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Herland
Herland
Herland
Audiobook7 hours

Herland

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, first published in 1915, is a feminist utopian novel that describes an isolated society composed entirely of women-a progressive, environmentally conscious land where peace and rationality reign and poverty is unknown. Told from the perspective of Vandyk Jennings, a male sociology student who sets out with his two friends to determine whether Herland really exists, the novel ironically and pointedly critiques the arbitrary nature of many gender norms as it highlights the irrational features of the men's society and asserts women's fundamental capacity for reason and cooperation. Herland is a landmark work of feminist thought whose themes are as vital today as they were in the early twentieth century.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 28, 2011
ISBN9781452671741
Author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), author of the celebrated short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," is regarded by many as a leading intellectual in the women's movement in the United States during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Michael Kimmel is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at SUNY, Stony Brook, and the author of Manhood in America: A Cultural History. Amy Aronson is a professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Fordham University.

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Reviews for Herland

Rating: 3.4564357667326733 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a wonderful book! What a wonderful description of what society could be like. How life on this earth could be. I want to live in Herland. I wish all children could be raised there. Can't wait to get into the sequel!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Explorers discover a lost civilisation in the Amazon consisting only of women. Although the narrator has his criticisms, the author is clearly suggesting that such a land would be a utopia, devoid of all the problems caused by men. There are some odd ideas here presented as ideals, particularly with regard to religion (a version of pantheism) and sex (being undesirable for women except for procreation). It's basically a soap-box for the author to outline her feminist views which would have been quite extreme at the time of writing. Interesting but not great. Oh, and there's an undercurrent of racism regards the civilised white races vs. the savage natives.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There are spoilers in the introduction. I was told there would be humor. There wasn't.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Herland is... hm. Unfortunately bland, really. Charlotte Perkins Gilman seems to have set out to portray a utopian, perfect society of women that shows up all the faults and contradictions of the contemporary world. Unfortunately, that society seems so flat and lacking in individuality that I wouldn't want to be there. It also makes motherhood the pinnacle of a woman's being, something to long for.I'm female-bodied and apparently possessed of the various bits you'd expect given that. I really, really don't want children, and I'm not interested in motherhood in any way, let alone some sanctified, deified version of it.It is, of course, very much of its time. For when she lived, Gilman was pretty liberal, with anti-racist views and so on. But her vision of what could be was limited by that and ends up seeming rather pathetic.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An isolated land of women, an interesting idea and portrayed somewhat idealistically in this book. The male characters are really just stereotypes and the ending a little weak but an interesting enough read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Like most utopian classics, not much of a plot, but a worthwhile read as a look into early 20th century feminist thought.

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I didn't even listen to it even though I really wanted to, because its flipping narrated by a man! are you joking? its HERland...what a horrible faux pas, I just couldn't do it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A trio of male dumdums with varying levels of sexism find a country that has been populated entirely by women for centuries. The women reproduce asexually and have bred and engineered everything to be as perfect and useful as possible. This utopia is fascinating to read. It's so interesting how the author points out that a lot of what we consider gender or how women naturally are is a result of the patriarchy and its gender roles (this was written in 1915!). However, upon rereading this I noticed how eugenics-y the book is: the Herland women are all white, despite being in a hidden part of South America or something, and they've deliberately bred themselves to be strong and tall and good at stuff and resist disease and smart, etc. I didn't really realize it until I read a quote from CPG that said that white men and women need to come together to improve the lower races, or something. All the great 19th and 20th century white feminists were all racist as hell, unfortunately. Anyway, I do like this book, but be aware of the racism and eugenics-y ways of thinking. It's critical of capitalism, the patriarchy, and Christianity (but rightfully so, imo). Loved the misandry though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A classic of early feminist literature which pits late-Victorian-era men against a land full of women. These women have their own 2,000 year old history through parthenogenesis and seem to have solved all of society's problems.The basic premise is a team of three "buddies" intentionally crash-land their bi-plane near an undiscovered country, and each is a typical male: Terry the philanderer who sees all women as passive conquests; Jeff the anthropologist who worships all women; and the narrator who, well, is a narrator.The women they encounter are strong, agile, and full of questions about the culture and customs of the world outside Herland. What are the Mothers like in their world? How are children brought up? What are pets, and why are animals kept in the first place? How is food grown and distributed? Each man is given a teacher, whom he eventually marries in a ceremony that is more for the men's benefit than for the women's. Alima chooses to marry Terry, Ellador the narrator, and Celis for Jeff. Which I suppose is an inevitable plotline of this book.The impact that this book had on my worldview during my mid-20s is still ongoing. The idea that some women are better at raising children than a mother, a woman's body being strong along with her mind being inquisitive, and marriage being a bond between two equals are part of my adult foundations.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in 1915. The setting of a lost matriarchal society, stumbled upon by a small expedition is strongly reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The lost world, published just three years earlier in 1912.Herland doesn't present much of a story or description of the environs. It is more of a social science fiction novel contrasting our world with a possible alternative reality, but as such the story is a bit boring.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Speculative fiction from the early 1900s, in which three men find an all-female utopia where all social ills have been eliminated. This novella is more an allegory than a story - its characters are broad archetypes and the plot is very straightforward.Some of the ideas here are so quaint and of-their-time that it comes across as naive: that in the absence of men there would be no conflict, no-one would experience sexual desire, and women would be obsessively devoted to Motherhood. Also worth noting, there are some nasty 'race purity' and 'civilisation v savages' undertones that crop up a few times. But the broadly feminist message that women are humans, as capable and valuable as men, is well elaborated, and it's an interesting illustration of early feminist thought.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Imagine a world without men. A world where women are able to reproduce without men, where the only children born are female, and where motherhood is all important. Now imagine that you are a young man in the early 1900s who hears about legends of such a community. Terry, Van and Jeff are those young explorers who cannot believe that such a land as Herland could possibly exist.

    But exist it does, and they are taken in and learn all about this community that has been cut off from the rest of the world for over two thousand years.

    I really wanted to enjoy this book, unfortunately it just didn’t quite do it for me. First of all the idealised Herland was just too perfect. I don’t believe that women are that perfect. And it was more of an anthropological study than a story. We spent the entire book learning about how Herland operated, and came into being.

    Also I thought that Terry was just too horrible to be real. Even though I know that he isn’t, and that men who think like him still exist and most definitely did exist back in the 1900s. I just, well, I guess part of me doesn’t want to think that people can be so sexist.

    I also objected to the prominence given to motherhood, as though that is all a woman should be interested in.

    But a lot of my objections have more to do with the time it was written, and I have to be thankful for how far we have come. Of course we still have a long way to go, but better than we were, that’s for sure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A feminist utopian novel written at the turn of the twentieth century. The book follows an expedition of three men who stumble upon a hidden land with only women. All the women/girls come from a single mother. The men find a land of milk and honey with no war, poverty, crime or violence. They wonder how this can be without the traditional "male characteristics" they feel would be essential to a perfect society. They try their hand at love (which the Herlanders are not averse to) but the women (and vice versa) lack some of the qualities they desire in a mate. Unique premise done well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting view into a world with only women in it. This is a utopia world where everything revolves around nurturing children and each other. I'd like to live in a world like this. There are some problematic topics though, such as racism and the idea that eating only plants as an ideal diet. I do suspect that if women ruled the world it would look something like this.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Herland is an early 20th century piece of adventure fiction showcasing feminism and gender roles in an interesting way. The book tells the story of three male explorers who hear rumors of a hidden city populated entirely by women. Intrigued by the idea they set off on an expedition to discover this hidden society and learn the truth of how such a thing is possible.The writing style is simple and easy to follow. This is especially nice when it includes extensive exposition and detailed description. The story is told in first person which gives it a conversational narrative style and keeps it approachable. By making the narrator a sociologist we are given thoughtful contemplation into the interactions between the characters in the newly discovered culture.The book starts out simply enough by introducing us to the characters and the plot. Our three male characters each have different views/stereotypes towards women and they span the spectrum from end to end. Jeff is at the end that views women as treasures that should be served, protected and idolized. Terry is at the end that sees them as things to be conquered and made to submit and fit into their 'appropriate place' in the world. Our narrator, Van, sits in the middle of the spectrum trying to piece together his viewpoint. He acknowledges a disagreement with Terry's perspective of women as objects to be conquered but he also somewhat pities Jeff's perspective of women as beings to be worshiped. The banter between the three characters as they begin their expedition illustrates the nature of each character and also brings up the big question of "how can a society with only women survive for generations...how does the population continue?"When our "heroes" first arrive in Herland, they admit that they do not see any men but they are still skeptical that such a thing is possible. After some misadventures and some struggle to learn the language the men eventually learn the history of the land. Gilman ads a bit of fantasy/religion and explains how the females are miraculously impregnated without any interaction with males. This is presented as a sort of religious miracle but not in the sense of the Biblical Virgin birth but as a different sort of miracle that evolved a physiological/biological change on the women to allow them to survive in a situation that came upon them when their men were all lost to them. The skepticism of our male explorers continues for a bit but eventually they relent and acknowledge that the women have indeed changed in a way to allow birth without being impregnated by men.Once the men have learned the language of the people they have daily discussions with the women to learn about their society and to answer questions about the outside dual-gender world. In addition to discussions and studies the men also gradually explore the country and see the physical and social and cultural distinctions of Herland.In terms of a story, the plot is somewhat generic and not terribly gripping. In terms of literature, the writing is fairly simple and not especially noteworthy. The merit and interest of the book comes in the commentary that Gilman presents on feminism, gender relations and the place of women in the world. Early in the book, Terry vehemently protests that a society with only women would not be able to survive or that if it did survive it would be backwards and barbaric with constant jealousy and infighting. The culture of Herland is so far from Terry's prediction that it drives him to outrage that gets him in trouble numerous times. The women of Herland have the strong feminine characteristics of compassion and empathy but they also excel in the characteristics that are stereotypically considered masculine such as confidence, ambition, intelligent and physical strength and prowess. The commentary goes on to show that because they lack the competitive 'one-upmanship' that comes in a male society, the culture of Herland has excelled because every member of the society is focused on the overall betterment of their civilization. Generally speaking they do not praise one woman over another because of some given achievement or skill nor do they have any concept of elitism or poverty. They do have added respect for mothers and for some of the most wise members of their society but they do not do so at the expense of any other citizens.The book turns gender roles on their head by having our three male adventurers thrust into a land in which they are essentially neutered (or perhaps effeminized) while the women of the land take on roles normally associated with men (teachers, captors, leaders, hunters, etc.). While a lot of the commentary of the book focusses on the very personal relations between men and women it also takes the argument a step higher and seems to suggest that the problems of society are all due to the masculine viewpoint and can be resolved by removing it. The land of Herland has no poverty, no crime, no illness. They have achieved amazing advances in education, innovation and technology (of the time). While I found the commentary to be interesting, much of the book failed to age very well (it's over 100 years old now) and as such I found many of the arguments to be overly simplistic. And yet there is definitely some merit to be found in the concepts. I agree that many of the problems in our modern world are either caused by or exacerbated by traits that are often considered to be masculine (and many of these problematic traits are praised or encouraged). That's not to say that we need to do away with men or masculinity but we need to look at the positive and negative impact of each trait and action. Our culture can be too self-centered and focused on a single individual/family/group getting ahead and this advancement too often comes at the expense of others. As a culture we do need to cultivate a better sense of respect, concern and understanding while we minimize our notions of greed, prejudice and judgment. Overall this is an interesting book in terms of the gender concepts and social observations it presents. While not every argument is convincing, the commentary provides food for thought and works as a good starting point for social discussions to try and improve society as a whole.***3 out of 5 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was taken by surprise to find that this feminist classic is told from the point of view of a man! However, the approach of 3 men experiencing this all-female society (and of course, the women are experiencing their first men!) worked very well. The book itself is an easy & fast read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A short book that took me a while to finish. Unfortunately, too much exposition reduced this to an average read at best. I'm glad to have experienced this classic of feminist fiction but I hope my next book features a bit more excitement.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Herland was a curious read. Perhaps if you're making a study of feminist literature over the past 100 years it might be something worth reading. As something fun to read, I'd say don't bother. Part treatise for Charlotte Perkins Gilman's vision for a feminist utopia, where for various reasons men no longer exist and women have evolved to reproduce by parthenogenesis, and part Boy's Own Adventure with a bizarre fixation on the usefulness of garments with many pockets, I was bored by most of it. I didn't share Gilman's ideal, particularly not one where there exists a form of eugenics that prevents those deemed 'unfit' from bearing children or, if they are permitted to reproduce, from raising their offspring in order to prevent their 'unfit' traits being normalised. In some ways the writing was quite clumsy and I had to remind myself of when it was written, how different women's lives were 100 years ago, and the broader point Gilman was trying to hammer home. In other ways, it was clever - the switch in perspective so that the three adventuring men who try to enter the matriarchal society have a similar experience to that of the women trying to break down the gender barriers of American patriarchal society at the time Gilman was writing, and the way they become increasingly fixed on their appearance as a way of asserting their masculinity, having been robbed, as they see it, of their natural male authority. Gilman did a reasonable job of inhabiting the minds of the male characters, even if they were a little broadly sketched. Terry is utterly unlikeable, a misogynist pig of the highest order. Van, the narrator, is a social scientist and therefore tries to approach everything rationally. Jeff is the eager to please, optimistic one, always looking for the good in everything, always trying to give people what he thinks they want. The men are like something out of a Ripping Yarn, though, and I wonder whether Gilman tried to create male characters that men would want to read, in the hope that her allegorical tale would then open their eyes to the lot of women. Some things left a bad taste - the eugenics I've mentioned, but also the attitude to people of different racial heritage, all described as savages, all portrayed as simple and child-like. I read up on Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Yeah. Bit of a white supremacist. It both horrifies and confuses me that people who see themselves as a minority in terms of gender or sexuality can still view the colour of their skin as a symbol of superiority. Even setting those misgivings aside, the book was preachy, blinkered and not to my taste. I am a feminist. I believe that all humans are equal and therefore women should have equal rights and equal access to the same opportunities in life as men, and should be judged on ability and not on looks or some twisted idea of what is or isn't feminine behaviour. I think Gilman believed that, too. Where she loses me in this book is in advocating for a world where equality is achieved by eliminating everyone who doesn't fit a central idea of perfection.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this for the Readercon Book Club, which I *finally* attended. I was surprised to find that another friend had read this in a Utopia/Dystopia class, but it is a utopia. The discussion pointed to the "lost world" genre as the form that Gilman was following/satirizing, esp. H. Rider Hagard's _She_. The discussion also drew a lot of connections between Gilman's own life and that in her Utopia. As with any utopia, the narrative is limited: it's really a work of ideas, and there are *a lot*. Gilman's Socialist, racist, sexual, and eugenic ideas are all present along with her feminist ones. It's intriguing that the culture that she imagines for Herland is centered around motherhood: instead of rejecting this role that women are limited to in our world, she amplifies it there. At the same time, she does away with sex and marriage: this is not a lesbian paradise. While she rejects some stereotypes of women, she engages in others. There are some really interesting critiques that are still relevant to contemporary American culture: the narrator describing our standard idea of feminity as simply "reflected masculinity" because it is defined by what appeals to the male is really intriguing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Three male sexists discover an isolated country where only women live and have their assumptions about women challenged.Herland is a utopia, and like all utopias, it is much more about ideas than plot. The three guys do make a pathetic attempt to escape at one point, but when that is foiled, they settle down to learn about the religion, philosophy and other ideas espoused in Herland, and also to eventually get married. There are a lot of interesting ideas here, especially for the time in which it was written, such as on controlling reproduction and the place of religion in society. And sure, there are plenty of times I've daydreamed of living in a world without men. But there are problems with the all-female utopia that Gilman fails to address. For instance, in Herland the women all seem asexual, which seems to ignore a fundamental aspect of our nature in favor of combatting the sexual objectification of women. Also, there seems to be no conflict, which is difficult to imagine of any group of human beings living together, no matter what their gender. Finally, and most importantly, it's not practical. We must imagine ways women can achieve equality while still keeping men around, if only for the very practical reason that we are all one species who are all in this together--or at least, we should be. Still, I'd recommend Herland, a quick read, just for its historical value as an early work of feminism, even if does end avoid some of the more difficult questions and then ends rather abruptly.Read in 2015 for the SFFCat Challenge.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Herland" is, in a way, timeless. Considering how long ago it was written the language and situations can be applied to the modern world quite easily. I've read a lot of reviews on here saying that it isn't relevent to today's world and I think anyone who feels that way isn't really understanding of the feminist movement and the rights women are still fighting for. We may no longer feel we belong to men, but there are most definitely still men on this planet who feel we do. The character of Terry - the womanizing, dominant male - can be found in every bar, club and office in the world. I tutor in my college and the treatment I recieved last week from a male I was tutoring was definitely reflective of the gender bias and discrimination that still exists, and the power of the male ego.

    The ending:

    I took away a star because this book definitely could have been better. The language, though beautiful, was excessive at points. The foreshadowing suggested a much more climactic ending, and that just didn't happen.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is a lot to like about this book. First, it focuses on a society where women have been living together for thousands of years without war, poverty, jealousy, or disease. (And they somehow worked out the whole birth thing.)

    What's more to love is how Gillman did it. The narrator is a man. A man who is recounting his beautiful year in Herland.

    The only thing I feel this book is missing is what Ellador felt when introduced to our 'civilized' world. That would be a good book, but strays from the points Gillman was trying to make about our society: boo paternalism, question religion, equal rights, war is bad, use your brain, capitalism is bad/socialism is good.

    With all of those themes: me gusta.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I gave up on this book 3/4 of the way through it. It was far too didactic. Maybe it was enlightening for the time it was written, but from a 21st century perspective it just reads as condescending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "If they were only younger," he muttered between his teeth. "What on earth is a fellow to say to a regiment of old Colonels like this?"In all our discussions and speculations we had always unconsciously assumed that the women, whatever else they might be, would be young. Most men do think that way, I fancy."Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether. But these good ladies were very much on the stage, and yet any one of them might have been a grandmother.We looked for nervousness—there was none.For terror, perhaps—there was none.For uneasiness, for curiosity, for excitement—and all we saw was what might have been a vigilance committee of women doctors, as cool as cucumbers, and evidently meaning to take us to task for being there.Herland could have been quite dull if the dreadful Terry hadn't been there to provide some humour.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book grew on me slightly as I picked it into different levels. There is good work here - and a message to ponder. However, I find other elements in it that are horrifying - eugenics, superiourity of the Aryan race, 2 dimensional characters on all fronts. Basically this is a novel length political pamphlet. Three men discover a country entirely made up of women cut off from the rest of "civilization" for the last 2,000 years. They have a utopian (dystopian viewed now) society run and peopled entirely by women. Hilarity ensues. Not really - mostly staggeringly Rand-like soapboxing. Still the message has value, even if the vehicle is flawed.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5


    The only other Charlotte Perkins Gilman story I'd read was "The Yellow Wallpaper", which at least had a nice creep factor to it. This one is interesting in the same manner you might read a textbook. Which is to say, there are interesting bits in it, but it's not pleasurable. There was just no tension what so ever. Slogger.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've loved Charlotte Perkins Gilman since the first time I read The Yellow Wallpaper, but this was actually the first work of hers I've read besides that. (My love was somewhat shallow.)

    In light of The Yellow Wallpaper, and in particular Gilman's own time spent subjected to the "rest cure" favored by patriarchal, early-twentieth-century society (no surprise she left her doctor-husband who forced it on her, is it?), Herland is a pretty complicated book, examining gender roles and assumptions of what femininity is, through the eyes of three men. (The three men who found Herland are sort of a Goldilocks trio: this one is too brutish, this one is too sentimental/worshiping, and this one--the narrator--is Just Right, as he's the sociologist who sees the women as People, not Potential Conquests of Goddesses.) It does run to the preachy sometimes, with long passages of anthropological fascination with the women's culture, but overall, I really enjoyed this. I would have liked to see what happens once they leave Herland, but for that I need to track down the sequel.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    On an exploratory trip in "savage" lands, three young American men find a country composed entirely of women. As these men learn about the history and culture of Herland, they are at first dismayed but later impressed at the asexuality and absolute social perfection of these women. For the first time, they notice the flaws in their own society and feel ashamed. I'm having a really hard time deciding what to think about Herland. I tend to prefer plot-driven novels, or at the very least character-driven novels. Herland was neither plot- nor character-driven...it was concept driven. Gilman was trying to convey a set of principles using an allegorical dialog. Gilman felt that women are subjugated by their sexuality. Because their economic happiness depends on their ability to attract men, they resort to jealousies and obsessions with fripperies. In Herland, there are no men...therefore they do not depend upon their sexuality to land them a desirable place in life--they depend only upon hard work and virtue. Since there are no men, they have no reason to be jealous, catty, gossipy, or hysterical. Thus, they are perfect. For the most part, I did not enjoy reading Herland. I found the dialog grating due to the sickening perfection of the women and the irksome sexism of the men. The men's characters were very flat--their purpose was simply to present a contrast to the perfection of Herland. The three men came in three stereotypical varieties: gentlemanly to the point of sexism, brutishly sexist, and imperfect-but-somewhat-objective observer. Other than these characteristics, the men had no personality at all. The women also lacked character partly due to their obnoxious perfection, but also due to their nature as a social "we" instead of being unique individuals. In other words, the perfection and socialism merged them into one character with many names (with the slight exception of Alima who brought Terry's brutish behavior on herself by having a "far-descended atavistic trace of the more marked femaleness, never apparent till Terry called it out.")I think Herland was an interesting thought experiment, but I personally didn't enjoy reading it. If your'e interested in concept-driven allegories, especially feminist and socialist allegories, then this is the book for you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I read the book I tried to keep in mind that this book was written by a radical feminist , at a time where women still were considered something like "second class". She saw that if society was to allow women the right of full "humanity", that the changes had to start at the root of society. These wishes (demands) have been, IMO, well reflected in Herland.The story starts with three man trying to discover a society run entirely by woman. The first one is Terry, a rich womanizer, macho who truly believes women have to be subservient to man, and definately would never accept a woman as his equal. Still, a very strong general opinion of men during that time period. The second man is Jeff, the dreamer, very poetic, who idolizes women to the point, that he thinks women should not perform any physical or mental labor, and require to be sheltered at all times. The last guy in the lot is Vandyck a sociologist only interested in human activities.Arriving in Herland they find nothing the way they expect it, they thought they will find a society of women who need to be civilized - in their opinion women can't be civilized without men showing them how to do it. But what do they find? A highly civilized world, run by well educated women, who managed to achieve a thriving all-female society through parthenogenic birth. A perfect world, where everyone is happy, everyone is educated at the same standard, no disease, a community with equal opportunies. Terry finds it impossible to adjust to this world and tries at every turn to dominate the women, he feels they are not women, they are to masculine, they have no right to be as they are, views them as objects without any substance to them, and that the Herland women are abnormal. Jeff settles in well and adores the women and sort of views them like prized goddesses. Vandyck is the only one of the three who enjoys this world and tries to learn as much as he can.All in all, this was a very interesting read which explores the differences between a patriarchal and matriarchal society, trying to show the need for a balanced gender performance, demonstrating the importance of accepting women as equals. Considering that this is a very short book Perkins managed to get quite a few points across, aside from it being about feminism, it also discusses religion, the importance of democracy and socialism.What I didn't like in the book was that some parts were very racist, for example the Herlander women developed a breeding programme to further the purity of their race. So, what does that say - was that her opinion? Or just something, she wanted to address racism with?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So these three guys are exploring and hear rumours of a land entirely populated by women. They go there, learn that it is some kind of amazing utopia, and are sexist and creepy in a variety of ways! It was interesting to read, especially how the narrator seems to think of himself as being the most enlightened of the three guys and not being too sexist, but actually still being an idiot about pretty much everything. There isn't a whole lot of plot, and the whole miraculous parthenogenesis thing was a bit strange. I enjoyed it, though, I suppose.