Image from Amazon.com
I
often find myself clicking on the Buzzfeed-type articles with lists of books.
Anything about books in a list format immediately draws my eye. As a feminist,
I am looking for books that promote feminist scholarship and act as social
commentaries on what it means to be a woman. Many of the same books pop up over
and over again on all the various lists (see links below). But one book is
seemingly absent from these lists: Egalia’s
Daughters. A good friend of mine, who was a Women and Gender Studies major
in college, lent me this book calling it a “must read.” I had never heard of it
and dove in, not knowing what to expect.
Egalia’s Daughters is a satire and
social commentary on the role of gender socialization and power. In Egalia’s Daughters, many of the gender
roles are reversed. The Wim (women) are in control and the Menwim (men) are the
“lesser sex.” Women rule the primary industry of fishing. Men are expected to
stay at home with the children and spend time curling their beards and
embroidering. Gerd Brantenberg, a Norwegian author and feminist writer, wrote
the novel in 1977* but many of the observations ring true for today’s social
landscape.
Egalia’s Daughters covers everything
from government, politics, sex, and work, to relationships, clothing, and rape.
Wim rule the society, hold all major public offices, and are sexually dominant.
This book is not a utopia of what it would be like if women ruled the world
(not a later iteration of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, for example). Brantenberg is not
saying that society would be better if women were solely in charge. The main
message in Egalia’s Daughters is that
gender classification may not be the enemy of society. Rather, the way gender
classification is used to assert
dominance and power is what we should be weary of. In the book, women have
power and it has always been that way. They cannot imagine anything different.
Because they have always had the power, they are in charge of how history is
recorded and interpreted. The women in charge assert their dominance and list
biological reasons that they are superior. They cite “scientific” evidence to
support their claims, reminiscent of conversations in our own history of
intelligence based on physical brain size or having a penis.
One
of the main characters, Petronius, longs to be a seawom (person, typically
female, who fishes). The book opens with Petronius speaking with his mother,
Bram, about wanting to live a life at sea like Wim (women). In Egalia, men are
expected to stay home with children once they are born while the females return
to work in government, the sea, etc. Bram is lecturing Petronius about the ways
of the world and how,” a mother can never be like a father to a child”
(Brantenberg, 1985, p. 9). Men are seen as having natural talents at caring for
children that women do not possess. Petronius, in anger, laments, “It’s more
dreary and depressing not being able to be what one wants!” Bram answers him,
“Who said you can’t be what you want? All I’m saying is, you must be realistic.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too…You’ll have to stop reading all of
those adventure stories about the exploits of seawim and stick to books for
boys instead. Then your dreams will be more realistic. No real menwim want to
go to sea” (Brantenberg, 1985, p. 9).
Bram
speaks to the assigned gender roles of men and women and how it “must be.” This
passage is just from the first page of the book. The 269 page book packs in
social commentary on almost every aspect of gender socialization and societal
expectations and manages to be both serious and funny. The one aspect of this
book that may be hard to get into at first is the language. Brantenberg plays
with language to show how even the way we use language to talk about and
classify individuals is highly gendered. The language is tedious but worth it. It adds to the overall point that
Brantenberg is trying to make. We must all seriously think about how gender
socialization and power play a role in our society.
*English
translation printed in 1985
Written by:
Amanda Backer Lappin, MS – The University of Kansas
References:
Brantenberg,
G. (1985). Egalia’s Daughters: A satire
of the sexes. Seattle, WA: Seal
Press.
Other
feminist books:
Posted here very useful information and reviews about this book many unknown facts came to know with your blog. It really a useful blog. Thanks and keep sharing with us.]
ReplyDeleteI know this web site offers quality based content and other information, is there any other web site which provides these kinds of information in quality?
ReplyDeleteYes! Finally something about %keyword1%.
ReplyDelete