In The Handmaid's Tale we are presented with a post feminist future which is both unthinkable and undeniable. Offred, the protagonist, gives a personal account of her experiences as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a New Right Theocracy in the near future. She is seperated from her family, forced to endure rigorous re-education and transferred among couple's homes, where they hope she will provide them with a newborn baby. Atwood's novel is clearly a reaction to the 80's backlash against the women's movement, particularly the Fundamentalist Right's pro-family activists who claimed the women's movement was destroying American family values and denying the natural order of men and women's roles; man was the breadwinner, woman the homemaker. However, what makes this novel so influential is that it is not only a reaction to the Fundamentalist New Right, it is also a reaction to women's non-involvment in the feminist movement. Atwood offers Offred up as a willing victim who's passivity in the feminist movement is as much to blame for the perpetuation of these gender roles as the New Right's takeover. The use of names like "Offred, Ofglen and Ofwarren" is a comment on modern women's willingness to take their husband's last name when they enter in to marriage. The name Offred indicates that Offred is a possession of Fred, she is Of Fred. Overall, this novel explores feminism from every angle and illustrates the fate awaiting humankind if gender ideologies are not abolished. I think it's all the more poignant today considering one of the most influential feminists of our time, Gloria Steinem, became a hypocrite a few weeks ago when she married Christian Bale's father... Should we call her Ofbale?