Handmaids are a fictional group of women from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale , and they’ve become a powerful protest symbol in real life as well.

In the story: who the Handmaids are

In Gilead (the theocratic regime in The Handmaid’s Tale), Handmaids are fertile women forced into sexual and reproductive servitude for elite men called Commanders and their Wives.

They wear red cloaks and white “wings” (bonnets) and are renamed “Of–[Commander’s name]” (for example, June Osborne becomes “Offred,” meaning “of Fred”).

Key points about Handmaids in the book and TV series:

  • They are considered state property, valued only for their ability to bear children.
  • Most were arrested for breaking Gilead’s new rules (having a second marriage, being queer, being a professional woman, etc.).
  • They undergo brutal “reeducation” at the Red Center under women called Aunts, who train and control them.
  • They must submit to a ritualized rape (“the Ceremony”) meant to produce children for the Commander and his Wife.

Famous Handmaids in the series include June/Offred , Janine/Ofwarren , and Ofglen , all of whom show different ways women cope with or resist the regime.

In real life: why people dress as Handmaids

The red Handmaid costume has become a visual shorthand for warning about threats to women’s bodily autonomy and rights.

People use it when they feel laws or court decisions are:

  • Restricting abortion or reproductive healthcare
  • Expanding state or religious control over intimate life
  • Rolling back hard‑won gender equality

So when you see groups of silent women in red cloaks at a state capitol, a courthouse, or a city street (like the “handmaids” photos shared in Texas subreddits and forums), they are usually:

  • Referencing The Handmaid’s Tale to say “this is the direction we’re heading”
  • Using silence and uniformity as a protest tactic to highlight how easily rights can be stripped away

How forums and social media talk about “the handmaids”

Online discussions often split into a few viewpoints:

  • Supportive: People who see the costumes as a chilling, effective metaphor for growing authoritarianism or attacks on reproductive rights.
  • Critical of the metaphor: Activists who argue that centering a mostly white, fictional dystopia can overshadow the very real, long history of reproductive control and violence faced by women of color and marginalized groups.
  • Dismissive or mocking: Commenters who treat the costumed protesters as “cosplayers” or exaggerators, sometimes mocking them in sexist or trivializing ways.

Because The Handmaid’s Tale has remained culturally relevant well into the 2020s, “handmaids” now usually means either the oppressed fertility slaves in Atwood’s story or modern protesters borrowing that imagery to warn that fiction can become reality.

TL;DR: Handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale are fertile women enslaved by a theocratic state to bear children for the elite; today, people dress as them to protest real‑world threats to reproductive rights and personal freedom.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.