Charlotte Perkins is the author of Herland, a 1915 novel. It is a narrative about a community where only women were allowed to participate in the workforce, giving birth asexually. They have fought back against male dominance by creating a sisterly alliance. Van (the narrator), Jeff, and Terry are three American males who uncover and learn more about legendary Herland. The three guys learn of Herland from tribesmen in an isolated and unmapped nation who believe it is full of ladies and men who go looking for it vanish forever. The ladies are not the frightened, meek, weak, and primitive animals Van and his friends anticipated, nor are the men treated as conquering heroes. Males’ social barriers are the only thing holding women back from achieving equal success than men. Herland was established to show that women are not biologically inferior to men and conventional perceptions of femininity are false.
So, according to Gilman, society’s opinion of women as inferior to men is based on socially produced conceptions of femininity rather than intrinsic skills and traits (Christensen,2017). Terry dismisses them as “unwomanly” after failing to captivate them. Less submissive than expected, he says. Van admires Herland’s sociological achievements. Despite Van’s initial prediction, women can sustain a civilized civilization. Jeff and Van learn that their conceptions of women and femininity are artificially formed. When the men reached Herland, they could start forcing their will on the women. “Those ‘womanly charms’ we so lust after are merely reflected machismo,” Jeff and Van realize. Women put on a front to “please [men} because they had to.” The women are no longer “things” to be studied, but “people,” Van sums up.
Work Cited
Christensen, Andrew G. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and the tradition of the scientific utopia.” Utopian Studies 28.2 (2017): 286-304.