Why I’m NOT Obsessed With “A Handmaid’s Tale,” Like Everybody Else.
Ive been hearing about this show for months now and I’ve resisted watching Hulu for the longest in favor of Netflix — as I am one of the select few who happens to pay for both platforms (crazy, I know).
So, out of sheer tiredness and a desperate need to relax, I selected a quiet Friday night to start my excursion.
The show starts off so well, hidden behind a guise of ambiguity, confusion, dark & deep visual cuts.
I was hooked immediadely. I’m a sucker for things like this so I proceeded onwards, and through my weary eyes I peered at the screen consuming all of the show presented.
It wasn’t until episode 2 that I noticed it, slightly, and episode 3 that hit the final nail in the coffin for me.
This issue I’ve noticed in quite a few shows, which is just how trendy it is to throw the Bible & subsequently Christianity under the bus in the name of entertainment or shock value.
While the show has been fairly engaging, the part for me that doesn’t make sense is the decision to utilize Scriptural texts, taken way out of context, to somehow be the governing law in the show to discriminate against women (as if there aren’t actual religions out there that are being practiced besides Christianity that ACTUALLY do discriminate against women).
I won’t give anything away but the Bible historically has been twisted, shifted, and changed to mean things it was never intended to. Here is another popular show that is twisting it to showcase a very darkly poignant issue, women’s rights.
It is a bit perturbing to have yet another popular shows piggy back of this trending narrative. One in which the entertainment world has utilize for the past 2–3 decades.
Being a marketer, I am very aware of the importance of branding & perception. The narratives chosen by a brand or company go on to inform the perceptions of their audience, for better or for worse.
These perceptions then go on to create, confirm, or deny the mature & immature biases/prejudices that we all have, again for better or for worse.
Now I bring this portion in because, Christianity is one of the lowest hanging fruits the entertainment industry has consistently made a mockery of. No other form of religion has been put quite under the gun in such trendy on-slots as this one.
Anyone remember that newpaper company in France that tried to make fun of Islam?
If you don’t, in 2015 a newspaper in France made a series of cartoons dramatizing the prophet Muhammad. Followers of the prophet didn’t take kindly to it and went out and killed several members of the newspaper in a terroristic-like attack.
This set a very very clear tone as to how Islam was not to be trifled with, under any circumstance.
Each time Christianity is slotted under the bus it informs or, a lot of times, solidifies, certain biases or perceptions. Much of the way the Bible and the random scriptures are promoted in the show, portraying something out of a weird af cult.
Associations begin to form. “Oh yes, Christianity is this weird cultish thing, look at how they are standing on the Bible to discriminate.”
Let me quickly back up hear and say no single instance where this particular religion has been painted in a bad light in a movie, show, video game, etc. necessarily leads to that definite of a statement but, overtime, when that becomes an underlying narrative, it psychologically & subconsciously changes your viewpoint on it.
Whether it’s realized or not.
My problem isn’t necessarily with the show but with the underlying message that their insertion of The Bible insinuates, particularly, given that the show has been so wildly popular.
For me, as a Christian, (granted I know there are a lot of weird and strange ones out there as well as people who say they are but really aren’t by the actions or things they say or do) it is increasingly annoying to pick up on these undertones.
I’m sure at some point during this you may have thought, “why the hell does this even matter?!” Or “ok dude, another Christian who takes things too seriously!”
My answer, after a bit of laughter, if that thought has come up is, simply, everything that is done, created, said, shown, whatever, sets a precedence. Everything.
The shooting I mentioned earlier, is a prime example, it set a precedence, particularly for the Islam faith. No one, especially in France, dare make the same mistake their newspaper predecessors made in 2015.
In todays world, perception informs reality vs it being the other way around. People don’t take the time to dig in deep. They say attention spans are too short, but that isn’t it. We are all under the gun of a finite amount of time. This leads to a lot o headline reading, or surface level knowledge on a whole host of topics.
The downside is reality is complex, perception is simple. Some things have to give and in a world where simple is a necessity whoever can control the narrative can control perception.
And, when perception is controlled….I’ll let you finish that thought.
