Professor Abigail Heiniger

Kile 5

MaryAnn Kile

Professor Abigail Heiniger

English 2120

25 March 2013

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an author who is known for her feminist views and writings, many of which were published between 1909 and 1916 in her own literary magazine called The Forerunner according to Sutton- Ramspeck in “Article/Essay Title Here” (27). In her autobiography, Charlotte Gilman Perkins made a point to distance her works from literature and writing as an art, as she said that her writing was for a purpose (Sutton- Ramspeck 18). Gilman’s writings always served a purpose, which was usually centered on changing the gender roles of women or completely obliterating the idea of gender roles in America. Among her many works, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote Herland, a serialized story that appeared in "The Forerunner” in 1915. In this story, three men hear of a "strange and terrible “Woman Land”" (Gilman 34). They are intrigued when they hear about this mysterious land, and organize an expedition to explore it. Upon arriving, the men are taken captive in a very non-violent manner, and during their imprisonment they are educated and probed for information. It is later discovered that the women are educating and investigating the men for their capability or desirability as the men who will reintroduce the male sex into Herland. In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman does the cultural work of redefining gender roles by using the fantastic and creating a society comprised entirely of females who create a seemingly perfect system of society, procreated, and progressed scientifically, completely independent of all male influence and involvement. This alternate society that Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates allows her to do the cultural work of redefining traditional gender roles by creating a society that is comprised entirely of women, and by giving women the appropriate clothing, respect, and opportunity to show that they are equal to men.

Throughout the story, the men are astonished and unwilling to believe that women were able to create, maintain, and improve a society without the assistance or presence of a single man. They insist that the men must simply be elsewhere, until they are finally convinced that there really are no men, and that females achieved this society on their own. The fact that these men have a difficult time believing that women were able to create, maintain, and evolve a society is directly speaking to the fact that gender roles at the time did not allow for women to do anything of value, or perceive them as creatures capable of doing so. Their desire for men to be involved, despite the obvious absence and evidence of lack of men, points to the fact that they do not want to believe that women are capable of doing “manly” things. Perhaps describe the different men here and the way that their triad makes up the ideal man at the time.

In Herland, Gilman is responding to many different aspects of the gender roles defined by society at the time. Herland was written in 1915, a time when gender roles were defined by the clothing that an individual wore, and the clothing that women were expected to wear disallowed them to be functional in any way. In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is directly responding to the dysfunctional clothing and accessories that society deemed as necessary for women to wear. They were expected to wear various clothing implements, many of which were impractical and made it impossible for women to do anything. One magazine targeted specifically toward young women, The Young Ladies Journal, features numerous advertisements for particular clothing implement—corsets, in a May 1891 edition. An advertisement for The Y & N Patent Diagonal Seam Corset pictures their company’s corset, alongside the claim “Will not split in the Seams nor tear in the Fabric”, in addition to the words “Perfect Fit” along the top of the advertisement (Thee Young Ladies Journal Cover Page 3). This corset is a typical example of the clothing implements women were expected to wear, and is advertised alongside human necessities for life, such as medicinal and food products. The corset pictured in this 1891 magazine is a shape that no human body is naturally found in, yet it is advertised as being the “Perfect Fit”. It follows that if the corset was truly the “Perfect Fit” that the seams would not be distressed, yet the company finds that the claim that this corset will not spilt or tear is necessary. Perhaps it is because it was not truly the “Perfect Fit” and actually, because they were so tight while trying to change the shape of the woman’s body, the seams had to be reinforced. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as a young woman at the time, was a part of the audience for which these ads were intended. In Herland, she responds to these advertisements in her alternate society that she creates, in which women are able to successfully, and possibly more efficiently, do the jobs that are traditionally reserved for men in America in the early 1900s when they are allowed to wear non-restrictive clothing. In her society of only women, their clothing is in stark contrast to the restraining corsets advertised in The Young Ladies Journal. These garments are described as ”absolutely comfortable, physically” (Gilman 55). Even the men, who have been described as identifying with the typical male of the time, find the clothing ”mighty sensible” (Gilman 56). It would seem that Gilman is partly blaming the restrictive corsets and impractical clothing implements that women are expected to wear for the traditional bias that women are less physically capable than men. In a society in which women wear “mighty sensible” clothing, they are capable of performing duties traditionally thought only performable by men.

As a woman in America in the early 1900’s, Gilman was also subject to a societal gender role that women were to be submissive to their husbands, and in doing so, good wives. Sir Almroth E. Wright was a medical doctor and immunologist who wrote a Letter to the Editor of the London Times (28 March 1912), which is considered to be “one of the most notorious antifeminist documents of the period”(Gilman 253). In this letter, he writes about how complicated, unreasonable, and unstable women are, and concludes with “And peace will return when…the woman who remains in England comes to recognize that she can, without sacrifice of dignity, give a willing subordination to the husband or father, who, when all is said and done, earns and lays up money for her.” (Gilman Wright 256) [The editor of your edition of Herland] juxtaposes this letter with Herland because Gilman may have been responding to this letter in Herland her novel when she describes the marriages between the men male adventurers and the women of Herland. While it can be agreed upon that there are many different types of marriages and marriage relationships, and that legally to be married means that a woman is a wife, one of the men has problem in his marriage because he feels as though the woman of Herland do not know now to be wives, that is, his definition of a wife. In Herland society, even the women who are legally married do not identify themselves as wives, but rather as mothers. Similarly, these woman do not understand the aspect of husbands, and therefore do not know the role that they are supposed to take on, according to American societal norms. Gilman may be suggesting that the societal norms of the marriage relationship in America are only what they are because of how men expect them to be, as opposed to because they are naturally that way. Without the societal and predetermined expectation of being a submissive housewife, women do not naturally become submissive simply because they become a wife and have a husband. Instead, the only role of womanhood that is natural is childbearing, and caring for the child.

In conferences you said that this was what you wanted to focus on, so I have put all my comments here (although I liked the way you were incorporating the corset ad into your analysis above).

Find quotes (both from Gilman and Wright) and pair them together – find specific passages where Gilman seems to be responding to the material in Wright. Even if Gilman did not read Wright, he represents the misogynistic Victorian marriage laws that Gilman was reacting to in Herland.

Analyze these quotes.

Think about why Van and Ellador STILL return to the United States. They don’t remain in the ideal world of Herland. Why is that? What is Gilman arguing with that? Is Herland too sterile in its perfect (for them to have a successful romance)?

Does Herland represent the IDEAL world OR is it supposed to make the reader reconsider our world?

This passage was left out in all editions of Herland except the one that I am using:

“For that matter there were a lot of things Aristotle didn’t know.” (74)

Footnote on page 74: “Gilman may have had in mind Aristotle’s statement, “the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior, and the one rules, and the other is ruled” (Politics 1254 b13), or his explanation in The Generation of Animals that only men have the capacity for reproduction, women providing merely the womb in which the man’s seed grows; therefore, according to Aristotle, the child inherits only the father’s traits.”

Perhaps discuss this while discussing that ^^

An important aspect of Herland is parthenogenesis, as it explained to the men that it is what has allowed a society of only women to reproduce for two thousand years. (Gilman 74) Parthenogenesis is “reproduction in which an ovum develops into a new organism without fertilization. Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some insects, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, and reptiles.” (Gilman 73)

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. 1915. Herland and Related Writings. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2013.

Print.

Wright, Sir Almroth. “Suffrage Fallacies: Sir Almroth Wright on Militant Hysteria.” London Times. Herland and Related Writings. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2013.

Print.