Ashenhurst said the impetus to put down the shaver for a month came in the form of a message to Anderson from Hailey Aderman, regional director of special events for Special Olympics Wisconsin. â
Definition of handmaiden. 1  1 : a personal maid or female servant. 2  2 : something whose essential function is to serve or assist criticism is not the enemy of art but rather its handmaiden â Gary Michael.
The Handmaidâs Tale also falls into a sub-genre within speculative fiction, one with philosophical and literary antecedents. It is a dystopian novel: fiction that sets up for our contemplation an imagined world, not an ideal one â one in which the worst things that could happen have come to pass.