''The Female Man'' is a
feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on theories that include feminist themes including but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist ...
novel by American writer
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as w ...
. It was originally written in 1970 and first published in 1975 by
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
. Russ was an ardent
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
and challenged
sexist
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...
views during the 1970s with her novels, short stories, and nonfiction works. These works include ''
We Who Are About To...'', "
When It Changed
"When It Changed" is a science fiction short story by American writer Joanna Russ. It was first published in the anthology ''Again, Dangerous Visions''.
Synopsis
Janet Evason lives on Whileaway, an all-female human colony planet whose inhabitants ...
", and ''What Are We Fighting For?: Sex, Race, Class, and the Future of Feminism''.
The novel follows the lives of four women living in parallel universes which differ in time and place. The women visit each other's worlds and are startled by the different views on gender roles and social conventions surrounding women and womanhood. Their encounters influence them to reevaluate their lives and redefine what it means to be a woman. At the end, all four women discover that they are actually four different versions of the same woman and are able to free themselves of the patriarchal conventions of their respective worlds.
The title of the novel comes from the character Joanna, who transforms into a "female man" in order to be respected and seen beyond her sex.
A "female man" is a woman with a man's mind, her body and soul still female.
Joanna's metaphorical transformation refers to her decision to seek equality by rejecting women's dependence on men and mirrors the journeys made by the other three protagonists.
Setting
''The Female Man'' includes several fictional worlds.
* Joanna's World: Joanna exists in a world that is similar to Earth in the 1970s.
* Jeannine's World: Jeannine lives in New York City in 1969, in a world where the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
never ended and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
never happened. As a result, her world is in a never ending depression without any significant feminist movements.
* Whileaway: Janet's world is an all-female utopian Earth ten centuries in the future called Whileaway, where all the men died from a sex-specific plague 900 years from the beginning of the novel. However in the final chapter, it is suggested by Jael that the plague was a lie and that the men were killed. The language of Whileaway is "Pan-russian" and is nothing like the Russian of the 20th century. To procreate, women in lesbian relationships use technology to genetically merge ova. Although Whileaway is technologically advanced, their societies are mostly
agrarian. Whileaway is less concerned with equality than it is with safety. There is no sexual assault or murder, and children are free to play naked and without fear. There are duels which can end in the death of one of the dueling parties but this is commonplace in Whileaway and seen as an effective way to deal with a dispute.
* Womanland: Jael's world is a dystopia where men (Manlanders) and women (Womanlanders) are in a literal "battle of the sexes". Although their war has been ongoing for forty years, both societies trade with each other, especially children. Womanlanders keep the female children and exchange male children for resources. In order for men to cope with their sexual desires, a select number of young boys deemed not masculine enough undergo
sex change
Sex change is a natural or artificial process in which an individual's sex is changed.
Sex change may also refer to:
Biology and medicine
*Sex reassignment therapy
*Sex reassignment surgery
*Sequential hermaphroditism, a phenomenon whereby some ...
surgery. In lieu of men, Womanlanders like Jael have automatons or pursue
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
relationships.
Plot summary
The novel begins when Janet Evason suddenly arrives and disappears in Jeannine's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a futuristic world where a plague killed all of the men over 800 years ago, and Jeannine lives in a world that never experienced the end of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Janet takes Jeannine to Joanna's world, where both women meet in a cocktail lounge and watch Janet's televised interview. She explains to the male interviewer the culture and customs of Whileawayans which differ greatly from Joanna's world. When Janet begins to explain to the interviewer how women in Whileaway "copulate" she is abruptly cut off by a commercial break.
Acting as a guide, Joanna takes Janet to a party in her world to show her how women and men interact with each other. Janet quickly finds herself to be the object of a man's attention as he continually harasses her. After she has had enough, Janet knocks the man down and mocks him. Her behavior shocks everyone at the party, since in Joanna's world, it is believed that women are inferior to men. Janet then expresses her desire to experience living with a typical family to Joanna, who takes Janet to the Wildings’ household in Anytown, U.S.A. Janet meets their teenage daughter Laura Rose who instantly admires Janet's confidence and independence as a woman. Laura realizes that she is attracted to Janet and begins to pursue a sexual relationship with her. This is transgressive for both of them, as Whileaway's taboo against cross-generational relationships (having a relationship with someone old enough to be your parent or young enough to be your child) is as strong as the taboo against same-sex relationships on Laura's world. After the two have sex for the first time, Janet recounts to Laura how she met and fell in love with her wife, Vittoria, back in Whileaway.
Jeannine and Joanna accompany Janet back to Whileaway where they meet Vittoria and stay at their home. A small Whileawayan child follows Joanna and tells her a story about a bear trapped between two worlds as a metaphor for her life. Jeannine returns to her world with Joanna, and they both go to vacation at her brother's house. Jeannine's mother pesters her about her love life and asks whether she is going to get married soon. Jeannine goes on a few dates with some men but still finds herself dissatisfied. Jeannine begins to doubt her sense of reality, but soon decides that she wants to assimilate into her role as a woman. She calls Cal to pick her up and agrees to marry him.
Joanna, Jeannine, and Janet arrive in Jael's world which has had a 40 year old war between men and women. Jael explains that she works for the Bureau of Comparative
Ethnology
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...
, an organization that concentrates on people's various counterparts in different parallel worlds. She reveals that she is the one who brought all of them together because they are four versions of the same woman. Jael takes all of them with her into enemy territory where she appears to be negotiating a deal with one of the male leaders. At first, the male leader appears to be promoting equality, but Jael quickly realizes that he still believes in the inferiority of women. He relentlessly harasses Jael and tries to convince her that it is necessary for both societies to reconcile. Jael reveals herself as a ruthless assassin, kills the man, and shuttles all of the women back to her house. At her house, the women witness Jael and Davy, her biological automaton, having sex. Jael finally tells the other women why she has assembled all of them. She wants to create secret military bases in the women's worlds without the men's knowledge. Her hope is that eventually, the women in each world will be empowered and overthrow their respective patriarchal societies.
Jeannine and Joanna agree to help Jael assimilate the women soldiers into their worlds, but Janet refuses, given the overall pacifism of Whileaway. Jeannine and Joanna appear to have become stronger individuals and are excited to rise up against their gender roles. Janet is not moved by Jael's intentions so Jael suggests Janet that the reason for the absence of men on Whileaway is not because of a plague but because the women won the war and killed all of the men in its timeline's past. Janet refuses to believe Jael, and the other women are annoyed at Janet's resistance. The novel ends with the women separating and returning to their worlds, each with a new perspective on her life, her world, and her identity as a woman.
Characters
Major characters
Jeannine Nancy Dadier is a twenty-nine year old
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...
who lives in a world that never escaped the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. She has a blue-eyed cat named Mr. Frosty to whom she constantly speaks and lavishes with attention. Jeannine faces constant pressure from her family and society to get married. She doubts her boyfriend Cal's ability to make her happy, but eventually becomes engaged to him. Of all the women, she is the least radicalized and seen as the weakest of all the women. Still, Jael says she is arguably the most intelligent of the four women. At the end of the novel, Jeannine appears to have broken from the expectations of marriage and welcomes the social revolution against men.
Joanna lives in 1969, in a world remarkably similar to Earth. The
feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
has just begun, and Joanna is determined to refute her world's belief that women are inferior to men. Joanna is witty and smart, but she struggles to assert her abilities and intelligence among her male peers. In order to cope, she repeatedly refers to herself as the “female man” to indicate her adoption of the male gender role and separate herself from being identified as just another woman. She identifies herself as the author of the novel throughout the work. She is named after and based on Russ.
Janet Evason Belin comes from a futuristic world called Whileaway where all the men died of a sex-specific plague over 900 years ago. She is a Safety and Peace officer, similar to a
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
, and has just become an emissary to other worlds. She explains that this is because she is expendable, and relatively stupid compared to other Whileawayans. She is married to Vittoria and has two children. Janet becomes romantically involved with Laura Wilding, the teenage daughter of the family she was staying with in Joanna's world. She is referred to by Jael as "The Strong One" and "Miss Sweden". She is older than the other women, and is the most evolutionary advanced as she has no allergies, appendix, or double joints. In addition to being confident and assertive, Janet is perhaps the most independent from men because she has never experienced patriarchal domination.
Alice Jael Reasoner, often referred to as Jael (codename Sweet Alice), is an assassin living in a world where men and women have been at war for forty years. Each sex has made their own societies, Womanland and Manland, that excludes the other. Jael has silver claws that are revealed when she pulls back the skin and metal teeth, which she uses as her weapons. She is a radical and performs her job well. Jael is the instigator behind the four women's meeting and proposes a revolution against all men.
Minor characters
Laura Rose, nickname Laur, is the daughter in the family that Janet stays with when she is visiting Joanna's world. She proclaims herself to be a “victim of
penis envy
Penis envy (german: Penisneid) is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding female psychosexual development, in which young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis. Freud considered this realization a defining m ...
,” frustrated that she must stifle her potential in order to become a housewife. She is a shy tomboy with short hair and freckles who struggles in her sexual orientation and womanhood. She daydreams she is
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
to cope. Janet's confidence and independence from men fascinates Laura, and she begins to pursue a sexual relationship with Janet.
Vittoria is Janet's wife. She and Janet have two daughters. She is mentioned often by Janet and makes a brief appearance when all four women visit Whileaway.
Cal is Jeannine's boyfriend and soon-to-be fiancé. He cries often and wears her necklaces. She does not believe that Cal is masculine enough to provide for her.
Bud Dadier is Jeannine's older brother who teaches high school math. He is married and has two children. He and his mother constantly pressure Jeannine into marriage.
Mrs. Dadier is Jeannine's mother who lives with Jeannine's brother and his family. When Jeannine spends a vacation at her brother's house, Mrs. Dadier plagues Jeannine with lectures regarding the importance of marriage.
Frank, also referred to as X, is a married man who takes Jeannine on a few dates while she stays at her brother's house. He is estranged from his wife, and though Jeannine feels no connection to him, she goes out with him to appease her family.
Davy is Jael's male automaton. His "original germ-plasm" is described as chimpanzee, but he resembles a beautiful young man. Devoid of will, and possibly of all higher brain functions, he is connected to Jael's computerised home and is controlled by her facial cues and verbal commands.
Dunyasha Bernadettson is a Whileawayan philosopher brought up often by Janet throughout the novel.
Structure and format
The novel is divided into nine parts, with each further divided into chapters. The sections of the novel are usually dedicated to one character's perspective, but often the
point of view
Point of view or Points of View may refer to:
Concept and technique
* Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or thinks of something
* Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the prono ...
changes between the four characters and skips from location and time. It is often unclear who is speaking and as a result, creates confusion in the narration. The constant switching in point of view represents the women's, and Russ's, resistance to the male dominated genre.
Joanna, Janet, and Jael's perspectives are told in
first person narrative
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
, but they often refer to themselves in the
third person
Third person, or third-person, may refer to:
* Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'')
** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person
* Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...
while the narration is still through their point of view. Laura Wilding is the only minor character to have the narrative told through her perspective. Jeannine's perspective is told solely through a
third person narrative
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
until she begins to question her role in a patriarchcy and is absorbed in the first person point of view in the final chapter:
We got up and paid our quintuple bill; then we went out onto the street. I said goodbye and went off with Laur, I, Janet; I also watched them go, I, Joanna; forever I went off to show Jael the city, I Jeaninne, I Jael, I myself. (p. 212)
Joanna describes writing the novel, and acknowledges the audience in the final chapter.
She describes her style of narration as feminine:
I have no structure…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'. (p. 137).
Joanna also inserts imaginary conversations in the form of a script that demonstrate her frustration with men. There are also poems, and Janet often gives background history on Whileaway, including citing a Whileaway philosopher, to provide insight on her culture. Jael is introduced in part two, signaled by an italicized text; however, her story begins in part eight with a repetition of the italicized chapter. It is not until part eight that the novel focuses on Jael and formally introduces her.
Literary significance and reception
As the feminist movement began to gain attention, however, many regarded the novel as one of the most influential works in
feminist literature
Feminist literature is fiction, nonfiction, drama, or poetry, which supports the feminist goals of defining, establishing, and defending equal civil, political, economic, and social rights for women. It often identifies women's roles as unequal ...
and its wide acceptance heralded the start of
feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on theories that include feminist themes including but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist ...
.
[Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 1035.] Upon its release, the novel was received favorably.
Douglas Barbour in the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' wrote:
Elizabeth Lynn
Elizabeth A. Lynn (born 1946) is a US writer most known for fantasy and to a lesser extent science fiction. She is particularly known for being one of the first writers in science fiction or fantasy to introduce gay and lesbian characters; in hon ...
, of the ''San Francisco Review'' of books, described it as "A stunning book, a work to be read with great respect. It’s also screamingly funny."
Though it is highly regarded as an important feminist text, the novel is not without its share of controversy. It is also considered to be dated by some, and divides critics and audiences alike. Most of the criticism received by Russ was on the radical feminism the novel is perceived to propagate.
The character Jael, implies that the slaughter of men was inevitable and necessary for the feminist utopia. For Jael, violence is the only means through which women can free themselves.
Allusions and references
Allusions to other works
* "
When It Changed
"When It Changed" is a science fiction short story by American writer Joanna Russ. It was first published in the anthology ''Again, Dangerous Visions''.
Synopsis
Janet Evason lives on Whileaway, an all-female human colony planet whose inhabitants ...
" by
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as w ...
: The character Janet, and a different version of Whileaway (a planet colonized from Earth, rather than a future version of Earth itself), exist in both the novel ''The Female Man'' and in the short story "When It Changed".
* ''
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'' by
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
:
Queen Anne is referred to as a "female man" in Chapter 4 of the
Houyhnhnm
Houyhnhnms are a fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swift's satirical 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels''. The name is pronounced either or . Swift apparently intended all words of the Houyhnhnm language ...
s section''.''
* ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'' from
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
: Joanna alludes to Grendel's mother to demonstrate that a woman can be both a nurturing mother and an aggressive, strong woman.
* ''
The Subjection of Women
''The Subjection of Women'' is an essay by English philosopher, political economist and civil servant John Stuart Mill published in 1869, with ideas he developed jointly with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill. Mill submitted the finished manuscript ...
'' by
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
: Joanna references Mill when she lists the many examples of how men have historically oppressed women.
* ''
The Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
:'' Jael is named after
Yael
Jael or Yael ( he, יָעֵל ''Yāʿēl'') is the name of the heroine who delivered Ancient Israel, Israel from the army of King Jabin of Canaan in the Book of Judges of the Hebrew Bible. After Barak demurred at the behest of the prophetess Deb ...
, who kills
Sisera
Sisera ( he, סִיסְרָא ''Sîsərā'') was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor, who is mentioned in of the Hebrew Bible. After being defeated by the forces of the Israelite tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali under the comm ...
by driving a tent peg through his skull while he sleeps. At one point Russ describes Jael in words paraphrased from the
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom i ...
: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead" (Jdg. 5:27).
Allusions to history
Russ's novel refers to the problematic issues in the 1970s when the feminist movement became highly influential. Because ''The Female Man'' was written during the 1970s, the character Joanna's world is most similar to the real world Russ lived in. The novel also addresses the
environmental movement
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...
as shown through Janet's
utopian society. Though Janet's world is extremely technologically advanced, the women choose to live in agrarian societies. Whileaway forms an idealistic image of an organic environment where nature is preserved despite the radical development of technology.
The novel also mentions the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, which started in 1929 when the world's economy was plunged into a long and deep
recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
. In Jeannine's world, however, the Great Depression never ended. The text suggests that the continuation of the Great Depression forced women to seek husbands for financial support and prohibited women from finding jobs of their own, perpetuating gender roles.
Awards and nominations
After having been nominated for the 1975
Nebula Award
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...
for Best Novel, ''The Female Man'' won one of three
Retrospective Tiptree Awards in 1996. It also won a 2002
Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame Award.
References
External links
*
Book reviewlink resolved at archive.org
* Ayres, Susan.
''Science Fiction Studies''. #65, Vol. 22, part 1 (March 1995).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Female Man, The
1975 American novels
1975 science fiction novels
American LGBT novels
American science fiction novels
Feminist science fiction novels
James Tiptree Jr. Award-winning works
Novels with lesbian themes
Single-gender worlds
1970s LGBT novels
LGBT speculative fiction novels
Works by Joanna Russ
Novels about parallel universes