Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Herland

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Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

2 reviews

james1star's review against another edition

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

It’s literally making me annoyed just thinking about the fact I wasted about 6 hours of my life reading (well listening) to this book. And I made such detailed notes too!!! Why?? I’m thinking right now if I should even bother doing a review. I’ll try to make it short and sweet and will probably make a rant video with all my thoughts on YouTube (link at end if I make it).

Don’t read this book. Honestly it’s so not worth your time and energy. And money if you pay for a copy - I listened via Apple Books as it’s a free audiobook on there, if I’d have paid it would be less than 1 stars.

The plot: three men go to Herland, sort of get captured and educated on the country’s history and people, allowed out to teach about the outside world, see their way of life may not be the best, kinda have relationships… there’s more but I do not care to expand, sorry.

Some pointers:

It’s beneficial as a time capsule for a certain type of feminist perspective in the early 1900s - but even the view of the women is sexist, their whole ‘religion’ and purpose is bound to motherhood so even in a society with only women, they’re still tied to this idea of fulfilling a ‘woman’s biological function’ it defo gives off TERF energy. The idea of abortion seems like the most heinous crime possible to the women as well, this is more time accurate though.

The women also take/took part in genocide and eugenics in their attempt to create ‘perfect people’ whereby any traits deemed unworthy in certain women meant they weren’t allowed to reproduce - it’s likely this got rid of disabled and mentally ill people and possibly other races as there are little variation spoken about people’s skin colour despite some other differences in appearance of the population.

The racism spewed by the men, specifically Terry, was so disgusting to read. There was a point near the end where he said that by ‘mastering’ women of different races, he knew how to better treat white women and get them to go do what he wanted - basically how best to rape a women. No nope never get the f away from me! I was so close to throwing my phone on the floor at that point like I felt physically sick, had to stop and listen to some Madonna and Cher.

This brings me to more sexism and misogyny which is just so rampant throughout this book. The attitudes of both the three men and some of the women abided by this and it was truly horrible to read at times.

The writing is crap. Like it could be forgivable if the plot and characters were better but just no. There is so much repetition of things!!! Omfg, Charlotte hun why? I know it was published in her magazine or something and later compiled into a novel but like nahh… so much could have been omitted. I read about Terry’s view of women like 20 times, how the women praised motherhood so much like 30 times and just ugh I could not stand it. It’s also like very simple, lacks sophistication and extremely boring.

The characters were all so shallow, undeveloped and BORINGGGGGGGG. I hated basically all of them, even the ones we’re supposed to like or at least emphasise with. Van, the MC, is shown to display some change in his attitudes but it all goes around in circles - near the end when Terry tried to rape Alina, he was like it’s not that bad, thinking it’s Alina’s right to submit to her husband. Aghhh no! Esp as these women didn’t even grow up with men and stuff omfg just please. Jeff was also just irritating. What I would like to add is that although Terry is extremely detestable, he was written to be the epitome of a racist sexist chauvinistic pig of a man so it the author’s portrayal of a certain kind of man. But… this type of man is still alive and well today, spewing hate, thinking they’re ‘the shit’ and are entitled to things so despite the over 100 years since publication, we’ve still yet to rid society of this type of human. I don’t know what I just wrote but it’s a point I wanted to make.

The premise and plot was super interesting: a land cut away from the rest of civilisation, with only young women left, after all the men, elderly and children was massacred, to defend for themselves when one gives birth by herself and then follows on for generations creating a country of sisters. This was really promising and it did do a good job at showing how women could not only survive, but thrive without men. They build things, educated the population well, had intensified agricultural and seemed to have solved the population crisis (but iffy on methods but there is some merit to their approach like if a women chose herself not ti have a child and instead used up her motherly love caring and educating other children). They also care well for the environment and other species, moving away from ‘livestock’ rearing to modified vegetables supplying for many - there’s even an example of an inedible tree being worked on over years to grow a superfood-like fruit.

So yes, a lot of things they did was good. But… why is motherhood their everything? It’s really not a good portrayal of feminism, not really allowing for women who don’t want to have or look after children. They also don’t have any type of love except that which is directed at the children (their future) or the country (their present) - no real friendships or romantic love at all. See where I’m going with this… What about gay women? If there’s no men and all these women, why didn’t any of them have attraction to each other, generating stronger bonds then those between mere fellow citizens of herland? Motherhood is the be all and end all for every woman of the country, but some of these women are not allowed to reproduce or, I believe, are only allowed to have children once in their life. So… Van picks up on how they’re all just starving, with so much love to give to children but not enough to absorb it. The solution? Direct the love to other children so they all become perfect. It’s just frustrating how they’re portrayed and I dunno I got so irked by so many things in this book. There’s also this ideal that everything one does is done for the country and for their future sisters, no real pleasure really can be gained by doing the things one enjoys doing. It’s basically a country of robots!!

I usually place women higher then men (is it misandrist of me? Yes. But I have my reasons and personal trauma that I do not wish to share but basically I feel safer with and prefer the company of women) but I don’t think that women are worth more then men. The three men believe men are better and the women believe women are better. There’s no equality or nuance portrayed. Constantly butting heads and it’s really frustrating.

Should you read this book. To be honest no. However, I’d you go into it with the intention of critiquing it and looking at points from a sociological perspective it might be helpful. There are some interesting points made and realisations that I would say are worthy of revealing. Nothing that new to me but it was written in 1915 so obviously things have changed, certain ideas and opinions are more commonplace and the rights of women have improved. From a literary perspective, it’s honestly trash with a boring, long winded plot, shallow and unlikeable characters and just generally bad writing.

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audbaum's review against another edition

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funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book was an interesting thought experience, but if you are going to read this be sure to be ready for racism (with a bit of eugenics in there). There are also some misogynistic tropes in there. When viewed as a product of its time, it is pretty radical, but it does not read as well to the modern ear.

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