AP Photo/Paul Sancya
What if women were to evolve the power of parthenogenesis – the ability to procreate asexually or without sex? It sounds like something out of the X-Files, right? Well, actually there are animals today, certain geckos and snakes for instance, that already have this ability. And if this ability exists in nature, then those who accept evolution should certainly accept the possibility that humans could also evolve a similar specialization – at least, it shouldn't be considered completely impossible in the grand scheme of Darwinian thought.
After all, it would only take one woman with this characteristic, a slight variation in the genetic code, to change humankind forever. In fact, when you consider that these animals with this strange gift are entirely female, and only produce female offspring with this same gift, this means that one woman with this strange ability could eventually devastate the entire male human population, making the future human race exclusively female.
The question then becomes: what use does the male of the species serve? Why are men, other than to
procreate, even necessary? How would the world change without men, without male power and influence on politics, science, religion, art, philosophy, government, labor, sex, and war? Would sex, or our notion of its necessity, simply disappear as men vanish from the face of the earth?
In her polemic "utopian" novel Herland, originally published in 1915, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates a similar scenario, addressing these questions and more. Gilman even takes it one step further by placing her exclusively female-built civilization side-by-side with the male-dominant society of her time, allowing her to criticize and satirize the male-dominant world by comparison.
Herland is the story of three scientists, sociologist Vandyck "Van" Jennings, geographer and meteorologist Terry Nicholson, and botanist and poet Dr. Jeff Margrave, who accidentally stumble upon Herland during a scientific expedition that nearly cost them their lives. Their notes, reports, and scientific data were all lost during their escape, and all that remains is Van Jenning's memory of the details collected in this one text.
As a sociologist, Van is the man best suited for the job of describing their adventures. Van's buddies, however, are the opposite sides of the same coin, each representing an extreme male personality. Handsome, rugged, adventurous, Terry Nicholson mistakenly projects his macho-masculine thoughts and expectations of the women he's more familiar with onto the women of Herland. Dr. Jeff Margrave, described as "a tender soul," is much different in thought and temperament than Terry. Jeff is interested more in the "wonders of science" than the cold, hard facts of scientific data that rule Terry's logical thinking.
"Jeff's ideas and Terry's were so far apart" Van tells us, "that sometimes it was all I could do to keep place between them". And clearly Van serves as just that: a more neutral figure between the two extremes, an almost positive contrast to the other men – the closest to the Herland women in all ways.
"We like you best," they tell him. "You seem more like us".
It's important to note that Gilman is a socialist, which means that religion, however important to Gilman, does not include the existence of any recognizable God. Gilman will attack the masculine flaws of these foreign men using their own beloved science as well as their religion against them, in order to promote the idea of a single human consciousness without gender – a sort of feminist/socialist vision of the religion practiced in Herland, a collective mental outlook developed over the course of 2,000 years of continuous culture with no men. The men in her book, essentially held as prisoners, are taught the
Herland language, culture and history. These men are unknowingly put on trial, as the open-minded women of the unisexual Garden of Eden consider the pros and cons of allowing the men to remain in their land and embracing a new bi-sexual society. What follows is a hilarious but ultimately sad portrait of a masculinity unworthy of such a union.
Perhaps Herland seems like a ridiculous utopian farce or like some creation of a science fiction writer. But have you heard of Natasha Demkina, the young woman in Russia who, according to The Discovery Channel, has been baffling scientists with her apparent ability to see through solid objects? In essence, some say this young woman has developed a kind of X-ray vision. Whether it's true or just a hoax, imagine the implications of a human being with this ability.
Either way, it's easy to see that Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland is a smart, funny, thought-provoking story worth consideration for both men and women alike. It's a fascinating book that makes one think, laugh, wonder, dream and maybe, perhaps, question his or her own views of the gender issues still plaguing Ourland.
Buy a copy of Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman at Amazon.com or read it online for free at Google Book Search.
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