Historical parallels between GIlead and other authoritarian regimes?

It wasn’t to that extreme but pretty close. My parents weren’t able to have additional children after my sibling and I so we didn’t have a full house, so to speak. But our social circle consisted of families with ten or more children and wives constantly pregnant. I was allowed to wear pants, which was rare for girls. But clothing had to be very modest. Puberty hit me like a sack of bricks and by 12 my breasts were D cups. I wore baggy men’s t-shirts to hide them. I spent my summers at Pensacola Christian participating in one camp or another. I was homeschooled and taught courtship instead of dating. For my 13th birthday I received a promise ring (ring that’s given to you typically by your father if female that serves as a reminder you promise to remain a virgin until marriage- lost the damn ring a month later. Ha!) and a set of cookbooks to prepare me for my eventual roll as a wife and mother. Gender rolls were very strict. Even for the kids. The boys could do anything it seemed like. But for girls, modesty, politeness, being small in social settings, and reverence for men was daily life.

/r/TheHandmaidsTale Thread Parent