Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Review

I was excited to find Herland because I loved The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman when I read it two years ago, and the synopsis was too good to be true, a female only society and three idiotic men coming in and getting absolutely ridiculed? Sign me up. It started off strong, I laughed at the caricature-esque men and their assumptions regarding the female society they planned to broach with their imperialist style (of course), and the beauty and neatness of the society they observe when they come upon it. I found it interesting how the majority of the women were not young, conventionally beautiful women, but caring, maternal figures, which came as even a surprise to me, I liked that the idealized worship of the youth of women was gently let down. I also enjoyed the discussion of the intrinsically criminal nature of sexual assault, the approach towards the horror and their “this is completely and utterly unacceptable” approach is refreshing in our current society that sort of has a numbness regarding that horrific and disturbing topic that is stripped away in the all female society and justice system, I felt understood as a woman.

Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me in terms of “utopia” aspect. I wished there was more nuance to the society, I didn’t even have issues with the lore behind how it came to be, but the pillars of the society is upheld as revolving around everything maternal and motherly and gentle and clean and perfect. although I liked that it points out some of our current patriarchal society’s pitfalls, it sort of simplifies the concept of a woman’s role and female circles, which can be just as toxic and destructive as male societies, but Gilman implies that with a common destination of a maternally loving society, women will work together perfectly to achieve it.

Basically, the story is not perfect and doesn’t completely capture the extremely nuanced nature of any discussion around gender, but it’s thought provoking and made me think about my own world view, plus it’s pretty short and quite readable, so I think it completed the job.