Last night I was out drinking at a bar with a few of my friends in Fredericton. On our way back to my friend’s place we came across a large crowd surrounding around a body laying motionless, face down in a pool of blood. It seemed like a serious wound and he was totally unconscious. The blood on the ground was a pretty disturbing sight but the reaction of the crowd to the violence was worse. 90% of the guys in the crowd were unbelievably pumped over this violence. They were all jumping around, giving each other high fives, flexing their muscles and shoving one another.
Seeing these people exhibiting such macho behavior reminded me of the mustachioed Terry from “Herland”. Terry was probably my favorite character in the book because he thought he was such a ladies man and it was funny to read about him continuously failing and making things worse for himself and the group of men who traveled to Herland. Gilman did a very good job at portraying a chauvinistic male character and his interactions with the peaceful nation of females was an interesting social commentary.
”Herland” was a fairly entertaining book and it was interesting to see how a feminist would picture a society free from masculine influence. Not surprisingly violence is practically non-existant in Gilman’s created nation. At least until Terry and his mustache show up. Jeff and Van don’t fall under the category of the typical chauvanistic male so they do pretty well in Herland. Terry, on the other hand, sexually assaults one of the women and because of this is banished back to his world. This is a particulary strong statement being made by Gilman. Terry represents a large portion of the male population and violence seems to be very closely related to the macho attitudes exhibited in people like Terry.
In “Herland” many statements are made concerning the roles of the two sexes in society that are still very valid today. By creating the utopia of Herland, Gilman is making a very strong statement about the violence that has become engrained in masculinity and it’s effects upon society as a whole.
