Herland, as a classic feminist utopian novel, tells the story of three American men who discover an isolated, all-female country while exploring. Herlandians were wise, gentle, kind, and they raise their children together. It seems to show a dreamful world made up of women. (More details…)
1. Clues
Because this is a first-person perspective book, and it is a feminist fiction in my preconceptions, I did not realize that the protagonist was a man rather than a woman until the protagonist explicitly stated that he was a male like the other two.
It is so strange, isn’t it? As a feminist utopian novel, the whole setting is still based on the logic of male-domain world, with the opposite gender idealized to fit the imagination of utopia.
2. Arguments
More’s utopian bliss is to be attained only through the imposition of a distinctively male hierarchy. The patriarchal family is the core of maintaining order and assigning jobs (Chris Ferns, 1998). However, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland did not break out this tradition at all. Although there is an impeccable land of healthy eating habits, helpfulness, equality, and crisis handling mechanism (Gilman, C.P., 1979), its social structure is presented by the narrative of a male, discovered and explored by the male. Their evaluation is a male interpretation of what they see and hear. And this male gaze is evidence that Herlandians still live in a patriarchal society.
Conversely, male gaze, to some extent, in Herland is progressive. At the beginning, the three heroes despised women and believed that a country must have men to build fine walls and houses. But finally, they married Herlandians and sincerely believed in the ideology of Herland. Although these men ultimately approve of Herland’s excellence, it does not stop us from thinking that a female society’s need for male approval is ridiculous. Perhaps the novel would have been more realistic if the author had included a woman in the three-man exploration team.
3. Conclusion
From my perspective, the respectable and evil of human nature is never caused by either man or woman. Hence, a utopian world like Herland cannot be achieved without innovation in the political and economic system. Though the author tries to make people face up to women’s contribution to society, the book is more like a fantasy novel, which only satisfies the author’s perfect imagination of women in the patriarchal system.
In addition, there are other implicit discrimination issues in the book, you could click it if you are interested.
Reference
Ferns, Chris “Rewriting Male Myths: Herland and the Utopian Tradition.” A Very Different Story: Studies on the Fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, edited by Val Gough and Jill Rudd, 1st ed., vol. 14, Liverpool University Press, 1998, pp. 24–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjjgp.8
Gilman, C.P., 1979. Herland / by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; with an introduction by Ann J. Lane., London: Women’s Press.
Further reading
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/30/herland-forgotten-feminist-classic-about-civilisation-without-men
Dear Lin,
Thank you for your interesting blog post on the feminist critique of Herland.
If I have understood your argumentation correctly, you criticise the Male Gaze with which the author and the protagonist learn to perceive and understand Herland. This is a prominent opinion that is also worthy of recognition. What struck me while reading, however, is the exciting double structure of the work. The author Charlotte Perkins Gilman is female-read. By claiming a male gaze, she emancipates herself and plays with role models. She uses this to show utopian conceptions of the world and knowledge and to lead opposites ad absurdum.
Many greetings,
Manuel
Dear Lin,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. The topic of male gaze in relation to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘Herland’ is really fascinating, and definitely an idea worth exploring. I think it was a great idea to bring a more contemporary feminist commentary (male gaze) into the context of an older feminist text — it makes for a good demonstration of how feminism might have evolved over time.
You make some excellent points, particularly your discussion of the male approval in the Herland narrative. CPG’s choice to portray three male explorers ‘discovering’ what is in fact a thriving society is well pointed out by you. So too is the fact that the story based all interpretation of Herland around the characters approval (as if we needed their opinion!). You have done well in this blog post to point these details out.
However, you could have perhaps explored a little further into the topic, for instance asking why CPG may have chosen three male protagonists, and how much she was consciously including the male gaze in Herland. Could it be that the male gaze is (and was) so deeply set in our patriarchal view of the world that CPG unintentionally wrote it into her new, feminist utopia? Or was she deliberately pointing out the stark contrast between feminist utopia and patriarchal ideology (that male approval necessarily disrupts Herland’s virtuous system)? I also think you could have structured the piece slightly differently, perhaps with headings that supported the ideas discussed (I’m not a huge fan of Clues, arguments, conclusion headings although this is purely a personal opinion).
Overall I think your blog post is great! It really got me thinking about the novella through a different lens. I think with more time and a larger word count, you could talk about this idea in greater detail.
Good Job!
Harry