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« Throughout history, women's bodies have been simultaneously celebrated as the source of life and controlled as a political instrument.

They were owned by everyone, it seems, except themselves. I have chosen 6 documents.​ The first one is the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood created in 1985.

It shows a handmaid wearing a red dress and a white hat.

This book is about Offred, a woman who has to live in a dystopian society, in which women are treated unequally compared to men.

The 2nd document is an excerpt from the book “Brave New World” (1932).

The 3rd document is from the article “Whose body, whose choice? Women’s autonomy, politics and the right to abortion” in 2025. The 4th document is an article from the world journal of education and humanities, it is called “The transfiguration of the woman’s body: a study of holy”, as said in the name, it is about how women are perceived in the bible. The 5th document is an awareness poster for women reproductive rights.

The last document is a picture taken from a demonstration in the US in which we can see women being dressed as handmaids.

Therefore we are going to ask ourselves to what extent women's bodies are seen as a national resource? We will first talk about the instrumentalization of women's bodies.

Then we will see how women try to reappropriate their own bodies. In MA’s novel, the handmaids are seen as a national resource, which means that they’re here to provide one thing and one thing only, in this case, the babies.

But, if they weren't fertile, they would be either seen as an unwoman, or they would have a different place in the hierarchy such as maids that have to take care of the house they are assigned to.

We can also see the same thing happening in the book Brave New World, Huxley presents a society in which both reproduction and female sexuality are subordinated to the needs of the state, transforming women from individuals into belongings or even insignificant beings.

We can see this happening especially on line 16 to 21 which says “talking about her as though she were a bit of meat…have her here, have her there, degrading her to so much mutton…” and so on. However in this extract the main topic is not for a woman to get pregnant but more about how men can “objectify” her.

Here, they see Lenina Crowne as a piece of meat, influencing her vision of herself, making her believe that she’s indeed a piece of meat.

The state wants complete control over social reproduction and emotional bonds.

Women's bodies and sexuality are organized according to the needs of social stability rather than individual choice. The contrast between the two documents is made very clear, in THT women are forced to have sex with their commander in order to get pregnant, whereas in Brave New World, women are allowed to have casual sex but they must not get pregnant.

In both cases, the society and the State are in control of the woman’s body.

They get to choose what to do with them regarding the women’s opinions. In the article “Whose body, whose choice? Women’s autonomy, politics and the right to abortion”, the main topic is slightly different from the two other documents but still deals with the instrumentalization of the woman’s body.

It is more about the people in control of the woman’s body rather than themselves.

The quotes “it is about power, about who gets to decide over women’s bodies”, “female bodily autonomy is confined within the limits set by others” and “women’s primary role is to reproduce” clearly show that the men holding power are the ones making choices for something that is not theirs (women’s womb and pregnancies).

Here again, women are forced to use their body in a way that they do not want.

In the article about religion,.... »