This paper explores the ethics of surrogate bodies in Margaret
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Oryx and Crake
(2003) through the lens of material feminisms. The first section of
the paper examines the exploitation of the surrogate mother, the
Handmaid, by the Gilead administration and the genetic
engineered nonhuman entities, the pigoons, and nature, by the
authoritative scientists in the Compounds. In doing this, the author
uncovers the ideologies of patriarchy, reductionism, and
mechanization embedded within Gilead’s surrogate system and
food distribution system and the Compound’s production of the
genetically engineered pigoons ersatz food cultures. The latter part
of the article highlights the parallel irony embedded within each
novel, whereby the Handmaids, the pigoons, and nature resist and
offer revenge through adapting and surviving throughout the
stories. These reversed power relationships function as a
composite material feminist counter-narrative as opposed to the
patriarchal, anthropocentric, reductionist consciousnesses imposed
by the Gilead administration and the Compounds. This emphasizes
that the core element to “survive” in a dystopian environment is
embracing material feminisms.