This segment, a complex and interwoven view of womanhood, juxtaposes Gileadean women in variations of power and powerlessness:
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The sadistic, manipulative, khaki-clad Aunt Lydia and her female pupils, whom she vows to "lick . . . into shape," a common idiom that takes on lesbian overtones.
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On the screen of the classroom flickers a training film of an assisted birth, where a woman, "like a broken robot," is contorted and manipulated into giving birth.
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At the home of Ofwarren's family, another paradigm of the female ghetto appears in the social stratification of Wives and Handmaids, a separation of the privileged from the enslaved. Janine, now known as Ofwarren, whimpers "suckily" for a cookie. The indulgent Wife treats her to a sweet, then dismisses her. In private, the Wives snipe, "Little whores, all of them." By the end of the birthing scene, Ofwarren, her temporary prestige cast aside like a discarded afterbirth, retreats into the sisterhood of Handmaids.
