Dystopia: An environment that is composed of agony, violence, and instilled fear/paranoia, for the lower class but is considered utopian for the “elite”/ ones in the positions of power and control. I described a dystopia to consist of agony, which is physical and mental suffering because of the show I did my project on, the 3%. In the 3% season 1, the people of the inland were required to go through “the Process” in hopes of making it to the Offshore and living among those selected in the 3% also known as the elite. The candidates suffered both physical and mental suffering during the test of the Process, when they were eliminated they were offered grief counseling of some sort to cope with the mental suffering of knowing they will never make it to the Offshore as you only get one time to go through the Process. Candidates also suffered physical suffering from other candidates during the tests when they were locked in dormitories and beaten by aggressive candidates and forced to give up their food and water.
When we look back at The Handmaid’s Tale, there was violence such as sexual violence that was condoned in the pre-Gilead world by the founders as it was considered to be a part of their new order. The sexual violence I am referring to the scenes from the book that include the raping of women and during “the Ceremony” when Handmaids were forced to have sex with their Commanders. Another important facet of a dystopia is the fact that is only considered dystopian to some but not all. The elite/ people in positions of power do not consider the place to be dystopian. When we look back at the annotated reading of Young’s Five Faces of Oppression, the idea of Cultural Imperialism came into play where those of the ruling class are considered to be apart of the “norm” and anyone outside of that is considered to be inferior and of lower social standing. This face of oppression applies that in dystopian societies those that are apart of the ruling class do not view the world as dystopian but rather as utopian because they are the ones benefiting from the social order put in place.
