‘Gender performative’ in Margaret Atwood's the handmaid's tale

Women have been facing subjugation, oppression and suppression for a long time but the endeavour of feminists can't be denied as the condition ofwomen in society has been improved from the first wave of feminism to the fourth wave offeminism. During the first wave offeminism, women didn't have the right to vote neither they were allowed to go out of the home without the permission of the male spouse. Now, there can be seen a tremendous change in the social setup and the role of the female is being seen in all the aspects of life. There is a lot of work still to be done by the feminists to liberate and emancipate women from the patriarchal society. Judith Butler is a great philosopher and gender theorist who has propounded many theories related to feminism. The present paper would examine how Judith Butler's theory, ‘Gender performative’ when she says "we are actually in the presence ofthree contingent dimensions of significant corporeality: anatomical sex, gender identity and gender performance" (Butler 137) is applicable in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel that depicts a dystopia from a feminist perspective. Since this novel is set in future, the protagonist has to undergo various problems because of the male dominant society and male members compel her to perform only the prescribed work and treat her as a machine. This paper would also explore how gender performative would exist in future too where gender would be given their role to perform.