Kylie Jenner’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ party is not worth your outrage – Washington Examiner
A celebrity threw a TV show-themed party last weekend, and the internet is mad that she didn’t treat the fictional story with respect.
As if America’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” obsession hadn’t gone far enough. Apparently, women in the United States are facing trying times. Model and cosmetics queen Kylie Jenner appeared to throw a birthday party for her friend on Saturday, and social media sentinels grew outraged that she would celebrate “The Handmaid’s Tale” without gravitas.
Feminists have used the red robes and white hats of the show’s handmaids to protest abortion bans across the country, but Jenner just wanted to dress up to — gasp — have fun. How dare she.
Kylie Jenner throwing her friend a Handmaid’s Tale themed birthday party complete with robes, Gilead flags, “Praised be” vodka and “Under his eye” tequila is so tone deaf, at any time, but especially when women’s rights and autonomy are particularly under attack. Disheartening.
— Ana María (@anamgom)
June 9, 2019
I fucking hate Kylie Jenner. She turned her mansion into Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale for her daughter’s first birthday. She thinks it’s funny. I want to scream. Eat the rich.https://t.co/CCFfEzy7p1
— Ally Maynard (@missmayn)
June 10, 2019
Kylie Jenner is having a party themed after the Handmaid’s Tale…..so…..who’s gonna tell her that her party is literally celebrating female enslavement for their biological reproduction??
WHO IS GOING TO TELL HER
— mirandaaithi (@mirandaaithi)
June 9, 2019
The level of outrage directed toward Jenner for simply enjoying a TV show-themed birthday indicates two important things about modern feminism. First, many feminists truly do believe the hyperbolic lie that America is turning into the show’s Gilead. They live in a true fantasy world, created by a fantasy author.
One columnist at the Washington Post responded to the Jenner-handmaid controversy by writing, “Because ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has coincided with parallel real-world legislation — restrictive reproductive bills in statehouses throughout the country — it’s become somewhat of an educational tool in itself. … You can invoke the clothes from the show if you are doing it solemnly, and with good reason.”
Second, we’re not allowed simply to enjoy entertainment anymore. Everything is political, and if you want to enjoy a show that’s been co-opted by the feminist movement, you better make sure you do it the right way. Jenner’s party was called “tasteless” and “tone-deaf,” but it’s only in bad taste if we’re really living in Margaret Atwood’s imagined world.
the implication here — that it’s only appropriate to view a TV show as serious activism, certainly not as entertainment — is fascinating https://t.co/kn3NCEji4P
— Amanda Hess (@amandahess)
June 10, 2019
The show’s third season came out last week, and more than ever, viewers are calling “The Handmaid’s Tale” a parallel for our times. Luckily, it isn’t. We don’t live in a theocratic society, women aren’t forced into ritual rape, and they’re not subjugated to men. It’s a good time to be a woman in America. So good that if you want to throw a birthday party based on a dystopian TV show, you can.
Unless the feminists get you first.
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