Utopian Society In Herland
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland (1915) paints the idea of a perfect life in the form of a utopian society. A utopian society is a group of people attempting to live together in a perfect way to form a perfect society. In this society every person has food, a job, a house, is physically healthy and the crime rate is low. Other characteristics of a utopian society are that a figureheads bring the individuals of the society together, the natural world is embraced, and informed thought are promoted. Moreover, in a utopian society citizens embrace social and moral ideals and there is no fear of the outside world. Furthermore, the society evolves with the change to make a perfect utopian world. People are drawn to this society because they
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do not have to worry about having their needs meet. However, it can never exist because the idea of perfect is a human construction and everyone defines perfect differently. When reading Herland the readers are blinded by all of the positive characteristics of this society and believe that someday this could be a possibility. Nonetheless, the readers fail to realize the negative aspects of this society that would lead to this nearly perfect society’s end. The downfalls of a utopian society are the reason why it can only be a thought and not manifest into reality. One of the downfalls in Gilman’s utopian society is the lack of personal joy. Personal joy is happiness derived from one-on-one relationships. A common source of personal joy is the mother-child bond. Somel discusses the Herlandain mother-daughter bond as, “We each go without a certain range of personal joy, but remember-we each have a million children to love and serve- our children” (Gilman 60). For the women of Herland, their joy is a shared joy in the raising of the nation’s children. The raising of the children for them is a duty for a chosen few. Each mother does not gain personal joy from her relationship with her one child. Herlandian women never form a deep bond with her child because she knows that her child is not only her child to love. The mother-daughter bond is one of the first relationships humans form, but being in this utopia they do not get the opportunity to form it. Pearson also noted this during a review of feminist utopian societies by writing, “Although the mother-daughter relationship is seen as the pattern for all human relationships, the actual biological link between mother and daughter is often severed or de-emphasized [in a utopian society]” (55). The society de-emphasized the important of the mother-daughter bond which caused the women of Herland to not understand that human relationships can have an intimate level. They never got to experience the intimate motherly moments like rocking their sick child to sleep. They put aside their ability to form imitate relationships for the sake of the nation and in doing so lost the ability to feel joy on a personal level. In a utopian society, each individual person has to remain static with their emotions or the society will crumble. Since Herlandian women do not feel joy personal, how can they feel any other emotions like sorrow, anger, disgust, and jealously? Emotions are what make humans real. It is great to have material perfection such as a house, food, and clothes in a utopian society, but if one lacks emotions they cannot truly appreciate what they have. “So any utopia that real, biological human beings can live in and enjoy requires social arrangements that optimize fulfillment… our needs for meaning, bonding, personal competence, emotional and physical stimulation, and pleasure” (Levine 253). Levine is highlighting that any utopian society like the Herlandian society would not be possible in real life. This is because the society does not meet the basic human need of an emotional base to enjoy life. Another downfall of a utopian society is there is no personal independence.
Personal independence is the ability to make decisions that may or may not comply with societal rules. The women cannot make decisions on their own as simple as what to wear. Everyone in Herland wears the same garment decided by the leaders of the society. Van describes the clothing as a comfortable quilted dress with many pockets arranged to not inconvenient the body (Gilman 62). For this utopian society to function, the citizens have to believe that everyone is equal. Unfortunately, this is not true because the leaders that picked the clothing have the power to make choices making them unequal to the other citizens. By wearing the same clothes it creates this idea that everyone is equal so no one ever questions the leaders. This also takes away the possibility for creativity expression. As Deci, Ryan, and Harlow's research suggest, “expressing creativity is closely tied to the universal human need for exploration to make sense of one's environment” (qtd. in Levine 265). These women have come to learn that they have to act in a certain way. Not only is their right to choose their own clothing limited but also other major life events. This includes raising their children the way they think is best. Women that are deemed unfit are not allowed to raise their children past two years of age (Gilman 71). These women that are deemed unfit do that fuss over the fact that their children are being taken from her. However, in reality, that is one of the most crushing things for any mother, the loss of their child, which can be seen by divorcing mothers fight to have custody of their children or the grief a mother experiences when their child dies in an
accident. Everyone has to be a conformist for a utopian society to work, but in reality, there is always nonconformists. The leaders are not conformists because they have more power, but the women know to turn a blind eye away from it. There is always that one person that breaks the rules. For example, Terry is expelled from the nation because he tried to rape his wife but in his mind, she should have submitted to his desire (Gilman 124). Even in this seemingly perfect society, there was a rebel. The leaders of Herland had to expel to prevent future rebellion. The way this society is set up it only takes one person to bring it down. If the leaders didn’t handle it the way they did Terry could have made others join him in taking down the society. The only reason why Herland is as successful as it is because of its high degree of cooperation. This expectation of cooperation burdens these women to compromise on doing activities for the fear of getting expelled. This includes questioning the strict set of rules they live by. However, in the real world, the leaders of society just cannot expel people that cause trouble. “any attempt to make all humans agree with one set of values will necessitate violence against those who disagree. Furthermore, this violence is always justified because the goal of the society makes obvious the need to purify any element that refuses to acknowledge such truth” (Curtis 149). The leaders in this society also breed out people that are considered unfavorable. Breeding out people is a type of violence but no one questions it for if they do they will fail victim to this violence. Somel even states “We have, of course, made it our first business to train out, to breed out, when possible, the lowest types” (Gilman 70). It is upsetting to read that the leaders first business is to get rid of the lowest type. In a utopian society, not everyone can live in it so it cannot be considered perfect. In a utopian society control is everything. They breed out animals that were causing too much stress on the land. Somel states, “We do not want them anymore. They took up too much room- we need all our land to feed our people” (Gilman 41). So they rid the land of animals like sheep, horses, and cattle to feed their people fruits they could completely control. In reality, these types of animals are the main food source so we could not eliminate them since we do not have this ability to control fruit trees. Even if this ability existed it would take thousands of years for this change over from meat based to plant based eating to happen. Basic parts of human nature like eating are parts of human life that cannot be controlled like that, it is not physically possible. In reality, most societies have two sexes, not only the female sex as in Gilman’s utopia. “In this society, there is room for two figures only: the child and the nurturer of the child, the mother” (Evans 5). Men in this utopian society are not considered nurturers so they have to take the role of child. In our society men are not willing to be children. Men do not want to be suppressed in a utopian society. Men will do what they want to be fathers. Therefore, solo reproduction would not be possible. This is the way the leaders control the population without killing anyone to do so. If the leaders had to kill people to control the population this would cause a rebellion and would test the citizen’s ability to blindly trust its leaders. The ways of controlling this utopian society would not be possible with two sexes leading to overpopulation and the end of this society. There would be more people than resources. There would also be sexual love not just friendship love. This would also cause issues with cooperation. “Characteristically, feminist utopian societies are either so small that everyone knows one another, or people live in a number of small groups, which function like extended families” (Pearson 53). Jealousy would arise between the citizens that they do not know how to properly control. This indicates that this utopia could only be a thought, not a reality. It is also important to remember that Herland started out with men. Herland did not start as an independent nation; they had help from men to build the society up before a set of numerous disasters ceased them from society. In the real world, this set of numerous disasters that caused the end of the one sex probably would not happen in that precise order. Gilman’s utopian society is a great thought, but would never be a possibility or a feasible reality. In Gilman’s utopia the women have no personal joy. Everything they do is because of duty and they get no joy out of their work. Furthermore, these women have no freedom from simple everyday things like clothing to major life decisions like caring for their children. For this society to be successful there has to be zero rebellion and everyone has to cooperate. However, in reality, this would never work. There will always be people that are rebellious and do not cooperate. Moreover, humans cannot take control over evolution and make huge changes to basic human behavior including what we eat. In addition, this utopian society is based off only having one sex, not both sexes. A utopian society will never be possible even though it sounds wonderful.
do not have to worry about having their needs meet. However, it can never exist because the idea of perfect is a human construction and everyone defines perfect differently. When reading Herland the readers are blinded by all of the positive characteristics of this society and believe that someday this could be a possibility. Nonetheless, the readers fail to realize the negative aspects of this society that would lead to this nearly perfect society’s end. The downfalls of a utopian society are the reason why it can only be a thought and not manifest into reality. One of the downfalls in Gilman’s utopian society is the lack of personal joy. Personal joy is happiness derived from one-on-one relationships. A common source of personal joy is the mother-child bond. Somel discusses the Herlandain mother-daughter bond as, “We each go without a certain range of personal joy, but remember-we each have a million children to love and serve- our children” (Gilman 60). For the women of Herland, their joy is a shared joy in the raising of the nation’s children. The raising of the children for them is a duty for a chosen few. Each mother does not gain personal joy from her relationship with her one child. Herlandian women never form a deep bond with her child because she knows that her child is not only her child to love. The mother-daughter bond is one of the first relationships humans form, but being in this utopia they do not get the opportunity to form it. Pearson also noted this during a review of feminist utopian societies by writing, “Although the mother-daughter relationship is seen as the pattern for all human relationships, the actual biological link between mother and daughter is often severed or de-emphasized [in a utopian society]” (55). The society de-emphasized the important of the mother-daughter bond which caused the women of Herland to not understand that human relationships can have an intimate level. They never got to experience the intimate motherly moments like rocking their sick child to sleep. They put aside their ability to form imitate relationships for the sake of the nation and in doing so lost the ability to feel joy on a personal level. In a utopian society, each individual person has to remain static with their emotions or the society will crumble. Since Herlandian women do not feel joy personal, how can they feel any other emotions like sorrow, anger, disgust, and jealously? Emotions are what make humans real. It is great to have material perfection such as a house, food, and clothes in a utopian society, but if one lacks emotions they cannot truly appreciate what they have. “So any utopia that real, biological human beings can live in and enjoy requires social arrangements that optimize fulfillment… our needs for meaning, bonding, personal competence, emotional and physical stimulation, and pleasure” (Levine 253). Levine is highlighting that any utopian society like the Herlandian society would not be possible in real life. This is because the society does not meet the basic human need of an emotional base to enjoy life. Another downfall of a utopian society is there is no personal independence.
Personal independence is the ability to make decisions that may or may not comply with societal rules. The women cannot make decisions on their own as simple as what to wear. Everyone in Herland wears the same garment decided by the leaders of the society. Van describes the clothing as a comfortable quilted dress with many pockets arranged to not inconvenient the body (Gilman 62). For this utopian society to function, the citizens have to believe that everyone is equal. Unfortunately, this is not true because the leaders that picked the clothing have the power to make choices making them unequal to the other citizens. By wearing the same clothes it creates this idea that everyone is equal so no one ever questions the leaders. This also takes away the possibility for creativity expression. As Deci, Ryan, and Harlow's research suggest, “expressing creativity is closely tied to the universal human need for exploration to make sense of one's environment” (qtd. in Levine 265). These women have come to learn that they have to act in a certain way. Not only is their right to choose their own clothing limited but also other major life events. This includes raising their children the way they think is best. Women that are deemed unfit are not allowed to raise their children past two years of age (Gilman 71). These women that are deemed unfit do that fuss over the fact that their children are being taken from her. However, in reality, that is one of the most crushing things for any mother, the loss of their child, which can be seen by divorcing mothers fight to have custody of their children or the grief a mother experiences when their child dies in an
accident. Everyone has to be a conformist for a utopian society to work, but in reality, there is always nonconformists. The leaders are not conformists because they have more power, but the women know to turn a blind eye away from it. There is always that one person that breaks the rules. For example, Terry is expelled from the nation because he tried to rape his wife but in his mind, she should have submitted to his desire (Gilman 124). Even in this seemingly perfect society, there was a rebel. The leaders of Herland had to expel to prevent future rebellion. The way this society is set up it only takes one person to bring it down. If the leaders didn’t handle it the way they did Terry could have made others join him in taking down the society. The only reason why Herland is as successful as it is because of its high degree of cooperation. This expectation of cooperation burdens these women to compromise on doing activities for the fear of getting expelled. This includes questioning the strict set of rules they live by. However, in the real world, the leaders of society just cannot expel people that cause trouble. “any attempt to make all humans agree with one set of values will necessitate violence against those who disagree. Furthermore, this violence is always justified because the goal of the society makes obvious the need to purify any element that refuses to acknowledge such truth” (Curtis 149). The leaders in this society also breed out people that are considered unfavorable. Breeding out people is a type of violence but no one questions it for if they do they will fail victim to this violence. Somel even states “We have, of course, made it our first business to train out, to breed out, when possible, the lowest types” (Gilman 70). It is upsetting to read that the leaders first business is to get rid of the lowest type. In a utopian society, not everyone can live in it so it cannot be considered perfect. In a utopian society control is everything. They breed out animals that were causing too much stress on the land. Somel states, “We do not want them anymore. They took up too much room- we need all our land to feed our people” (Gilman 41). So they rid the land of animals like sheep, horses, and cattle to feed their people fruits they could completely control. In reality, these types of animals are the main food source so we could not eliminate them since we do not have this ability to control fruit trees. Even if this ability existed it would take thousands of years for this change over from meat based to plant based eating to happen. Basic parts of human nature like eating are parts of human life that cannot be controlled like that, it is not physically possible. In reality, most societies have two sexes, not only the female sex as in Gilman’s utopia. “In this society, there is room for two figures only: the child and the nurturer of the child, the mother” (Evans 5). Men in this utopian society are not considered nurturers so they have to take the role of child. In our society men are not willing to be children. Men do not want to be suppressed in a utopian society. Men will do what they want to be fathers. Therefore, solo reproduction would not be possible. This is the way the leaders control the population without killing anyone to do so. If the leaders had to kill people to control the population this would cause a rebellion and would test the citizen’s ability to blindly trust its leaders. The ways of controlling this utopian society would not be possible with two sexes leading to overpopulation and the end of this society. There would be more people than resources. There would also be sexual love not just friendship love. This would also cause issues with cooperation. “Characteristically, feminist utopian societies are either so small that everyone knows one another, or people live in a number of small groups, which function like extended families” (Pearson 53). Jealousy would arise between the citizens that they do not know how to properly control. This indicates that this utopia could only be a thought, not a reality. It is also important to remember that Herland started out with men. Herland did not start as an independent nation; they had help from men to build the society up before a set of numerous disasters ceased them from society. In the real world, this set of numerous disasters that caused the end of the one sex probably would not happen in that precise order. Gilman’s utopian society is a great thought, but would never be a possibility or a feasible reality. In Gilman’s utopia the women have no personal joy. Everything they do is because of duty and they get no joy out of their work. Furthermore, these women have no freedom from simple everyday things like clothing to major life decisions like caring for their children. For this society to be successful there has to be zero rebellion and everyone has to cooperate. However, in reality, this would never work. There will always be people that are rebellious and do not cooperate. Moreover, humans cannot take control over evolution and make huge changes to basic human behavior including what we eat. In addition, this utopian society is based off only having one sex, not both sexes. A utopian society will never be possible even though it sounds wonderful.