In Herland, clothes have perfectly-placed pockets, roads are expertly engineered, and the cities lack noise, dirt, and smoke. There’s no toxic masculinity and no impossible standards of femininity, because there’s no male gaze to satisfy, no male ego to soothe.
Why? Because there are no men.
“‘They would fight among themselves,’ Terry insisted. ‘Women always do. We mustn’t look to find any sort of order and organization.’
‘You’re dead wrong,’ Jeff told him. ‘It will be like a nunnery under an Abbess – a peaceful, harmonious sisterhood.’
I snorted derision at this idea. ‘Nuns, indeed! Your peaceful sisterhoods were all celibate, Jeff, and under vows of obedience. These are just women, and mothers, and where there’s motherhood you don’t find sisterhood – not much.’
‘No, sir – they’ll scrap,’ agreed Terry. ‘We mustn’t look for inventions and progress; it’ll be awfully primitive.’”
This is what three strapping explorers expect from the inhabitants of a mythical two-thousand-year-old civilization of women. Only women.
Herland is what happens when these men decide to go “discover” it.
Imagine what happens when the women discover them.
Actually, you don’t have to imagine it, because Charlotte Perkins Gilman already did.
If you recognize her name, it’s probably because you read her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” (the really famous one about a woman’s harrowing descent into madness). Gilman also published eight novels, as well as non-fiction, essays, and short stories.
Herland was serialized in her own periodical, The Forerunner, in 1915 and then slipped from view until it was reprinted in 1979.
In Herland, clothes have perfectly-placed pockets, roads are expertly engineered, and the cities lack noise, dirt, and smoke. There’s no toxic masculinity and no impossible standards of femininity, because there’s no male gaze to satisfy, no male ego to soothe. Why? Because there are no men.
Nope, not a one. Interesting, isn’t it?
You may be thinking, “Yes, well, that’s all fine. Compelling even. But, aren’t men kinda…necessary?”
Not so, dear Reader, not so.
The women of Herland are so evolved that they reproduce simply by longing for it until nature takes its course– and that’s only if they want to. It’s the ultimate exercise and expression of choice, and Gilman conceived of it over 110 years ago.
Intrigued? You can soon see for yourself why we chose Herland as Quite Literally Books No. 4. It’s a slim but mighty fable that makes the case for a women-led utopia –and for three men being more than Ken-ough.