Tea at Trianon: Trapped Inside ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Trapped Inside ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

From The Federalist:

Self-inflicted repression is an odd feature of contemporary feminism. In Gilead, the violently misogynistic dystopia of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” women are forced to drape their bodies in red cloaks and cover their heads in bonnets. The draconian mandate is purposefully meant to stand in stark contrast with the freedom of dress we enjoy now. Nevertheless, the costumes have taken on a symbolism with feminist activists, who lumber around Capitol Hill protesting various perceived injustices in the uniforms of Gilead. As an act of protest, it’s always been somewhat amusing: comparisons between modern America and Gilead are not remotely within the realm of serious discussion, meaning the only people impelling anyone into those robes are feminists, deluded into believing they live in far darker times. (Read more.)