#MeToo’s globalization nearly six years ago publicly dignified women’s testimonies of sexual violence and opened a path toward the legitimization of these experiences in justice systems around the world. At the height of the movement, the pain of #MeToo testimonies and the scale of misogyny commingled with hope: it was possible to imagine a reality in which #BelieveHer replaced dismissal, shaming, and silence. Today, imagining that reality requires denying how Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has eroded civil and human rights in the United States. The Supreme Court decision is a reminder that the law can reverse its own progress.
To verbalize the existential and legal implications of the ruling many turn to fictional worlds, most frequently to Margaret Atwood’s canonical dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). The leap from hope to dystopia is jarring, and it requires sustained attention: dwelling in the divide are unresolved questions that can be...
