The Female Man is a feminist science fiction novel by American writer Joanna Russ. It was originally written in 1970 and first published in 1975 by Bantam Books. Russ was an ardent feminist and challenged sexist views during the 1970s with her novels, short stories, and nonfiction works. These works include We Who Are About To..., "When It Changed", and What Are We Fighting For?: Sex, Race, Class, and the Future of Feminism.
The novel follows the lives of four women living in parallel universes which differ in time and place. The women visit each other's worlds and are startled by the different views on gender roles and social conventions surrounding women and womanhood. Their encounters influence them to reevaluate their lives and redefine what it means to be a woman.
The title of the novel comes from the character Joanna, who transforms into a "female man" in order to be respected and seen beyond her sex. A "female man" is a woman with a man's mind, her body and soul still female. Joanna's metaphorical transformation refers to her decision to seek equality by rejecting women's dependence on men and mirrors the journeys made by the other three protagonists.
Setting
The Female Man includes several fictional worlds.
- Joanna's World: Joanna exists in a world that is similar to Earth in the 1970s.
- Jeannine's World: Jeannine lives in New York City in 1969, in a world where the Great Depression never ended and World War II never happened. As a result, her world is in a never ending depression without any significant feminist movements.
- Whileaway: Janet's world is an all-female utopian Earth ten centuries in the future called Whileaway, where all the men died from a sex-specific plague 900 years from the beginning of the novel. However in the final chapter, it is suggested by Jael that the plague was a lie and that the men were killed. The language of Whileaway is "Pan-russian" and is nothing like the Russian of the 20th century. To procreate, women in lesbian relationships use technology to genetically merge ova. Although Whileaway is technologically advanced, their societies are mostly agrarian. Whileaway is less concerned with equality than it is with safety. There is no sexual assault or murder, and children are free to play naked and without fear. There are duels which can end in the death of one of the dueling parties but this is commonplace in Whileaway and seen as an effective way to deal with a dispute.
- Womanland: Jael's world is a dystopia where men (Manlanders) and women (Womanlanders) are in a literal "battle of the sexes". Although their war has been ongoing for forty years, both societies trade with each other, especially children. Womanlanders keep the female children and exchange male children for resources. In order for men to cope with their sexual desires, a select number of young boys deemed not masculine enough undergo sex change surgery. In lieu of men, Womanlanders like Jael have automatons or pursue lesbian relationships.
Plot summary
The novel begins when Janet Evason suddenly arrives and disappears in Jeannine's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a futuristic world where a plague killed all of the men over 800 years ago, and Jeannine lives in a world that never experienced the end of the Great Depression. Janet takes Jeannine to Joanna's world, where both women meet in a cocktail lounge and watch Janet's televised interview. She explains to the male interviewer the culture and customs of Whileawayans which differ greatly from Joanna's world. When Janet begins to explain to the interviewer how women in Whileaway "copulate" she is abruptly cut off by a commercial break.
Acting as a guide, Joanna takes Janet to a party in her world to show her how women and men interact with each other. Janet quickly finds herself to be the object of a man's attention as he continually harasses her. After she has had enough, Janet knocks the man down and mocks him. Her behavior shocks everyone at the party, since in Joanna's world, it is believed that women are inferior to men. Janet then expresses her desire to experience living with a typical family to Joanna, who takes Janet to the Wildings’ household in Anytown, U.S.A. Janet meets their teenage daughter Laura Rose who instantly admires Janet's confidence and independence as a woman. Laura realizes that she is attracted to Janet and begins to pursue a sexual relationship with her. This is transgressive for both of them, as Whileaway's taboo against cross-generational relationships (having a relationship with someone old enough to be your parent or young enough to be your child) is as strong as the taboo against same-sex relationships on Laura's world. After the two have sex for the first time, Janet recounts to Laura how she met and fell in love with her wife, Vittoria, back in Whileaway.
Jeannine and Joanna accompany Janet back to Whileaway where they meet Vittoria and stay at their home. A small Whileawayan child follows Joanna and tells her a story about a bear trapped between two worlds as a metaphor for her life. Jeannine returns to her world with Joanna, and they both go to vacation at her brother's house. Jeannine's mother pesters her about her love life and asks whether she is going to get married soon. Jeannine goes on a few dates with some men but still finds herself dissatisfied. Jeannine begins to doubt her sense of reality, but soon decides that she wants to assimilate into her role as a woman. She calls Cal to pick her up and agrees to marry him.
Joanna, Jeannine, and Janet arrive in Jael's world which has had a 40 year old war between men and women. Jael explains that she works for the Bureau of Comparative Ethnology, an organization that concentrates on people's various counterparts in different parallel worlds. She reveals that she is the one who brought all of them together because they are four versions of the same woman. Jael takes all of them with her into enemy territory where she appears to be negotiating a deal with one of the male leaders. At first, the male leader appears to be promoting equality, but Jael quickly realizes that he still believes in the inferiority of women. He relentlessly harasses Jael and tries to convince her that it is necessary for both societies to reconcile. Jael reveals herself as a ruthless assassin, kills the man, and shuttles all of the women back to her house. At her house, the women witness Jael and Davy, her biological automaton, having sex. Jael finally tells the other women why she has assembled all of them. She wants to create secret military bases in the women's worlds without the men's knowledge. Her hope is that eventually, the women in each world will be empowered and overthrow their respective patriarchal societies.
Jeannine and Joanna agree to help Jael assimilate the women soldiers into their worlds, but Janet refuses, given the overall pacifism of Whileaway. Jeannine and Joanna appear to have become stronger individuals and are excited to rise up against their gender roles. Janet is not moved by Jael's intentions so Jael suggests to Janet that the reason for the absence of men on Whileaway is not because of a plague but because the women won the war and killed all of the men in its timeline's past. Janet refuses to believe Jael, and the other women are annoyed at Janet's resistance. The novel ends with the women separating and returning to their worlds, each with a new perspective on her life, her world, and her identity as a woman.
Characters
Major characters
Jeannine Nancy Dadier is a twenty-nine year old librarian who lives in a world that never escaped the Great Depression. She has a blue-eyed cat named Mr. Frosty to whom she constantly speaks and lavishes with attention. Jeannine faces constant pressure from her family and society to get married. She doubts her boyfriend Cal's ability to make her happy, but eventually becomes engaged to him. Of all the women, she is the least radicalized and seen as the weakest of all the women. Still, Jael says she is arguably the most intelligent of the four women. At the end of the novel, Jeannine appears to have broken from the expectations of marriage and welcomes the social revolution against men.
Joanna lives in 1969, in a world remarkably similar to Earth. The feminist movement has just begun, and Joanna is determined to refute her world's belief that women are inferior to men. Joanna is witty and smart, but she struggles to assert her abilities and intelligence among her male peers. In order to cope, she repeatedly refers to herself as the “female man” to indicate her adoption of the male gender role and separate herself from being identified as just another woman. She identifies herself as the author of the novel throughout the work. She is named after and based on Russ. and its wide acceptance heralded the start of feminist science fiction. Upon its release, the novel was received favorably.
Douglas Barbour in the Toronto Star wrote:
Elizabeth Lynn, of the San Francisco Review of books, described it as "A stunning book, a work to be read with great respect. It’s also screamingly funny."
Though it is highly regarded as an important feminist text, the novel is not without its share of controversy. It is also considered to be dated by some, and divides critics and audiences alike. Most of the criticism received by Russ was on the radical feminism the novel is perceived to propagate. It also won a 2002 Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame Award.