The following article will take you through the twists and turns of a feminist science fiction novel that is highly applicable to the struggles women face today. Although it is only fair to warn that I was required to read this novel for one of my college courses, it struck me enough to want to write about it.
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The Female Man by Joanna Russ is definitely a recommended read if you are someone who enjoys feminist writings and you also enjoy a bit of sci-fi (if you could not already gather that from the title). This novel is more that though. This novel uses a genre that for the most part is still claimed to be predominantly male to go against patriarchal ideas that Russ was challenging in the 1970s. I find that to be hilariously clever because of the stress that women are given if they happen to like science fiction. This may actually be something more prominent today than in the 70s, but women who happen to venture in the science fiction realm are usually bombarded with "tests" to see if they really are a fan or just an "impostor".
"Men succeed. Women get married.
Men fail. Women get married.
Men enter monasteries. Women get married.
Men start wars. Women get married.
Men stop them. Women get married."
Russ takes the initiative and fights back against the patriarchy in her female run novel that shows four women in four different realities, one of which is a citizen of Whileaway--an all-female country where men no longer exist. This isn't the first time an author wrote of an all-female utopia, see Herland for another exciting female utopian novel. These women tell their stories through segmented chapters, which can be a bit confusing at first, but you get use to it. But if segmented chapters told from all different characters (with usually minimal indication of who is talking) isnt confusing enough, all the characters' names begin with the letter "J". Janet, Joanna, Jeannine, and Jael all tell their stories of how they all cross paths with each other as well as their own stories along the way.
"I have never visited Whileaway in my own person, and when Janet, Jeannine, and Joanna stepped out of the stainless steel sphere into which they had been transported from wherever the dickens it was that they were before (etcetera), they did so alone. I was there only as the spirit or soul of an experience is always there"
Although all the women share the first letter of their names, they are all very different. One could almost say that the four women represent different aspects and struggles feminist women have. For example, Jeannine, a librarian in a world where the Great Depression still reigns on, wants nothing more than to be married and to have the perfect man, but she first has to get away from her terrible boyfriend Cal. Janet is a fierce, strong women from Whileaway who really is not one to mess with, she flaunts her sexuality and does not give a damn about what a man says to her. The worlds of these women are also very different. They are not linear, meaning Janet is not the exact future world that Jeannine lives in and so on with the other characters.
"Last year I finally gave up and told my mother I didn't want to be a girl but she said Oh no, being a girl is wonderful. Why? Because you can wear pretty clothes and you don't have to do anything; the men will do it for you. She said that instead of conquering Everest, I could conquer the conqueror of Everest."
Despite their different personalities and worlds, these women tell similar stories of how they experienced sexism and how they struggled with it. Honestly, there is not much I can write for a review without completely ruining the ending of the novel. All I can say for sure, however, is if you want an empowering and relatable read, The Female Man is the book for you.
"You will notice that even my diction is becoming feminine, thus revealing my true nature […] I am putting in lots of qualifiers like "rather," I am writing in these breathless little feminine tags, she threw herself down on the bed, I have no structure (she thought), my thoughts seep out shapelessly like menstrual fluid, it is all very female and deep and full of essences, it is very primitive and full of "and's," it is called "run-on sentences."
