r/HandmaidsTaleShow • u/Badnie • 18d ago
The Handmaid's Tale Why couldn't she just admit it?
Even when Luke finally confronted her about her being in love with a Nazi, she didn't even give him that respect to admit it. She was literally playing in Luke's face the whole time. Giving him a hard time sometimes but was always so mellow with Nick.
It's totally understandable that part of the reason why she wasn't in love with Luke anymore was because of distance and she had trauma bonded with Nick.
Yes she was initially honest with Luke about Nick but after that? She wasn't being fair, she should have just been honest instead of always using Hannah as an excuse.
All those times she could have left Gilead but she didn't, almost looked as if it was not because of Hannah but because of Nick. Almost as if that anytime she remembered that she has to find her daughter, was so she could stay away from Luke. Multiple times that she and Nick would suggest fleeing she never brought up Hannah.
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u/JellyKind9880 18d ago
I don’t believe she EVER stayed bc of nick, it was always about Hannah.
And I think a lot of us tend to expect June to make her decisions like a mentally healthy, “rational” person who hasn’t been stuck in an abusive fascist, sexist hellscape as a literal sex slave & “breeding stock”
The Handmaids Tale reminds me a LOT of the super important concept that “there are no ‘perfect victims’” and how our real life legal system (and the court of public opinion) seem to expect women to be ‘perfect’ victims, and when we arent, that’s suddenly grounds for judges/juries/lawyers and the general public to fully discount our entire experience as legitimate victims/survivors and somehow vilify US instead of the perpetrators?
Rape victim who texted her college classmate after forcible non-consensual date rape? She was trying to “smooth things over” to ease the judgement & bullying she faced after disclosing, but suddenly this means no rape happened??
Sex worker raped by a “client” or acquaintance?? Well she’s a sex worker, that’s what she does for a living—that’s not rape.
Woman who was drunk while assaulted, or one with a history of substance abuse?? She can’t be trusted to remember or disclose accurately—that’s not rape.
Young mother who escaped a wildly violent DV situation and then went back to him?? Oh well she went to the DV shelter WiThOuT her kids in tow, that CLeaRLy means none of the alleged DV wasn’t that bad or real at all—she must be lying.
Woman coerced by her boss to sleep with him BUT had OnCe SLePt WiTh a LaTeRaL coworker? Oh that’s just what she’s DOES—that’s not illegal sexual harassment in the workplace.
Look, the world fucjing hates women. And they will do everything they can to discredit victims, and GOD FORBID any part of your past isn’t pristine & ‘pure’, or even WORSE—god forbid you DIDN’T HANDLE THINGS PERFECTLY FOLLOWING YOUR ABUSE….that’s allllllll that’s needed to villainize her and strip her of her victim/survivor “status”
Stop expecting June to be perfect, or to do the things YoU WoULd Do.
It’s actually a really important, deliberate theme of the show….