Fuck Off, Margaret Atwood

The reactions to the overturning of Roe v. Wade have run the gamut from despair to rage to emboldened courage. But where is the brave soul who will smugly acknowledge that they foresaw all of this coming and there’s some pride to be had in that?

Ah, well, that would be Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who has made a little meal out of every legislative injustice towards reproductive rights as far back as can be remembered. Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, a sometimes harrowing but often on-the-nose dystopian novel that projects a future in which women of a certain class are nothing but vessels through which the wealthy elite have children. Yuck! The narrowing of abortion rights doesn’t really have anything to do with The Handmaid’s Tale, but because women are suffering, Atwood takes credit all the same.

In the above photo, Atwood is smiling, making note of the fact that she lives in Canada (free healthcare), and holding a mug that says “I told you so.” She now claims this has been “misread.”

Not sure what has been misread in an “I told you so” tweet beyond the fact that Atwood claims that people thought she was crazy in the past. Okay, so she’s happy… that she’s not crazy? And the mug is saying that she told you so that she’s not crazy? Sounds like she’s gloating for being right, but hey, it’s not like I have a master’s degree in this shit from the biggest public university in New Jersey.

I’d have an easier time buying Atwood’s non-apology if she wasn’t constantly on a book tour for her nearly 40-year-old novel. She wrote in The Atlantic that she told us so. She posts every political cartoon or reference to The Handmaid’s Tale. For someone so clearly aghast at the current social disintegration of society, she sure does have a lot of gas in the tank for “I told you so”-ing.

We get it! You saw it coming. Now go enjoy your coffee and fuck off for a little.