Scott Kamps
Amid the liberal media’s recurring response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision – with allusions to handmaids in red dresses and white bonnets – I wondered what the connection was.
Though I rarely agree with liberals, I try to understand their arguments. So I read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale …and I certainly discourage anyone else to.
It was poorly written – like a middle school boy trying to make sexual innuendos that were strained beyond credulity. More importantly, the book – reminiscent of a lousy Christian movie – was so consumed with pushing an agenda that the story was unbelievable and awful.
Dystopian stories like 1984 and Brave New World succeed because they have similar elements to our society; while also revealing a dissimilar – but believable – conception of the world. Atwood’s book utterly fails at this point.
In other words, no conservative groups whatsoever would promote the policies of her Republic of Gilead.
What’s the connection between Dobbs and The Handmaid’s Tale? It’s ideological; you have to hold assumptions liberals hold for it to make sense.
Men like William Godwin (1756-1836) and Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) believed “true freedom was found in total sexual freedom.” The father of sadism, de Sade was referred to as the “freest spirit who ever lived.” Their ideology is marriage and family inhibits men and enslaves women; the solution is “free love outside of marital monogamy.”
If monogamy enslaves women, then female empowerment is achievable through promiscuity, abortion and the destruction of the family. Easily-available abortion is important because it’s the primary way women become equal to men, no longer being burdened with unwanted children and the years of dedication motherhood requires raising a child. Equality with men is achieved when women can have sex without consequences like men.
In other words, free love is true freedom; monogamous marriage with kids is oppression. Any restriction to “reproductive health” must then be equated with authoritarianism (i.e., The Handmaid’s Tale).
But does that logic correspond with reality? Instead of debating the future, consider the example of Percy Shelley (1792-1822). He liked Godwin’s ideas and embraced the idea of “casting off the constricting bonds of the family” to pursue “free love,” leaving his 19-year-old pregnant wife, Harriet, for Mary Godwin (William’s daughter). Harriet committed suicide after being abandoned.
Percy travelled around with Mary and her sister, Jane, in a mé·nage à trios until money ran out. He sired numerous illegitimate children and two of his legitimate children died as a result of his selfish carelessness. The narcissism of Shelley is one of the worst forms of tyranny of women and children there is.
The oppression of the free love/feminist ideology is still wreaking havoc in lives of women and children today – exponentially now through “hook-up culture” apps like Tinder and OnlyFans. The devastation is vividly illustrated in a heart-breaking article from 2022 entitled “I Regret being a Slut,” where Bridget Phetasy rightly concludes “unyoking sex from consequences has primarily benefited men.”
I would add: at great cost to women and children.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.