Analysis Of The Female Man By Joanna Wuss

It is impossible to turn back time. The human mind may be unorganized, messy, and nonlinear, but life at its most basic always has a chronology. People become who they are by building upon past experiences and growing older. In her essay “What Can a Heroine Do? or Why Women Can’t Write”, Joanna Russ says that to develop new myths that reflect the lives of women, that either or both of the lyric and life writing styles should be used. The Female Man by Joanna Russ incorporates both of these styles, but with an emphasis on life. By including the style of life in her novel it inevitably gains a chronological structure. The Female Man is about Joanna Russ developing her individual feminist identity throughout her life, from childhood to adulthood and a speculative future. It is incredibly unlikely Joanna Russ was born a feminist; life and experience must have been built upon. As Joanna Russ points out, “Nothing flows without a history” (“Heroine”, 86). There can be no beginning or growth without something to grow from. Janet comes from an essentially genderless world as it is solely comprised of women. Janet, and by extension her world Whileaway symbolizes childhood. Children have a minimal concept of gender until around the age of five. When children play together they treat each other the same and do the same things. They have the …show more content…
There are not enough myths about women, and she created one of her own about herself. Not everyone will relate to The Female Man, but it can make people think and consider, “If one woman feels this way, do others?” Books are frequently used as tools for developing empathy, which is substantially more effective than violence. By releasing her book to the world, Joanna Russ elicits empathy from the reader, which can lead to understanding of and freedom from the oppressions women