Something has definitely changed now between Offred and the Commander. This will make the Ceremony quite awkward later. She recalls something her mother used to say to her. “Steel yourself,” she would say before doing something that made her nervous or scared. She extends this metaphor into thinking about how this means to wear armor. To not let yourself be exposed. To have skin of steel. This is a way to objectify yourself and not think of yourself as a living thing, with fears and vulnerabilities. Which, she realizes, is what she does with the Commander. She’s objectified and dehumanized herself when she has to perform the Ceremony. It’s also what the Commander had done as well. She actively tries to objectify herself because Offred and the Commander each sees the humanity in the other. She was once able to think of the Ceremony as an operation. She didn’t care about, for example, how hairy she had become (not very lady-like by former standards). Now she feels vulnerable, “uncouth,” or ugly and unkept. Because of the change in relationship with the Commander,...