
Show: The Handmaid's Tale
Character Status: Guest
Endgame: Dead
Orientation: Lesbian
Show Status: Still Airing
Tropes: Bury Your Gays
Introduced in: 2016-2017 / Final season: 2016-2017
Appeared in seasons: 2016-2017
Show: The Handmaid's Tale
Character Status: Guest
Endgame: Dead
Orientation: Lesbian
Show Status: Still Airing
Tropes: Bury Your Gays
Introduced in: 2016-2017 / Final season: 2016-2017
Appeared in seasons: 2016-2017
Martha 6715-301, whose real name was never revealed, was caught in a relationship with Emily/Ofglen. They were both taken to a mock-trial and immediately sentenced of gender treachery. The Martha was sentenced to death and hanged, while Emily watched from the back of a van. Emily meanwhile was sentenced to female genital mutilation (“things will be so much easier for you now. You won’t want what you cannot have.”) and then reassigned as a handmaid.
Relationship story arc with a woman: No
Relationship story arc with a man: No
Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No
Storyline during sweeps? No
[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.
The Hollywood Reporter: Is Ofsteven suicidal when she jumps into that car? I wouldn’t say suicidal, I’d say homicidal. Take your shot, take out your anger for real, don’t let them grind you down. Offred said she looked invincible, which is so great because it’s like she’s not suicidal, she’s invincible. It’s a little bit different. She’s not trying to die. She may end up going out in a blaze of glory, but it’s the blaze of glory she’s thinking about.
— Hollywood Reporter, Showrunner Bruce Miller.
Bruce Miller
May 10, 2017
The Hollywood Reporter: The Bury Your Gays trope went mainstream in the past year. How is Handmaid’s working to ensure that it doesn’t perpetrate that? The show looks at all of the characters as 100 percent multidimensional characters. We don’t have anyone on our show that is the “gay character.” Ofglen is so much more than that. Moira is so much more than that. We’re not trying to kill anyone; we’re trying to show the realities of what can happen to anyone that is marginalized in this society. Anyone who is seen as other, anyone who has any fact or part of them that does not go with the regime. I would challenge anyone and encourage anyone who is of that line of thinking to look at the story as much more than that.
— Hollywood Reporter, Samira Wiley, Moira.
Samira Wiley
April 27, 2017
On this show, “kill your anything” is probably up for grabs. My decision about making characters straight or gay really is much more dependent on the way that people in my life are. I don’t try to think that much beyond that. I wasn’t thinking of the sexual orientation of people as the first thing you find out about them; their identity is their identity in full. That’s just who they are. I tried to create characters and then have them be in a position to have logical fates for those characters. Gilead and The Handmaid’s Tale operates outside those rules because in that world, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. So the “kill your gays” policy is institutional in the series. You’re operating on a different lane than that conversation.
— Hollywood Reporter, Showrunner Bruce Miller, talking about the Bury Your Gays trope.
Bruce Miller
April 26, 2017
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