I'm sorry Aunt Lydia

[mia]

Such a powerful scene. Imagine if all women united.

Sarah is also a prisoner.

[joanbarnes]

1. WOW SHS even LOOKS like Aunt Lydia. The one thing that would have made it better is they stoned Aunt

[forgotmylogin]

7. That's what I thought was going to happen.

I expected her to hurl the rock at Lydia, Bioshock Infinite style.

[MontanaMama]

2. Women are uniting.

While SHS may be a prisoner of her RWNJ upbringing, she chooses to stand in front of the American people and lie for her living. She could resign rather than make that choice. It would take personal courage and fortitude and she doesn’t have it, IMO.

[volstork]

13. "It would take personal courage and fortitude and she doesn't have it"

This is true of so many, particularly on the right. They prefer to be led and to have others "think" for them rather than to do the difficult work of critically thinking for themselves. This to me is why religious fundamentalism goes hand-in-hand with right-wing politics: people of that mindset want to be dictated to, because they are to cowardly to live fully realized lives.

[Duppers]

16. +100 - Bravo!

"Many people would sooner die than think; In fact do so."
- Bertrand Russell

[Mr.Bill]

3. I need to see that movie. n/t

[lunatica]

5. It's an award winning series on Hulu

based on the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Nowadays it seems almost prescient.

[JohnnyRingo]

4. I never read the book or saw the movie...

... so I did what Sarah did when she got home. I googled it:

Character Analysis
Agony Aunt
There are plenty of unlikable characters in this dystopic nightmarescape, but we have a special reserve of hatred for Aunt Lydia. A lot of that comes from the fact that she's a woman... and yet seems totally happy to be an agent of a Republic that is organized around the systematic repression of all women. Who does that, Aunt Lydia? Ugh, we hate you.

Sometimes Aunt Lydia seems to be the voice of the Women's Center and the voice of the Republic of Gilead. It's her voice the narrator hears over and over explaining the rules and consequences of this new lifestyle. Her words shape the manipulation and brainwashing at the Center, lead the women in remaking themselves as Handmaids, and twist Biblical passages to provide justification for this new lifestyle.

One of the narrator's key observations about Aunt Lydia is this: "Aunt Lydia thought she was very good at feeling for other people". This says a lot both about Aunt Lydia and the way the narrator sees her. Aunt Lydia believes one of her strengths is "feeling for other people," but from where we're standing (via the narrator's vantage point) this is hardly true. The only people Aunt Lydia seems to feel for are Commanders' Wives. She tries to manipulate the Handmaids into feeling compassion for the Wives:

Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them.

This statement reveals Aunt Lydia's qualities as a master manipulator. She "pleads" with the Handmaids, using body language like "clasped and wrung" hands to signify entreaty, while "smiling" at them and seeming to act "nervous." Yet are we supposed to find any of her rhetoric legit?

Sounds right.

[mia]

8. Character Analysis of Aunt Lydia

Thank you.


Maybe the comparison to Aunt Lydia was too kind. I've never seen Sarah plead, wring her hands, or act nervous. At press conferences she presents herself as a master of contempt and disdain.

[True Blue American]

10. Yes, I do not see

The least bit of Sanders feelings for other people. Sean had trouble lying constantly. He knew it.

Sarah has no qualms at all lying her head off daily. Like her Father,a good ole Southern Baptist,uh,Er, hypocrite! There,I cleaned that up pretty good,considering my contempt for her!

[forgotmylogin]

6. There's no way I could watch this series.

Just this one clip wrecked me.

The sad part is it feels like they're going to just shoot the woman the Handmaids refused to stone.

(I swore the actress was Angela Bettis, but it doesn't look like she's listed in the cast.)

[SamKnause]

9. Please elaborate.

How exactly is Sarah a prisoner ???

[True Blue American]

11. She isn't

All of this is her own free will. A decent person could never stand day after day,lying like she does.

[mia]

12. After watching the video, I imagined that, eventually, Aunt Lydia will also be eliminated

once her usefulness is over. Same goes for Sarah. She was raised in a right-wing conservative "religious" family. She knows her place in the biblically-inspired man's world, but I doubt that she is aware of the limitations and constraints that this belief system puts on her and all women.

[DRoseDARs]

14. Toeing the line just means your oppressors don't have as far to push you over the cliff. nt

[Ohioboy]

15. I think comparing Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Aunt Lydia makes a lot of sense.

In the book, Aunt Lydia enables an oppressive regime by teaching her handmaids not to question. Huckabee Sanders enables Trump's dysfunctional administration by obscuring truth, and keeping the press from getting actual answers. The sad thing is, when you start to get people that do what Huckabee Sanders does, it is a sign of true dysfunction, otherwise there would be no need to obscure truth. My opinion.