Herland

Read Yes
Length 147
Quick Review Written over a hundred years ago, this underappreciated utopian novel is a small powerful punch. It is still incredibly relevant in today’s society as a critique on gender and society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” She never shied away from the difficult subjects at a time when very few women even received an education.

Herland is the story of three young men, who have ventured on an exploratory expedition. Along their journey they find out about a country inhabited solely by women. They could not believe this to be true, so they took off to discover it for themselves.

The story is told in first person narrative by Vandyck Jennings observing the new country, the inhabitants, their ways and beliefs, and the reaction between the women and his counterparts. His travel companions are Terry Nicholson and Jeff Margrave. They are all very educated men embodying very different yet mainstream Western beliefs on the role women play in society and the home. Jeff believes women are purity anchoring society in goodness meant to be worshipped as delicate in body and mind. Terry believes women are objects to be possessed and controlled whose existence is solely for the pleasure and benefit of men, who are superior. Vandyck is in the middle choosing to look at Herland and the inhabitants through an educated lense but still preferring his homeland.

When the men arrive in Herland they can’t stop looking for the men believing women are incapable of surviving without men. They are taken as prisoners. The women learn all they can from the three men, who are the first men they’ve encountered in 2,000 years. Through their interaction the men learn and are shocked by the organized and intellectual abilities of the women.

Though it was written in 1915, it is still incredibly relevant in today’s society. In many ways society has not progressed much further from the three viewpoints embodied by the men. Women are still seen as delicate in need of protection, seductresses, or far too emotional to function in any capacity with a greater power and reach than mother and homemaker. Men, and even women, are still shocked and intimidated to find a successful, organized woman.

Gilman is able to tackle incredibly complex and difficult subjects in a mere hundred and twenty-two pages. She is able to tear down the traditional meaning of feminine and the meaning of motherhood. She shows women are equally capable, if not more, of organized and intellectual society. Gilman explores the meaning of society, gender, sex, and happiness.

Memorable Quotes
“They were inconveniently reasonable, those women.”
“These stalwart virgins had no men to fear and therefore no need of protection.”
“This led me very promptly to the conviction that those “feminine charms” we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity – developed to please is because they had to please is, and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of their great process.”
“If, by any accident, you did harm any one of us, you would have to face a million mothers.”
“They aren’t human – they’re just a pack of Fe-Fe-Females!”
“There never was a woman yet that did not enjoy being MASTERED.”