The right to be a woman: The Handmaid’s Tale vs The Bold Type

The fight for the right to be a woman is over. Apparently, there’s no need to still fight for rights largely conquered by many brave girls and women in the 20s and as late as the 60s. There’s a shared sense of complacency, one the modern government and society would like us to accept: if each and every one of the battles won in the past was such a huge victory—each so big probably even the French Revolution cannot compare—why should any more women waste their time in discussing matters old or, even worse, insignificant?

It’s simple enough to browse online for a few hours to understand how far away women really are from being done. Big or small, new or old, so many cultures are still far away from equal opportunities for the fairer sex. According to Girls Not Brides, the number of women married as children around the world will reach 1.2 billion by 2050. This means hundreds of girls are forced to become brides every day, leaving behind all the things normally associated with childhood. According to UNESCO, 130 million girls between the age of six and 17 were out of school in 2017. At least 15 million girls will never see a classroom. Are these numbers worrisome? Yes. Do they showcase a problem solved? Of course not.

A French, English, Canadian girl is unlikely to experience the challenges of an uneducated woman forced into marriage at 15. Yet, she should know how this affects thousands of her peers across the world.

While newspapers are the best way to educate women of these worldwide issues, not all are accustomed to reading them in the morning. A girl still in high-school might find it easier to watch a TV drama or a reality show instead of wasting her afternoon on articles about global warming or the Ukrainian-Russian border war. That’s why content creators have the responsibility of creating not just entertaining content but also smart, focused programs able to impact the majority of young, still inexperienced women.

I hardly believe a TV show or film could be realistic enough to emphasise the reality of the worrisome situations around the globe. However, I find they spark dialogue and ignite discussion and there is nothing more effective than discussing problems: talking about them makes them real, makes them important. That’s why TV shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Bold Type are relevant. Significant. Important.

The Emmy award winner The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on a dystopian reality of a fallen America, governed by a military-supported tyranny. Men are the leaders of this society, while their wives are expected to be their primary supporters, confined to a house-only life and being denied all the basic rights, including the chance to read. Far worse is the fate of those accused of greater ‘sins’, such as loving a person of the same sex or having a child outside wedlock. They become handmaids, without a name or a possession to call their own, and are raped, month after month, by their Commander in order to get pregnant. Once their child is born, they’re sent to the next family and their child officially becomes the previous family’s property. A bleak life, indeed.

What actually made The Handmaid’s Tale such a powerful communication tool, apart from the great acting skills of the cast or the carefully layered dystopian fantasy, is seeing those small problems we somehow stumble upon in our everyday life magnified to a whole new level and dimension. If we cannot stand up for ourselves by asking for the same wages as our male colleagues, what prevents them from just having those jobs for themselves, in the future? According to Vox, the number of female CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies dropped by 25 percent compared with 2017. Even more distressing is the fact that 12 of the Fortune 500 companies do not count women in their board numbers. What does this mean? This means there are still boards that have not recognised the potential  of  male predominance excluding women from the power seats. Having a voice is not always the same as having the chance to use it: while many might still improve their working conditions for women with families or about to become mothers, there are still many taboos. Curiously enough, some of the common problems among women and men are better understood in the latter group.

More analogies with the modern (not modernist) women in society are to be found in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the book on which the series was based: in particular when it’s not only men contributing to the lack of women in power but other women doing so. There is nothing worse than a women denying her peers or co-workers the chance to grow.

A better view of the multifaceted, dynamic challenge—less dystopian but nevertheless enlightening—women  in our societies face can be found in a Freeform show. The Bold Type appeals to a younger audience, focusing on teens and young women. The story follows three different young women on their journey of growing up and working, while challenging the many aspects of being a working-girl with a social life almost anyone can relate to. Jane struggles to pursue her career without being influenced by her personal experiences; Kat is the first black woman being made an area-director in the magazine she works for; Sutton loves freely and is afraid of being judged because of her relationship with her boss’ boss. While it is true there are some clear stereotypes in The Bold Type, the freshness and clarity of the show makes it the perfect vehicle to bring up some strikingly difficult topics. There is talk of sex lives, fertility problems, jealousy among colleagues. There’s also a discussion on rape, on how to deal with the wrong choices and stick with the consequences, on how to survive a break-up and how to balance work and love life. Even if it seems too light, sometimes, The Bold Type is the Sex and the City of the new era for a much younger audience. It strikes home powerfully and precisely.

What emerges from two such different shows is not only the fact there are still problems to deal with for women worldwide but that some battles are far from being over—let alone being won. Both shows, one with a more serious tone and the other with its fresh lightness, address the challenges  women deal with—or might have to deal with—if some behaviours are not dealt with swiftly and promptly. We see a red cape in The Handmaid’s Tale, true, but we recognise this symbolises the loss of freedom; there might be heavy-handed metaphors in the TV shows we watch week after week, but it would be foolish to overlook the significance and the depth of the messages clearly provided by them. All the more reason not just to watch TV shows such as The Bold Type or The Handmaid’s Tale but to spread their message more widely, gaining greater power through the words and images these instruments are capable of delivering. ■