Dressed for Dystopia: The Appropriation of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaids’ Robes

Today we are witnessing an appropriation and a commodification of dystopia, which reduce its radical, critical impulse. My contribution will explore different forms of appropriation – in TV, politics, and fashion – by looking at the iconic red robes and white bonnets of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), a novel that has enjoyed a new life after the 2016 U.S. presidential election and thanks to the huge success of its TV adaptation (Hulu 2017-2025). Offred and her fellow handmaids have become the symbol of female oppression, but at the same time of rebellion, and have become embedded in popular culture as well as in our daily political lives. While some appropriations have an intense, political function, others reduce dystopia’s power to challenge the present. Thus, while dystopia is being commercialized and trivialized by some, others continue to discover its radical subversive power. The article will focus on the use of clothes in Atwood’s novel and how the iconic red robe and white bonnet have been variously appropriated in the real world. Although different in intent and outcome, these examples represent a form of appropriation, where something transgressive and radical is taken, tamed, co-opted, neutralized, and commodified. Once one starts appropriating dystopia as something sexy, cute, and wearable, we’re paving the way for a society where repressing women’s reproductive rights is fine, and privilege is what allows some to transform dystopia’s warning about the potential outcomes of reproductive restrictions into a fun and glamorous experience.