“As they stood in the Ike Theater’s green room waiting for Atwood’s car to be summoned, one last cadet popped in the door with a book to be signed. He said he’d twice read ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ for classes. 'You must know it better than I do by now,’ Atwood said. 'I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet, ma’am,’ he replied. But he did have a question. He couldn’t help but notice that some of the worst treatment the novel’s female characters receive comes at the hands of other women.

'That’s true,’ Atwood said. 'That’s how these things work. All dictatorships try to control women, although sometimes in different ways. And one of the ways they control any group is to create a hierarchy where some members of the group have power over the others. You get those people to control their own group for you.'”

From ”Margaret Atwood visits West Point for a frank conversation on gender, politics and oppression,“ by Laura Miller in Salon.

“and who ever heard of a rebellious flower?”

- The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale book 2), Margaret Atwood