Yahoo News How The Handmaid's Tale created a new female hero
Female heroes are having a bit of a moment on TV right now, and we can't say we're not happy about it.
From Arya Stark taking out an entire army in the opening episode of Game of Thrones season seven to Jessica Jones kicking some serious booty over on Netflix, TV's femme fatales are coming for the patriarchy faster than Donald Trump and his stubby hands heading for the nearest beauty pageant – and we're all for it.
Nonetheless, with great power comes even greater responsibility and sometimes, our female leads can't possibly live up to the challenge of reversing years of oppression inflicted by that same patriarchy and inspiring us to take action against it.
So while seeing our favourite feminist poster girls throw down leaves us with quite the adrenaline buzz short-term, reality soon sinks in and we're left wondering how we can possibly emulate their badassery in real life. Take Wonder Woman.
We love Wonder Woman. She's everything we want in a hero and role model for future generations. And while we love Wonder Woman (so, so much), we're not her.
We can't be – because we're not 6'5" and we don't actually want to Crossfit five times a week (plus, we live more by the keyboard than the sword). We can emulate her kindness and belief in justice and truth, but we can't be her.
But you know who we can be? Offred.
Related: The Handmaid's Tale season 2 – everything you need to know
Yes, The Handmaid's Tale's Offred (played by Elisabeth Moss) is the superhero that feminists of 2017 need. She's our ultimate weapon and rabble rouser in the fight against misogyny, because Offred is one of us and if Offred can do it, so can we.
That's her superpower – and that's what makes her so radical.
Offred is... super-normal
Offred doesn't hail from an island of Amazonians, or come from a line of White-Walker battling warriors. She's just a woman who worked in publishing, whose baby daddy used to be married to be someone else... and that's relatable AF.
We could all be Offred, so immediately, we're invested in her story. That's us, being abused by the patriarchy. That's us, being herded up like cattle because some guys in the back of a limo wanted a guilt-free bit on the side, and that's us, being pretty mad about it.
Offred is... secretly sassy (at first)
Ever had to bite your tongue while a male friend/colleague bores you to tears with a story you just couldn't care less about? So has Offred.
She literally has to endure so much BS – without muttering a word – and her inner monologue is every woman who has ever listened to a guy whittle on for hours at a house party because we're too polite to walk away. So when Offred starts biting back against her bitchy oppressors? Hero. Now, back the f**k up, dude in the blue chinos.
Offred doesn't... love every woman she meets
Wonder Woman is pretty nice. In fact, when she finally comes face-to-face with her nemesis Dr Poison (who is also a woman), she takes pity on the tragic, disfigured villainess and lets her live.
There's just one problem with that: Dr Poison is literally responsible for the murder of millions of innocent people. We're sorry about her face and all, but that doesn't make it OK, and Wonder Woman really should have meted out justice right there and then.
Thankfully, Offred is a little less forgiving.
Offred doesn't like Ofglen so much at first and wastes no time calling her "so f**king pious" via her inner monologue. She also has a lot of distain for Mrs Waterford and that is so relatable because sometimes... other women are just really shitty.
Offred is proof we can dislike other women and still be female heroes, so don't get off your feminist high horse just because Karen in 2B is a massive bellend. She probably is just that.
Offred is... emotional, and that's totally fine
Offred keeps it together most of the time and that's hard in a society like Gilead, a dystopia where you're raped constantly and still expected to do the family shopping. So, forgive her if she loses her head every once in a while.
Take episode six, for example, where the Mexican Ambassador visits Gilead and Offred finally works up the courage to tell her the true Handmaid's Tale, only for the bitch to refuse to help.
Of course Offred is going to be devastated and cry about that, but that doesn't mean she can't still be a hero.
In fact, maybe TV's other leading ladies could learn a little something from Offred's vulnerability.
There have been seven seasons of Game of Thrones and we've maybe seen Daenerys Targaryen cry twice. Cersei Lannister even less so, and she's lost all three of her kids.
We can't all be Stormborn! Sometimes we need a good cry or a tantrum – and it's actually Offred's utter devastation in this scene that leads the Ambassador's aide to take pity on her and get a note out to Luke, making vulnerability a superpower in its own right.
Offred may not have three dragons but, trust us, hell hath no fury like an emotional woman ignored.
Offred has... a wicked tongue
Sometimes, it's OK to drop an expletive or two to get your point across in the heat of the moment, and Offred is a well-needed reminder of that.
So when Mrs Waterford taunts Offred by visiting her daughter Hannah and not letting Offred out to see her? Obviously, the only suitable response is to swear like a sailor, because that was a super messed up thing to do.
Offred... relies heavily on her female friends
During the first few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale, it's clear there's one person who keeps Offred going, and that is her pal Moira (Samira Wiley).
Flashbacks inform us that Offred and Moira have been tight since their college days, so when all the craziness starts happening with the Handmaids, Moira is the person Offred leans on – her advice to "keep her shit together" kept Offred going right through to episode 8.
The Handmaid's Tale is a pressing reminder that while we may not like every woman, we need at least a few in our corner, for moral support if nothing else.
If it weren't for Moira, maybe Offred wouldn't have started her slow fight back against the Gilead system – joining the group Mayday and organising a delivery of a package – and that's relatable, because no true female warrior can topple the patriarchy alone.
See you in the trenches, sisters.
Offred is... ride or die in return
Offred may not like some of the women in The Handmaid's Tale, but she sticks up for her friends. So when Janine threatens to jump off The Bridge in that devastating ninth episode, who do they call to help her? Offred.
Seriously, she's like a red cape-wearing vigilante in that episode and her only superpower – alongside her vulnerability – is that she cares about her female friends.
Maybe that's all she (and all of us) need to fight back against our oppressors, along with a determination never to let the the injustice she faces in Gilead grind her down.
That's why we love Offred, and that's why we can all learn something from watching her in the brilliant first (and forthcoming second) season of The Handmaid's Tale.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches.
The Handmaid's Tale airs its first season finale this Sunday (July 30) at 10pm on Channel 4 in the UK. The series returns to Hulu and Channel 4 for a second season in 2018.
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