Charlotte Gilman’s Herland describes a feminist utopia where there are only women. No man has stepped foot in Herland for thousands of years; the women have no need for the men, since they reproduce asexually. The women in Herland value motherhood and sisterhood over anything else. When the men arrive in Herland, the women are skeptical but open to reevaluating the ways of their society, possibly willing to try reproducing sexually and creating a male-female society. In Kathleen Lant’s criticism of Herland, The Rape of the Text: Charlotte Gilman 's Violation of Herland, she states, “While Gilman espouses an ideology of expansive, supportive, strong femininity, she violates that vision by the very shape of her novel.” (Lant, 292). Gilman allows the patriarchal values to “cloud” the feminist body of her text. “Gilman allows patriarchal values ‘forcible entry’ into the feminist body of her text. By means of this forcible entry or rape the masculinist values that Gilman abhors enjoy ‘victorious
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In Tammy Clemon’s criticism, Feminism in Herland: a Utopian Vision of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Clemon’s states, “the primary identification of the Herland women as mothers reverts back to cultural stereotypes in which women are ‘naturally’ more nurturing than men.” (Clemons, 6). This is a strange connection considering Gilman herself gave up her child to her ex-husband. In fact, many believe that Gilman’s reason for writing Herland was the guilt she felt for not being the best mother. “She drew vitality and purpose from work in a way that was coded, at the time, as distinctly masculine; and when, consumed by her writing, Gilman eventually sent her daughter away to be raised by her ex-husband, she was labeled an ‘unnatural’ mother.” (West). Many believe that Gilman’s Herland was also written due to the skeptilation that Gilman was lesbian, something that was frowned upon immensely in her time, and still frowned upon by some
In Tammy Clemon’s criticism, Feminism in Herland: a Utopian Vision of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Clemon’s states, “the primary identification of the Herland women as mothers reverts back to cultural stereotypes in which women are ‘naturally’ more nurturing than men.” (Clemons, 6). This is a strange connection considering Gilman herself gave up her child to her ex-husband. In fact, many believe that Gilman’s reason for writing Herland was the guilt she felt for not being the best mother. “She drew vitality and purpose from work in a way that was coded, at the time, as distinctly masculine; and when, consumed by her writing, Gilman eventually sent her daughter away to be raised by her ex-husband, she was labeled an ‘unnatural’ mother.” (West). Many believe that Gilman’s Herland was also written due to the skeptilation that Gilman was lesbian, something that was frowned upon immensely in her time, and still frowned upon by some