Bridget wrote:
>With regards to the issue of separatism (of the sexes) in novels such as
>Joanna Russ's The_Female_Man and Suzy McKee Charnas' _Motherlines_ what
>does everyone think about its feminist consequences? Is it merely an
>explorative and/or narrative tool or does it have wider implications?
>Is it the separatism which makes these works utopic/dystopic?
I loved your questions, though I have no answers--they parallel some lines
of thought I've been pursuing lately. I'm very intrigued by the ways in
which this separatism is fictively achieved--in most cases, that is, how
the men get killed off, kill themselves off, are in the process of being
killed off, etc. Rarely does such separatism result from women killing
men (Russ's Jael is an exception), but it is nevertheless a necessity and
frequently portrayed as deserved. Especially interesting is the charge
that the inhabitants of Whileaway defeated men in a war, rather than
watching them succumb to a plague. The fact that Janet shrugs this
accusation off does not completely put my mind at ease. Is this a form of
revenge?
What are the implications for feminism here? And is anyone familiar with
works in which a more peaceful separatism is achieved?
Honor
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:34 PDT