This book is good. It should be in every feminist’s bookshelf, and any one who isn’t a feminist would be convinced otherwise reading this novel. Its very Science-Fictionesque, and so I was surprised that it wasn’t categorized as such when I bought it (I bought it at a farmer’s market! Great find!).
This book spins the tale of a group of men comprised of the three heterosexual male stereotypes: The Worshiper, The Conquistador, and The Indoctrinated, all three of which get hopelessly lost on a forest expedition and end up in a civilization of (gasp) calm, rational women. That’s all I want to summarize about the story of the book, because I’ll leave the rest to you readers.
I liked it because it was sarcastic and witty, poking fun at the patriarchy and (I can imagine) emboldening women readers everywhere with its subtle snark with the comparing and contrasting of just how much labor women really exert for the benefit of others (read: men). It distinctly and frankly uncovers the “myths” that men at that time had about women without putting the egos of men down or insulting the idea of masculinity or the male sex, which probably explains its increased availability in libraries as opposed to other women-ruling-the-world-themed stories published at the same time as Gilbert. However, the writing is excellent as all her other works (I love The Yellow Wallpaper), so I can't really complain.
Joking, it's me, of course I can come up with complaints: Motherhood was the central idea in Herland, and that that reproductive bias is ingrained into the politics, religion, and every day way of life of the women in Herland. This immediately irritates me because it immediately excludes women that are not interested in subscribing to that way of life, and empowers men in constructing the “Family Life” as a further instrument of female oppression. Needless to say, the book is inherently against abortion or deciding not to bear children. What was the most disappointing event in the book to me, though, was that the women of Herland had no inch of facial or body hair. This expectation of women to adhere to no hair at all times is very much constructed in Herland, even in a civilization so far removed from the male gaze, which, in my opinion was weird, and unnecessary.
I understand that this book is a product of its time, though, so I bear no grudges. It’s a good read if you want to get started on the feminist train.
4/5
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