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A review by madrarua13
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Utopian Novels: Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With her in Ourland by Minna Doskow, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4.0
I read this lovely story last year but completely forgot to write a review. Which is a sin, really. I would describe this book as the perfect answer to the question: What would a society of only women look like? and what awful commentary on that society might men have?
The story follows three young lads with a taste for adventure and too much time on their hands, evidently. On their travels, they hear of a legend of a land up the mountains inhabited by only women. Women that have made a bit of a point of isolating from the outside world and who clearly don't wish to be bothered. So of course here come our protagonists to do just that! Our protagonists being a merry band of misogynists, Vandyck "Van" Jennings, Jeff Margrave, and Terry Nicholson.
Each of them exemplifies different flavors of misogyny: Terry and Jeff are like personifications of the madonna-whore complex. Terry is exactly what you imagine when you hear misogynist. He sees women as either sexual or aesthetic objects or as relatively useless. Jeff is more the adorkable misogynist. He views women as virtuous and pure. He's a southern gentleman so naturally, to him, women are meant to be worshipped, worshipped as motherly and nurturing, of course. Finally, Van, our narrator who parrots the prejudices of his culture as well as the others, but with less enthusiasm being in possession of all the groups brain cells he's the least invest in those ideologies.
The story follows the three stooges as they enter Herland underestimating the inhabitants only to have their asses handed to them tactically, emotionally, and philosophically.
They end up each falling in love along the way and attempting some character development to varying degrees of success.
I love how this story handled the nuances of its themes but be warned that with that nuance comes less than morally simple characters and no neat cathartic ending, but still, the little disappointing twinges of reality that slip in don't kill the girl boss mood and definitely add texture to the story.
Also 10/10 for the kick-ass female characters that I sadly can't talk much about without delving into spoiler territory.
The story follows three young lads with a taste for adventure and too much time on their hands, evidently. On their travels, they hear of a legend of a land up the mountains inhabited by only women. Women that have made a bit of a point of isolating from the outside world and who clearly don't wish to be bothered. So of course here come our protagonists to do just that! Our protagonists being a merry band of misogynists, Vandyck "Van" Jennings, Jeff Margrave, and Terry Nicholson.
Each of them exemplifies different flavors of misogyny: Terry and Jeff are like personifications of the madonna-whore complex. Terry is exactly what you imagine when you hear misogynist. He sees women as either sexual or aesthetic objects or as relatively useless. Jeff is more the adorkable misogynist. He views women as virtuous and pure. He's a southern gentleman so naturally, to him, women are meant to be worshipped, worshipped as motherly and nurturing, of course. Finally, Van, our narrator who parrots the prejudices of his culture as well as the others, but with less enthusiasm being in possession of all the groups brain cells he's the least invest in those ideologies.
The story follows the three stooges as they enter Herland underestimating the inhabitants only to have their asses handed to them tactically, emotionally, and philosophically.
They end up each falling in love along the way and attempting some character development to varying degrees of success.
I love how this story handled the nuances of its themes but be warned that with that nuance comes less than morally simple characters and no neat cathartic ending, but still, the little disappointing twinges of reality that slip in don't kill the girl boss mood and definitely add texture to the story.
Also 10/10 for the kick-ass female characters that I sadly can't talk much about without delving into spoiler territory.