heard, and their role is hearth, home, motherhood, and serving their men. LGBTQ folks and uncooperative women are sent off to “re-education” and labor camps, and women are fitted with “bracelets” that give an electric shock for every word a woman or girl speaks over 100 in a 24-hour period. The country’s borders are closed, and there is no escape. Neurolinguist Dr. Jean McClellan is living in denial, budgeting her words, and struggling with how to raise a daughter who isn’t permitted to speak, read, or learn more than basic household management when she is pulled out of forced retirement ostensibly to cure the President’s brother of a brain condition. Could she hold the key to bringing down this oppressive regime? Or are women and girls doomed to a life of silence? Find out!
One of the most disturbing books I’ve read in a long time, The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan, paints yet another picture of the horror a government surveillance state can inflict upon women who don’t meet a narrow, lopsided ideal of womanhood and parenting. (And the many layers of people who stand by and allow such things to happen, or even actively participate.) Doing the best she can under the weight of her current life stressors, Frida has one “very bad day” of parenting that puts her on the radar of a government oversight group that confiscates and rehomes children while sending unworthy parents away to reeducation camps to prove their worthiness to re-unite with their children. Will Frida prove her worth as a parent to the satisfaction of the Big Brother-like government agency surveilling her every move, or will she lose her daughter and her right to parenthood for the crime of being an imperfect, normal woman and mother?
Next up is Red Clocks, by Leni Zumas, another frightening dystopian novel that hits close to home for our current times. In an American where the “Personhood Amendment” grants the rights of “life, liberty, and property to every embryo,” we meet five women from varying walks of life who are struggling with what it means to be a woman in a country where embryos have rights. Women remained trapped in unhappy marriages carrying unwanted pregnancies, IVF is banned (because a fetus can’t consent), and adoption is for heterosexual couples only, making motherhood out of reach for a single woman or LGBTQ couple. Young girls are forced to make the decision to carry a pregnancy to term or take the risk of being tried for conspiracy to commit murder. The “Pink Wall” has gone up between the US and Canada, preventing women and girls from crossing the border in order to make their own decisions about how to care for their bodies. At this point in our country, it’s almost not fiction. And that’s terrifying.
At this point we all know about The Handmaid’s Tale, but have you read the sequel, The Testaments? This book was so good I devoured it in one sitting. Picking up about 15 or so years after The Handmaid’s Tale leaves its hero (I refuse to call her Offred) to her uncertain fate, The Testaments explores the storylines of three women in Gilead, and in particular, how our favorite villain, Aunt Lydia, becomes morally compromised in a world that gives women little other choice. In a world in which the choices for women are to become a victim or collaborate in the victimization of others, Lydia makes and then embodies her choice. Of course you should also get your hands on The Handmaid’s Tale, and every single other book Margaret Atwood has ever written. If you can’t get enough dystopia, get yourself to the Margaret Atwood section of your local library!
Finally, I’ve just finished reading When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. Another book that completely sucked me in, this story takes place, again, in an America where abortion is considered murder under the Sanctity of Life laws. Our main character, Hannah, a conservative Christian who became pregnant as a result of an affair with a powerful, charismatic, famous married man, chooses abortion as what appears to her to be her only option. She is immediately apprehended, convicted, and subjected to a dangerous and sadistic new form of punishment that turns her sentence into entertainment for the masses. Can Hannah survive her punishment? Will she reunite with the father of her child? Does she even want to? Pick up this book and find out!
Allrighty, that’s all the books I have for today! I’d love to hear your suggestions if you’ve read and been impacted by books in this vein, so feel free to get in touch with me if you have reading suggestions!
Want lots of book recommendations for fiction and nonfiction books about sex, sexuality, gender and feminist awesomeness? Check out my Book Recommendations page!