On Tue, 22 Apr 1997 15:31:10 -0500 Martha Bartter wrote:
> From: Martha Bartter <MBARTTER@TRUMAN.EDU>
> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 15:31:10 -0500
> Subject: Re: feminist utopia/dystopia
> To: FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
>
> At 17:56 4/22/97 BST, you wrote:
> >On Sat, 19 Apr 1997 10:06:00 -0800 Emily Hackbarth wrote:
> >
> [snip]
> >
> >The bit in the story which really annoyed me was the stuff about
child
> >care. Shevek's mother is made to seem neglectful for leaving her
> >child in a creche whilst she goes off to pursue her career. His
father
> >is given no such guilt trip for doing the same thing, and neither is
> >Shevek who is happy to abandon his child to the care of his wife
> >assuming that she will be happy with this arrangment.
> >
> >In addition, one of the *implied* faults of this utopia is its lack of
> >beauty (it *is* a harsh world) but the loss seems to be focussed
on
> >the loss of feminity. Why? What was LeGuin trying to say?
> >
> >In the end, Shevek's wife (and I apologise deeply for not being
able
> >to remember her name, but she is *so* colourless) is subsumed
> >beneath the personality and creativity of the great man. I can't see
> >much difference for women before or after the revolution.
> >
> >
> >Farah
> >
> Takver -- I find her fascinating, and gave a paper on her once. I
> found, to my surprise, that at least one person in the audience saw
> her as a greedy (grease around the mouth) childlike person, with no
> personality. I saw her as a brave, vital, contributing member of the
> society -- who could say she had been wrong in a very important
matter,
> and take long separations from Shevek when they became
necessary.
>
> That's something I have experienced myself, and believe me, it's
not
> easy, especially when you have full responsibility for the children.
> Yes, the kids are in a kibbutz-like situation, so she doesn't have to
> hold down a job AND do all the housework-baby-tending etc., but
she
> DOES have to manage when everyone around her is shunning her
and her
> kids, and giving them all a hard time. Utopia, indeed! And she does
> not give in under that kind of pressure, either. A brave strong
woman.
>
> Martha Bartter
> Truman State University
Do you still have this paper? Have you published it anywhere? I
would very much like to read it as you seem to have focussed on
some of the issues I found so problematic.
Farah
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