Herland

Arrrghh what a time to end the story! I was really looking forward to a bit more but wanting more is not a terrible criticism.
This is a utopian fiction about a country inhabited only by females. It does hold up a mirror to the unfair conditions of women in the real world but its hard to properly apply its critique. Its more sci-fi than social commentary.
What i mean is that the creation of this land is so unique geographically, historically and biologically thats its hard to read it and go, 'oh wouldn't our world be better if we did things like that!' because you can't, there is not possibility of recreating this environment because of its unique method of creation.
However there are still some interesting feminist (for the time) views of show more the treatment of woman as well as the more sci-fi elements of a completely alien social structure.
The one thing missing from this work is sex, just because they have no men the sex instinct has been completely lost which is ridiculous and shows the age or at least the sci-fi origin of the story. No (good) modern writer would remove the pleasures of sex from society just because its not needed for reproduction. However all told i really liked this one.

(ooh just found out there's a sequel.. sold!) show less

I like Herland even more than 1911’s Moving The Mountain, and almost as much as “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which I think is one of the finest short stories. Although Gilman is famous for being a feminist, I don’t think she gets as much credit as she deserves for being a speculative fiction writer.

Three male explorers hear of a country that consists only of women, so they decide to check it out, and with great trouble make their way in. Jeff is a tender soul who glorifies motherhood and believes in being a perfect gentleman to women. Terry is a handsome man about town, kind of rapey and full of himself, and he thinks women should be pretty and serve him. The narrator, Vandyck Jennings, is sort of in-between these two and in general show more presents a “rational” point of view.

They are amazed to discover a beautiful utopia populated only by women, with wildly different customs from their own. In this country they don’t have poverty, they raise their children communally, they wear comfy clothes, etc. Long ago, a volcanic eruption and slave uprising led to a group of women who were cut off from the rest of the world. A few of them were miraculously able to reproduce as the result of sort of an exalted mental state, and this ability was passed down through the generations. There are so many novels about all-female societies where this happens—Ammonite by Nicola Griffith and Jane Fletcher’s Celaeno series spring to mind—but Herland must be the first.

The women the three explorers meet are all strong, intelligent, athletic, good teachers, and able to get things done. They confound the explorers’ expectations at every turn because they have no idea how to “behave like women.” Gilman takes the gender binary away and everyone becomes a person; however, she certainly has a rosy view of how nice an all-female society, or any society, could be.

The three explorers each fall in love and insist on marrying their sweethearts, which the women agree to in order to humor them, although marriage is a meaningless concept to them. All this time there has been no romantic love in the country because, well, when the men are gone, it’s just impossible! But they haven’t been missing it.

Terry and his wife Alima don’t get along. He attempts to rape her, but she kicks him in the balls and summons help from her friend in the room next door. Terry is put on trial, and the local Over Mother sentences him to be sent back to the outside world, with his word as a gentleman not to tell anyone about their country. At first Terry is obstinate.

“The first thing I’ll do is to get an expedition fixed up to force an entrance into Ma-Land!”
“Then,” they said quite calmly, “he must remain an absolute prisoner always.”
“Anesthesia would be kinder,” urged Moadine.
“And safer,” added Zava.
“He will promise, I think,” said Ellador [Jennings’ wife.]
And he did.

(This part reminded me of Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr.)

So Terry leaves, with Jennings and Ellador to escort him. Next year is the sequel! From Gilman’s Wikipedia page I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know about her, including the fact that she married her first cousin, and that when she was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer she “chose chloroform over cancer” (her words.) show less

Esse livro está há tanto tempo na minha estante que vieram e foram novas traduções dele e ainda não tinha o lido, finalmente o peguei por conta do fenômeno Barbie e um texto que li relacionando esse livro ao filme.
É um livro excepcional na construção utópica de um mundo sem homens, um matriarcado puro, tão utópico que soa irreal demais (exatamente como a Barbieland), várias vezes me peguei pensando que daria meu dedinho para que Freud o tivesse lido e escrito as maiores bobagens sobre ele só para que eu pudesse rir, hahaha.
O livro acaba quando essa mulher da sociedade perfeita sem homens finalmente vai conhecer o patriarcado e se depara com as monstruosidades cometidas pelos homens, o que só veremos na continuação show more 'With Her in Our Land', notou a semelhança com o filme da Gerwig?
Só não dou 5 estrelas para esse livro porque Gilman comete alguns pecadilhos de sua época como mencionar arianismo e frenologia, para uma mulher tão inteligente não escapar dessas bobagens é desabonador. show less

Herland was a curious read. Perhaps if you're making a study of feminist literature over the past 100 years it might be something worth reading. As something fun to read, I'd say don't bother. Part treatise for Charlotte Perkins Gilman's vision for a feminist utopia, where for various reasons men no longer exist and women have evolved to reproduce by parthenogenesis, and part Boy's Own Adventure with a bizarre fixation on the usefulness of garments with many pockets, I was bored by most of it. I didn't share Gilman's ideal, particularly not one where there exists a form of eugenics that prevents those deemed 'unfit' from bearing children or, if they are permitted to reproduce, from raising their offspring in order to prevent their show more 'unfit' traits being normalised. In some ways the writing was quite clumsy and I had to remind myself of when it was written, how different women's lives were 100 years ago, and the broader point Gilman was trying to hammer home. In other ways, it was clever - the switch in perspective so that the three adventuring men who try to enter the matriarchal society have a similar experience to that of the women trying to break down the gender barriers of American patriarchal society at the time Gilman was writing, and the way they become increasingly fixed on their appearance as a way of asserting their masculinity, having been robbed, as they see it, of their natural male authority. Gilman did a reasonable job of inhabiting the minds of the male characters, even if they were a little broadly sketched. Terry is utterly unlikeable, a misogynist pig of the highest order. Van, the narrator, is a social scientist and therefore tries to approach everything rationally. Jeff is the eager to please, optimistic one, always looking for the good in everything, always trying to give people what he thinks they want. The men are like something out of a Ripping Yarn, though, and I wonder whether Gilman tried to create male characters that men would want to read, in the hope that her allegorical tale would then open their eyes to the lot of women. Some things left a bad taste - the eugenics I've mentioned, but also the attitude to people of different racial heritage, all described as savages, all portrayed as simple and child-like. I read up on Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Yeah. Bit of a white supremacist. It both horrifies and confuses me that people who see themselves as a minority in terms of gender or sexuality can still view the colour of their skin as a symbol of superiority. Even setting those misgivings aside, the book was preachy, blinkered and not to my taste. I am a feminist. I believe that all humans are equal and therefore women should have equal rights and equal access to the same opportunities in life as men, and should be judged on ability and not on looks or some twisted idea of what is or isn't feminine behaviour. I think Gilman believed that, too. Where she loses me in this book is in advocating for a world where equality is achieved by eliminating everyone who doesn't fit a central idea of perfection. show less

Herland is an early 20th century piece of adventure fiction showcasing feminism and gender roles in an interesting way. The book tells the story of three male explorers who hear rumors of a hidden city populated entirely by women. Intrigued by the idea they set off on an expedition to discover this hidden society and learn the truth of how such a thing is possible.

The writing style is simple and easy to follow. This is especially nice when it includes extensive exposition and detailed description. The story is told in first person which gives it a conversational narrative style and keeps it approachable. By making the narrator a sociologist we are given thoughtful contemplation into the interactions between the characters in the newly show more discovered culture.

The book starts out simply enough by introducing us to the characters and the plot. Our three male characters each have different views/stereotypes towards women and they span the spectrum from end to end. Jeff is at the end that views women as treasures that should be served, protected and idolized. Terry is at the end that sees them as things to be conquered and made to submit and fit into their 'appropriate place' in the world. Our narrator, Van, sits in the middle of the spectrum trying to piece together his viewpoint. He acknowledges a disagreement with Terry's perspective of women as objects to be conquered but he also somewhat pities Jeff's perspective of women as beings to be worshiped. The banter between the three characters as they begin their expedition illustrates the nature of each character and also brings up the big question of "how can a society with only women survive for generations...how does the population continue?"

When our "heroes" first arrive in Herland, they admit that they do not see any men but they are still skeptical that such a thing is possible. After some misadventures and some struggle to learn the language the men eventually learn the history of the land. Gilman ads a bit of fantasy/religion and explains how the females are miraculously impregnated without any interaction with males. This is presented as a sort of religious miracle but not in the sense of the Biblical Virgin birth but as a different sort of miracle that evolved a physiological/biological change on the women to allow them to survive in a situation that came upon them when their men were all lost to them. The skepticism of our male explorers continues for a bit but eventually they relent and acknowledge that the women have indeed changed in a way to allow birth without being impregnated by men.

Once the men have learned the language of the people they have daily discussions with the women to learn about their society and to answer questions about the outside dual-gender world. In addition to discussions and studies the men also gradually explore the country and see the physical and social and cultural distinctions of Herland.

In terms of a story, the plot is somewhat generic and not terribly gripping. In terms of literature, the writing is fairly simple and not especially noteworthy. The merit and interest of the book comes in the commentary that Gilman presents on feminism, gender relations and the place of women in the world.

Early in the book, Terry vehemently protests that a society with only women would not be able to survive or that if it did survive it would be backwards and barbaric with constant jealousy and infighting. The culture of Herland is so far from Terry's prediction that it drives him to outrage that gets him in trouble numerous times. The women of Herland have the strong feminine characteristics of compassion and empathy but they also excel in the characteristics that are stereotypically considered masculine such as confidence, ambition, intelligent and physical strength and prowess. The commentary goes on to show that because they lack the competitive 'one-upmanship' that comes in a male society, the culture of Herland has excelled because every member of the society is focused on the overall betterment of their civilization. Generally speaking they do not praise one woman over another because of some given achievement or skill nor do they have any concept of elitism or poverty. They do have added respect for mothers and for some of the most wise members of their society but they do not do so at the expense of any other citizens.

The book turns gender roles on their head by having our three male adventurers thrust into a land in which they are essentially neutered (or perhaps effeminized) while the women of the land take on roles normally associated with men (teachers, captors, leaders, hunters, etc.). While a lot of the commentary of the book focusses on the very personal relations between men and women it also takes the argument a step higher and seems to suggest that the problems of society are all due to the masculine viewpoint and can be resolved by removing it. The land of Herland has no poverty, no crime, no illness. They have achieved amazing advances in education, innovation and technology (of the time).

While I found the commentary to be interesting, much of the book failed to age very well (it's over 100 years old now) and as such I found many of the arguments to be overly simplistic. And yet there is definitely some merit to be found in the concepts. I agree that many of the problems in our modern world are either caused by or exacerbated by traits that are often considered to be masculine (and many of these problematic traits are praised or encouraged). That's not to say that we need to do away with men or masculinity but we need to look at the positive and negative impact of each trait and action. Our culture can be too self-centered and focused on a single individual/family/group getting ahead and this advancement too often comes at the expense of others. As a culture we do need to cultivate a better sense of respect, concern and understanding while we minimize our notions of greed, prejudice and judgment.

Overall this is an interesting book in terms of the gender concepts and social observations it presents. While not every argument is convincing, the commentary provides food for thought and works as a good starting point for social discussions to try and improve society as a whole.

***
3 out of 5 stars show less

A classic of early feminist literature which pits late-Victorian-era men against a land full of women. These women have their own 2,000 year old history through parthenogenesis and seem to have solved all of society's problems.

The basic premise is a team of three "buddies" intentionally crash-land their bi-plane near an undiscovered country, and each is a typical male: Terry the philanderer who sees all women as passive conquests; Jeff the anthropologist who worships all women; and the narrator who, well, is a narrator.

The women they encounter are strong, agile, and full of questions about the culture and customs of the world outside Herland. What are the Mothers like in their world? How are children brought up? What are pets, and why show more are animals kept in the first place? How is food grown and distributed?

Each man is given a teacher, whom he eventually marries in a ceremony that is more for the men's benefit than for the women's. Alima chooses to marry Terry, Ellador the narrator, and Celis for Jeff. Which I suppose is an inevitable plotline of this book.

The impact that this book had on my worldview during my mid-20s is still ongoing. The idea that some women are better at raising children than a mother, a woman's body being strong along with her mind being inquisitive, and marriage being a bond between two equals are part of my adult foundations. show less

Hard on the heels of finishing the course on utopias and dystopias, I decided to tackle Herland, a book I'd been intending to read for decades. To my delight it wasn't nearly as earnest and didactic as I would have expected a feminist utopia of the early 20th to be. Rather it was gently humorous and even-handed, suggesting that it is not so much a utopian vision, but a suggestion that in the relations between the sexes we can do a whole lot better without going to extremes.

The story has a classic utopian structure of outsiders "discovering" a previously unknown country where everyone lives in peace and prosperity. Three men, who represent specific types, hear about this land of women and resolve to find it. There's the narrator, Van, show more who is a social scientist, and who approaches women as equals, Southern gentleman, Jeff, who puts women on pedestals, and the "man's man" (read jerk) Terry, whose increasing anger and frustration at not being able to "master" these women leads to an intolerable act of violence.

Gilman's utopian vision is classic also in the sense that the country is far from perfect, and that much of the second half of the book is taken up with the romance between Van, and Ellador, one of the women of Herland, suggests that in the end, utopia is finding someone who completes you, challenges you, supports you, and who is as interested in you and your world as you are in theirs. show less