The belief that art should not be a handmaiden to social studies has continued in art education discourse since the 1920s. What role does the handmaiden play in this cultural narrative? Who is the handmaiden? We explore the handmaiden metaphor in art education and in popular texts. She is both needed and despised for her metaphorical acts of curriculum integration and for forming partnerships and collaborations. We focus on student discourse about the film "The Handmaid's Tale" in our team-teaching two different courses offered at two geographically distant universities connected via the Internet. The film generated critical dialogue among students regarding the "Handmaid" within the context of art education. Informed by the symbolism and speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood's book "The Handmaid's Tale," upon which the film is based, we revise the narrative of art education towards a feminist position of interdisciplinary content-based and multivocal art creation and critiques. (Contains 2 footnotes.)