Throughout grade school every student is required to take an history course each year. The reason for this is so that students can learn what happened years back before they were born; to learn from the mistakes people made. These mistakes can be related to political, social, or religious factors; either way, knowing the history of the world is important because it helps bring a brighter future.
             The film The Handmaid's Tale, which expresses the idea of a mono-theocratic ruling by White, conservative Christians, is set in the not too distant future. Due to a series of environmental disasters most women became infertile; the religious right decided that God was punishing everyone for promiscuity, genetic engineering, acceptance of gays, women's liberation, and minority rights. Because there are so many infertile women, fertile young women of childbearing age are rounded up and placed in re-education camps, where they are brainwashed on the new moral code. The main handmaid in The Handmaid's Tale is Kate, also named Offred, the given name by the man whose children she is expected to bear. She is forced to have sex with the Commander to fulfill his wife's dream, which is to have a baby.
             The faith based government in the new country is called Gilead, founded on Old Testament principles. They corrected all abuses, mainly through persecution, but a civil war begins. Fertile women become "handmaids," based on the biblical story of Rachel, who used her maid as a surrogate mother to have a child to bear children for the rich and powerful (MGM 1990). The handmaids have sex fully dressed and wearing a veil with the real wife holding their head and hands. Naturally, the wives are not happy about the sex aspect of the ceremony. After a handmaid gives birth for the upper class couple, she than goes on with her life to become impregnated again, without ever seeing the baby that she gave birth to. The women are told that th...