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Ariana Baio
Jun 13, 2022
Pro-choice protestors in Handmaids' Tale costumes surround Justice's house
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A new Netflix documentary has people reeling on social media and feeling that it is the real-life version of The Handmaid's Tale.
Keep Sweet: Prey and Obey is a new true crime documentary about the Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community and its leader, Warren Jeffs.
The documentary highlights the criminal case against Jeffs as women recount the abuse they endured at the hands of Jeffs and other men in the FLDS community at YFZ.
Many Keep Sweet: Prey and Obey viewers have noted how similar the rules within the community were to that of the fictional series The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
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As Fundamentalist Mormons, women in the community were raised to believe they must serve their husbands and obey all commands without complaints.
Not only were women oppressed but Jeffs abused his power as leader of the community by marrying underage girls and assigning wives to husbands even if they were related or underage.
Throughout the documentary, many women speak about the harsh circumstances they faced in the community, how they survived, and how Jeffs eventually faced conviction for his crimes.
\u201cHave yall watched the Keep Sweet: Prey and Obey docu on Netflix yet because I genuinely could not SLEEP after watching it i was so disturbed\u201d— ya boy (@ya boy) 1654785661
"Absolutely disturbed by Keep Sweet Pray and Obey on Netflix. Obscene. Legit the Handmaids Tale in real life," Antonia tweeted.
"Keep Sweet: pray and obey [Netflix] i’m lost for words, it is The Handmaids Tale brought to life naturally in America," Helen wrote.
\u201cI watched \u2018Keep Sweet, Prey and Obey\u2019 last night and cannot get it out of my noggin. It\u2019s really 2022 and we\u2019re literally living in the Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d— Bekah Morr \ud83c\udf99 (@Bekah Morr \ud83c\udf99) 1654781125
Even rapper Cardi B has spoke about the FLDS before, advocating for states like Utah to regulate things going on in religious communities.
\u201cKeep Sweet is a reminder that men will make up any fucking religion to be able to control women and be able to have 23 wives. #keepsweetprayandobey\u201d— Sith. \ud83c\udf19 (@Sith. \ud83c\udf19) 1654758826
In The Handmaid's Tale, an extremist religious movement begins to take over the US and dictate how women are treated in society, assigning them to specific roles such as being the woman who gives birth to a wealthy family's baby, after she is raped by the man of the house.
Many other documentaries and real-life situations have been compared to Atwood's 1985 novel including recent revelations to Roe v. Wade in the US.
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