Dru Watkins

Feminist Utopias

               As I was reading Herland, I came across a passage that intrigued me.  “All the surrendering devotion our women have put into their private families, these women put into their country and race.  All the loyalty and service men expect of wives, they gave, not singly to men, but collectively to one another (Gilman 95).”  This triggered my interest in the changed interpersonal and social relations in Feminist Utopias. I want to explore how changes in gender relations and the family unit might fundamentally influence conceptions of feminist utopias. 

               While scouring Jstor, I found Robin Silbergleid’s article “Women, Utopia and Narrative: Toward a Postmodern Feminist Citizenship”.  She begins by explaining the idea of a sexual contract between male and female that precedes the social contract for citizenship:

In short, the sexual contract arises to ensure that each male citizen has access to a wife who, in turn, safeguards the well-being of the family and the home; the sexual contract thereby enables men to take advantage of the social contract that grants them status as citizens free to exchange property in the capitalist marketplace (Silbergleid, 158).

               The sexual contract itself (which seems to solidify the nuclear family unit) places women in a subservient role.   Silbergleid says that this unit is the required narrative for families in a system of industrial capitalism.  The sexual contract establishes the patriarchal vision of the family which fuels the excessive, unsustainable overproduction of industrial capitalism.  Women are expected to maintain the private sphere of the home while men dominate the public sphere.  Silbergleid mentions some of the more well-known women utopian writers (Russ, Piercy, Wittig, Charna) and identifies how they respond to the nuclear family:

Chiefly antipatriarchal in their pursuit of a sexually egalitarian society, these feminist utopias theorize societies which derive from communal or tribal ties rather than from the nuclear family; which emphasize ecological well-being more than technological advancement or economic gain…(Silbergleid, 161).

So, these feminist utopias seem to suggest that a change in the family unit might also change the current social and economic models of our current system. 

               Afterwards, I found Jean Pfaelzer’s article called “The Changing of the Avant Garde:  The Feminist Utopia”.  She refers to Isabel Knight’s three kinds of gender relations in feminist utopias (monogendered, gender-merged, and dialectical androgyny).  “In a “monogendered” utopia, such as Gilman’s Herland, all the qualities and competencies essential to human growth are attributed to women (Pfaelzer, 285).”  However, there is a dilemma with this kind of utopia.  “The implicit message of the mono gendered utopia is that the problem of gender is insoluble (285).”  Gender-merged Utopias attempt to reconcile the sexes, but Pfaelzer argues that the categories “feminine” and “masculine” themselves are part of the patriarchal discourse.  In the dialectical androgyny narrative (such as Piercy’s Edge of Time), “biological transformations annihilate gender antitheses.  Hence, anatomy is still destiny (285). 

               Both articles say that Feminist Utopias are reactive in nature to current gender inequalities.  Robin Silbergleid cites Joannas Russ:  “utopias are not embodiments of universal values, but are reactive; that is, they supply in fiction what their authors believe society… and/or women, lack in the here and now (161).”  Jean Pfaelzer seems to answer in a similar vein: 

Furthermore, the feminist utopia works because it is hierarchical and referential.  One world is feminist and egalitarian.  The other world is not.  And the world that is not utopian derives from the author’s representation of contemporary gender inequality, sexual repression, and cultural malaise (286).

Both articles helped to broaden my interest in gender relations in Utopian narratives.  The arrangement of the family unit might serve as a microcosm for the relations and economic functioning of a Feminist Utopia.  The core of this family unit is the male/female relationship and has ramifications that extend past the nuclear family.  I plan to explore ecotopias and sustainability issues in my second research post.  Since gender relations and the family unit seem to play a large part in any economic  system (especially Utopias) I hope to link the two research topics together with this common thread.

Works Cited

1.       Silbergleid, Robin.  “Women, Utopia and Narrative: Toward a Postmodern Feminist Citizenship.”  Hypatia.  Vol. 12, No. , Citizenship in Feminism: Identity, Action, and Locale.  Autumn 1997: pg 156-177.

2.      Pfaelzer, Jean.  “The Changing of the Avant Garde:  The Feminist Utopia.”  Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3.  Nov. 1988:  p 282-294.