Feminism In Brave New World
Utopia evokes an image of paradise for humanity, where the everyday stresses for survival and success are washed away by the perfection of the ideal state for the human race, each individual predetermined in their roles in life. However, in Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World”, this imagined place of heaven on Earth is disturbing in its reverence for technology, need for promiscuity, and the suppression of new ideas, all for the betterment of this society, the World State. This is extended into the gender roles, whether it be a citizen's role in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where humans are grown in test tubes, or everyday social interactions, both giving men and women two very distinct roles in this nirvana. With
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the use of totalitarian government and conditioning from the fetal stage of development, citizens are submissive and accepting of these gender roles. This is a drastic contrast to today’s views that men and women should be equal and fight for their independence, despite what their government may demand, under the influence of the feminist movement. “Brave New World” ventures into a utopia that expresses men as the dominant sex in the workplace, in social situations, and the government which causes a dissonance to the modern views of feminism. Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes” and has turned into the modern world’s views of women’s liberation (Feminism).
In Huxley’s “Brave New World”, the men exhibit a dominance over the female population, both physically and mentally in the workplace. During fetal development, the controller Mustapha Mond and the Director, whose job is to run the Hatchery where people are conditioned and grown, have implemented that two thirds of the women, ranked Beta or lower, in this utopia be sterilized. The other third are conditioned to acceptingly undergo surgical removal of the ovaries when the population is in need of new humans; these individuals are usually the females ranked as Alpha and Alpha-Plus. Females are conditioned at the workplace to accept this as a key part in fulfilling happiness in the World State, mentally being dominated by the teaching of Mustapha Mond and physically through sterilization and surgery. The male gender holds authority in the workplace because any position of power is filled with a male citizen in the World State, Mond and the Director being of highest standings, as if putting a female in power would disrupt the world’s happiness. The feminist movement of modern times would not allow for such conditioning or developmental mutilation and would protest for women’s right to have the opportunity to hold higher standing in the workplace to prevent these
practices.
When this is not occurring, Malthusian Drills, a conditioned system of birth control for females that aren’t sterilized, are ingrained to prevent pregnancy and relieves the males of reproductive responsibility. This key conditioning tool allows for men to dominate any social interaction because in “Brave New World”, all social interactions consist of movies known as feelies, promiscuous games in which sex is encouraged, or vacations between sexually involved pairs. The World State government has made it so that citizens do not have idle time to be alone, but instead are disturbed by solo interactions. When there is such a time, the citizens go on a holiday with the use of the drug soma, entering a type hallucinogenic high. During the social interactions citizens do have, sex is the main event and women are shouldering the responsibility that men have enforced as the right way to run a utopia. From a feminist viewpoint, this does not show equality between men and women because there is no shared responsibility in reproductive control during social interactions. When the Director impregnates Linda, he gets to return without any repercussions, but Linda is abandoned in the New Mexico Savage Reservation, run by another male authority figure called the Warden. She does not return because she is ashamed and frightened by the idea of motherhood, a part of human reproduction that is forbidden in the World State, and stays on the reservation where she gives birth alone.
Government in the “Brave New World” is ultimately run by two positions of power, the Director and the Controller. The Director is a man that administrates the Hatchery and, despite committing a scandalous act of fathering a child, runs the most important facility to carry out the government's orders and teachings. This ensures stability in the World State through its conditioning system proposed by the Controller, Mustapha Mond. Mond is the most powerful proponent of the World State, enforcing his views that humanity’s ultimate goal of stability and happiness is achieved through the censoring of scientific and romantic exploration as well as full control of a totalitarian state. This once again puts a powerful role of government in the hands of a man and does not coincide with the gender equality ideals of modern feminism. This goes as far as to a religious reverence of a technological male icon. As a type of scare tactic, the authority officials would use this reference to further enforce submission and cooperation. Throughout the World State, citizens would replace where modern society says “Lord” or “God” (i.e., Christ) with “My Ford” or “Year of our Ford” after Henry Ford, the early twentieth century industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company (Huxley). This gives a religious tone towards Ford and the reverence for technology he embodies, but also demonstrates how the government has implemented the idea of “Our Ford” so that there is a male and technological dominance at even the level of casual conversation and habits. Big Brother Ford is watching everyone is the message that is felt throughout the World State.
In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World”, men are in charge of all including social situations, the workplace, and the government. Women are submissive and cooperative tools that are used for labor, sexual endeavors, and reproductive stability. The women are treated like pieces of “meat”, something to be conquered, “degrading her to so much mutton”, and then trading in for a new model (Huxley). In social situations, women are to be promiscuous and dull minded and in the workplace, they are to accept submissions and mutilation. To the government, women must bow to the teachings of men and not seek higher standings. The feminist movement of today fights for the equality of the sexes, but in “Brave New World”, where the government should be creating a blissful utopia for all, the World State has created a totalitarian paradise ruled for and by men.
the use of totalitarian government and conditioning from the fetal stage of development, citizens are submissive and accepting of these gender roles. This is a drastic contrast to today’s views that men and women should be equal and fight for their independence, despite what their government may demand, under the influence of the feminist movement. “Brave New World” ventures into a utopia that expresses men as the dominant sex in the workplace, in social situations, and the government which causes a dissonance to the modern views of feminism. Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes” and has turned into the modern world’s views of women’s liberation (Feminism).
In Huxley’s “Brave New World”, the men exhibit a dominance over the female population, both physically and mentally in the workplace. During fetal development, the controller Mustapha Mond and the Director, whose job is to run the Hatchery where people are conditioned and grown, have implemented that two thirds of the women, ranked Beta or lower, in this utopia be sterilized. The other third are conditioned to acceptingly undergo surgical removal of the ovaries when the population is in need of new humans; these individuals are usually the females ranked as Alpha and Alpha-Plus. Females are conditioned at the workplace to accept this as a key part in fulfilling happiness in the World State, mentally being dominated by the teaching of Mustapha Mond and physically through sterilization and surgery. The male gender holds authority in the workplace because any position of power is filled with a male citizen in the World State, Mond and the Director being of highest standings, as if putting a female in power would disrupt the world’s happiness. The feminist movement of modern times would not allow for such conditioning or developmental mutilation and would protest for women’s right to have the opportunity to hold higher standing in the workplace to prevent these
practices.
When this is not occurring, Malthusian Drills, a conditioned system of birth control for females that aren’t sterilized, are ingrained to prevent pregnancy and relieves the males of reproductive responsibility. This key conditioning tool allows for men to dominate any social interaction because in “Brave New World”, all social interactions consist of movies known as feelies, promiscuous games in which sex is encouraged, or vacations between sexually involved pairs. The World State government has made it so that citizens do not have idle time to be alone, but instead are disturbed by solo interactions. When there is such a time, the citizens go on a holiday with the use of the drug soma, entering a type hallucinogenic high. During the social interactions citizens do have, sex is the main event and women are shouldering the responsibility that men have enforced as the right way to run a utopia. From a feminist viewpoint, this does not show equality between men and women because there is no shared responsibility in reproductive control during social interactions. When the Director impregnates Linda, he gets to return without any repercussions, but Linda is abandoned in the New Mexico Savage Reservation, run by another male authority figure called the Warden. She does not return because she is ashamed and frightened by the idea of motherhood, a part of human reproduction that is forbidden in the World State, and stays on the reservation where she gives birth alone.
Government in the “Brave New World” is ultimately run by two positions of power, the Director and the Controller. The Director is a man that administrates the Hatchery and, despite committing a scandalous act of fathering a child, runs the most important facility to carry out the government's orders and teachings. This ensures stability in the World State through its conditioning system proposed by the Controller, Mustapha Mond. Mond is the most powerful proponent of the World State, enforcing his views that humanity’s ultimate goal of stability and happiness is achieved through the censoring of scientific and romantic exploration as well as full control of a totalitarian state. This once again puts a powerful role of government in the hands of a man and does not coincide with the gender equality ideals of modern feminism. This goes as far as to a religious reverence of a technological male icon. As a type of scare tactic, the authority officials would use this reference to further enforce submission and cooperation. Throughout the World State, citizens would replace where modern society says “Lord” or “God” (i.e., Christ) with “My Ford” or “Year of our Ford” after Henry Ford, the early twentieth century industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company (Huxley). This gives a religious tone towards Ford and the reverence for technology he embodies, but also demonstrates how the government has implemented the idea of “Our Ford” so that there is a male and technological dominance at even the level of casual conversation and habits. Big Brother Ford is watching everyone is the message that is felt throughout the World State.
In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World”, men are in charge of all including social situations, the workplace, and the government. Women are submissive and cooperative tools that are used for labor, sexual endeavors, and reproductive stability. The women are treated like pieces of “meat”, something to be conquered, “degrading her to so much mutton”, and then trading in for a new model (Huxley). In social situations, women are to be promiscuous and dull minded and in the workplace, they are to accept submissions and mutilation. To the government, women must bow to the teachings of men and not seek higher standings. The feminist movement of today fights for the equality of the sexes, but in “Brave New World”, where the government should be creating a blissful utopia for all, the World State has created a totalitarian paradise ruled for and by men.