Do you still like June?
June Osborne with one of her enigmatic expressions.
Normally on Wednesday I tackle an issue in the news, but I spent over 4 hours cleaning my attic and feel like something quick and fun. Well, fun-ish.
It’s June, so let’s talk about June! My wife and I are big The Handmaid’s Tale fans. So I’m doing a Twitter poll to see what people think about June Osborne. You can either vote now or read my thoughts below the poll before taking the poll.
Disclaimers:
This isn’t meant to be an in-depth review, it’s just something that’s been on my mind as a casual fan.
I’m writing this BEFORE I watch the episode that just came out this morning. If my mind changes I’ll talk about it in a future post.
Spoilers are below!
I love the show. Especially in the first three seasons, it was riveting and made a lot of commentary about women’s, political, and religious issues. Trump’s presidency, and the appointment of an actual former handmaid to the Supreme Court, made it seem even more relevant (and closer to reality than we would have thought).
It’s getting harder though for me to root for June. June’s never been the perfect, ideally moral hero — that’s part of the appeal of the character and the plot. A place like Gilead would mess you up, especially for women.
Repeatedly being raped. I have family members who are rape survivors and it’s impossible to know what it’s like unless you’ve been through it yourself, which unfortunately so many women have.
No individual freedom, not even to read (as Serena found out).
Not being able to keep your baby and even being forced to nurse them in spite of this.
Beatings, physical torture, threat of being sent off to the colonies to do hard, deadly manual labor if you don’t gladly accept the abuse.
June was helping lead the resistance and fought to get children and her own daughter freed.
But she’s gone from troubled, to aggressive, to cruel, to forcing Emily to face the “Aunt” who had tortured her, to arguably raping her husband. He clearly didn’t consent to sex, and from what I’ve read on the web I’m not the only one to have this reaction.
Her repeated close-ups to let viewers study her face and emotions (moving thanks to Elizabeth Moss’ excellent acting)…are getting kinda creepy and those emotions get darker.
June escaped. I want to celebrate that. I want to celebrate her. But she’s making it pretty hard to do right now — and that’s probably the writers’ intent. According to the behind-the-scenes video on Hulu, they reportedly consulted psychologists to explore what issues someone who had been through what June has would have. It’s still disturbing to see and hopefully the moral and emotional consequences of her actions will be made clearer.
I’m holding my final judgment to see more how things develop. It’s still a great, powerful show, I’m looking forward to seeing more when I watch today’s episode!
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🚨 Before you go, don’t forget to vote in the poll for which progressive org or cause will get June's $50 donation from eclecticmisc.org! If you like this post, please explore the rest of the site, share it on social media, and/or comment below. Thanks!
