Over the course of six seasons, the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale became known for its brutality. Women who revealed any hint of rebellion against their oppressors, including the government officials to whom some were forcibly betrothed, lost their eyes, their tongue, and sometimes their life. The image of red-cloaked women bowing their head to the ground is used as a blunt visual shorthand for female oppression in what the series depicts as a dystopian, totalitarian America. The Handmaid's Tale focuses on vicious persecution. Hulu's sequel, The Testaments'which, like its predecessor, is based on a Margaret Atwood novel'examines a subtler tool for discipline: aspiration. The series, set four years after the events in The Handmaid's Tale, unfolds in the authoritarian state that replaced the United States, which has been renamed Gilead. It follows a young, impressionable group of characters: the daughters of the ruling aristocracy. This group of teen girls is referred to as 'Plums';...
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