Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Female Man

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 1,771 ratings · 169 reviews

Living in an altered past that never saw the end of the Great Depression, Jeannine, a librarian, is waiting to be married. Joanna lives in a different version of reality: she's a 1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a utopian earth where only women exist. And Jael is a warrior with steel teeth and catlike retractable claws, from an ea...more

Paperback, 214 pages

Published March 17th 2000 by Beacon Press (first published February 1975)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Philosophical Science Fiction

18th out of 127 books — 29 voters

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Oulipo,etc.

52nd out of 179 books — 119 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 20, 2012 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've seen people argue, both here and elsewhere, that this book is outdated and no longer topical.

I'm really confused what rose-colored glasses they're wearing, because as far as I can tell, the majority of this book is still far too true. I've been in these places far, far too often to write off the circumstances in this book as some so flippantly have.

"Give us a good-bye kiss," said the host, who might have been attractive under other circumstances, a giant marine, so to speak. I pushed him a...more

20 likes · like · see review

Aug 04, 2008 Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-and-gender-studies, readinglist2-sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy, dystopian, utopian, alternate-history, dissertation, 20th-century-american-lit, favorites

This book is a complex and fascinating examination of gender roles and ideology. In it, Russ contrasts and intertwines the stories of Joanna (a 1970s feminist of a world much like, if not identical to, our own), Jeannine (a young, fairly stereotypical woman of an alternate timeline in which the Depression never ended), and Janet (a woman from the distant utopian future of Whileaway, a world with no men and only women), showing multiple variations on the issue or problem of sex difference alongsi...more

10 likes · like · see review

May 10, 2013 Daniel Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, sf, sf-masterworks, wwe-wogf

If I taught SF literature in high school, I'd make this book mandatory reading, knowing my students would hate me for it. it's not an easy book by any means; its structure is complex and obfuscated on purpose, and its subject matter is uncomfortable and necessary. But really, this is why SF exists in the first place.

The book has been heralded as the quintessential feminist SF, and it saddens me to know that this automatically reduces its reach. It's true that the book is singularly concerned wit...more If I taught SF literature in high school, I'd make this book mandatory reading, knowing my students would hate me for it. it's not an easy book by any means; its structure is complex and obfuscated on purpose, and its subject matter is uncomfortable and necessary. But really, this is why SF exists in the first place.

The book has been heralded as the quintessential feminist SF, and it saddens me to know that this automatically reduces its reach. It's true that the book is singularly concerned with subjects articulated by feminism, but I think it should be required reading for everyone of either gender. I wish I could go back in time and force fifteen year-old me to read this. And boy, is there a lot of piss and vinegar in this book. Sometimes the anger just radiates off the page. It's a visceral book of raw nerves and flayed skin. It's amazing.

The SF elements are more than merely allegorical. Ms. Russ spent a lot of energy building her woman-only utopia of Whileaway. The result is fascinating in its own right, and not entirely as one-sided as a feminist polemic would imply. Likewise, Alice's dystopia is fascinating SF in its own right, even as it serves as allegory for our world.

The novel, albeit short, is a difficult read, but I don't mean this in a bad way. The author obviously meant to confuse the reader with her narrators, and I quickly learned not to worry too much about figuring out what was going on. The book often swerves into pure polemical flights of fancy, and these packed quite a rhetorical and philosophical punch. It's gut-wrenching stuff for me as a man: a woman speaking directly to me, with no filter on her anger, her hopes, her hatred.

Some reviewers accuse this book of no longer being relevant, to which I can only laugh. We live in an era where female pornstars are conceived by the mainstream as feminist icons, where CNN eulogizes the career of teenage star athletes condemned for rape, and where male lawmakers still try their best to legislate vaginas. There is one aspect where I feel the book is dated, and it has to do with the scope of its feminism; there is no room here for a larger discussion on privilege that encompasses race, for instance. Also, the aspects of the novel dealing with transgenders are downright offensive. But even these elements do not ultimately take away from a powerful, socially relevant book.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 21, 2007 megan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: you

Shelves: best-ever, women-and-horror

This book is written in blood.
Is it written entirely in blood?
No, some of it is written in tears.
Are the blood and tears all mine?
Yes, they have been in the past. But the future is a different matter. As the bear swore in Pogo after having endured a pot shoved on her head, being turned upside down while still in the pot, a discussion about her edibility, the lawnmowering of her behind, and a fistful of ground pepper in the snoot, she then swore a mighty oath on the ashes of her mothers (i.e., he...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 28, 2013 Cheryl in CC NV marked it as skimmed-reference-dnf · review of another edition

Feminism is still relevant. This particular brand of it, thankfully not so much. Just - odd. I did not find it enlightening enough to fight past 20% with the almost simultaneous points-of-view. I don't care if all the women are aspects of the same person, or whatever; I still want to know who's thinking & doing what at any one time.

I bet that when I was 19 or 20 I would have absolutely been blown away. If you're young, open to creative writing, interested in feminist history, you'll probabl...more

like · see review

Mar 14, 2008 Marie rated it 1 of 5 stars

UGH.

This book had promise - and about 10% of it is good science fiction. The other 90% is unnecessary polemic, thankfully out-of-date (at least I hope so!) I don't object to her feminism so much to the way she doesn't go anywhere with it. "The Left Hand of Darkness" did a much better job of using science fiction to explore gender roles and identities.

That said, there are two, yes, two, awesome scenes, and for them alone I kept reading. The first is an interview of the Woman from the Planet of th...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2009 Amaha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of feminist science fiction, fans of early experimental fiction

Brilliant, important, and (for me) highly enjoyable book, if not an unqualified success. One of the defining works of science fiction (particularly the 1970's 2nd-wave feminist variety) as well as an early pioneer of "postmodern"/ narratively experimental fiction.

The experimentation, which brings to mind Pynchon, Samuel Delany and Kathy Acker, is both the most interesting aspect of the book and what can make it hardest to enjoy as a good read. The story revolves around several female characters...more Brilliant, important, and (for me) highly enjoyable book, if not an unqualified success. One of the defining works of science fiction (particularly the 1970's 2nd-wave feminist variety) as well as an early pioneer of "postmodern"/ narratively experimental fiction.

The experimentation, which brings to mind Pynchon, Samuel Delany and Kathy Acker, is both the most interesting aspect of the book and what can make it hardest to enjoy as a good read. The story revolves around several female characters, Jeannine, Janet, Jael and Joanna, each of whom is a representative of an "alternate reality", but also in some sense embodies a distinct aspect of the author's (Joanna Russ's) personality and a different strategy for coping with the experience of women's oppression: meek subordination; confident, defiant independence; androcidal rage, etc. The author reflects on the nature of The Female Man as a book, describing it as "a book written in blood and tears", and directly addressing (and deriding) anticipated critics of the book's politics. The reflection on identity and description of what it means to become "a female man" reminded me in parts of both Richard Wright's Invisible Man and more pointedly of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, but I don't know enough to say if these were conscious influences.

On the downside, the constant shifting of perspective, topic and tone can make it a little difficult to identify with the characters and become engrossed in the narrative. While alienating the reader in this way is a viable choice, it's a choice that carries some cost of diminished accessibility and enjoyment.

If The Female Man's feminism has worn a little badly with time, I don't believe it's because (as some reviews I've scanned suggest) we have Gotten Beyond All That and entered a post-feminist paradise of gender equality where the author's hysterical, strident screeds no longer apply (I swear I'm barely exaggerating). Rather, the author's feminism seems too narrow in retrospect: while she brilliantly exposes the "intimate violence" and constant humiliation experienced by women, it is largely that experienced by middle-class, educated, First World white women: being patronized, hit on, having to conceal your own intelligence and subordinate your own ambition. While legitimate, this list of grievances feels a little like the gender oppression of the living room and the cocktail party when compared to sex trafficking, honor killing, violent enforcement of religious law, forced sterilization, use of rape as a tool of political repression, and the other horrors visited on poor and brown women around the world. Russ doesn't prosecute her Case Against The Patriarchy too zealously; if anything, she focuses too much on the traffic infractions while skipping over the felonies.

Still and all, my basic take is: read it. For a chaser, consider Trouble on Triton by Samuel Delany, a story about a Male Woman.(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jun 06, 2007 graycastle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: feminists, scifi fans, people who like narrative experimentation

Shelves: scifi, feminism

This book is just so smart: witty, powerful, and acrobatic. It bends over backwards to anticipate its own reviews, the dismissals of its feminist message, and its eventual obsoleteness. I mean this in a great way: the book is very meta, experiments with levels of narrative (including a character who is the author) and does extremely new and interesting things with scifi conventions of time travel and alternate universes. What I love most about this book is the way in which it uses conventions an...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 16, 2011 Mamakass marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: own

For the most part, I found this book to be completely confusing. I actually consider it to be the worst book I have ever read. The four main characters seems to switch points of view mid-sentence because they are different versions of the same woman, they are connected by the brain, and it leads to confusions of who is the speaker. Additionally, this is an insanely man-hating lesbian book, which basically argues that men are completely useless and the only way to have a Utopia is by removing all...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 04, 2011 Fil Correia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopia

Deft writing, fantastic storyline and charged subject matter makes for a great read - with one exception: the "most men are rapists" theme gets old real fast. It is about four (or three? maybe five?) women and their respective lives: how they live it, how they perceive themselves within their world and how they cope, before going into a truly science-fiction scenario made up of wars, assassins and plans for peace. The story is convoluted, almost to the point of confusion but despite that (or bec...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 11, 2011 Hazel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Students of recent history

Shelves: never-finished

Chris has reminded me that I didn't finish this. I found it too dated; a useful reminder of feminist history, but not relevant to our lives today.

But you know, a few weeks ago I took on a new professional role and introduced myself to a colleague who announced that he'd known I was new, because I was only the second woman doctor he'd worked with in 30+ years. The first, he'd met the previous week; another in my cohort of new recruits.

He then proceeded to enquire whether I was Dr Miss X or Dr M...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 03, 2013 Bill rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, sci-fi

A Kaleidoscope of Early Feminism

Russ, Joanna. (1975). The Female Man. Boston: Beacon.

Four women live in different worlds, and each world has a different definition of what it means to be a woman. Through some sci-fi magic, they are able to visit each other’s worlds to see how women live there. The theme of the novel is ardently feminist, often angry, sometimes plaintive.

Joanna lives on Earth in the 1970’s, just when the “women’s movement” was erupting into mass media and popular awareness. In he...more A Kaleidoscope of Early Feminism

Russ, Joanna. (1975). The Female Man. Boston: Beacon.

Four women live in different worlds, and each world has a different definition of what it means to be a woman. Through some sci-fi magic, they are able to visit each other’s worlds to see how women live there. The theme of the novel is ardently feminist, often angry, sometimes plaintive.

Joanna lives on Earth in the 1970’s, just when the “women’s movement” was erupting into mass media and popular awareness. In her world, men still attempt to exploit women, especially sexually, while women are becoming aware of the gender-based social games that presuppose women’s inferiority and vulnerability. Some of these games are revealed to us when Joanna invites Janet to a party.

Janet is from the distant future where all the men died of a plague. Women reproduce by genetic engineering and live in a cooperative, technologically advanced but bucolic society. Janet has no concept that women are inferior and does not understand the meaning of gender-based social games. At the party, when a man tries to crudely seduce Janet, she decks him and ridicules him for his infantile, disrespectful attitude and behavior. Janet is a bit of an anthropologist, fascinated by the Earthlings. At her request, Joanna arranges for her to live a while with an Earth family, where she makes a big impression on the teenage daughter, leading to a sexual relationship that is taboo for both cultures.

In another episode of time-traveling, Janet pops into the world of Jeanine, a woman who lives in a place just like Earth during the Great Depression, except that the Depression never ended and the relative poverty and conservative values of that era persisted for generations. Jeanine isn’t the least bit “liberated” and all she wants is to find a man and get married. Trouble is, all the men she knows treat her badly. Janet is “discovered” by the media in Jeanine’s world, put on television and studied by scientists, who want to know what her world is like. They are incredulous that a society could get along without men.

In another episode, Janet, Jeanine, and Joanna are summoned (somehow) into the world of Jael, a world whose defining feature is that the “battle of the sexes” has been literal warfare for forty years. The women live completely apart from the men, and trade children to them in exchange for minerals and other goods. On the male side, young men are partially transgendered to satisfy older men’s sexual needs. Jael is a negotiator for the women, but also a professional assassin.

Throughout the book I was frustrated by scenes presented without comment or evaluation, either by the narrator or by any of the the four women themselves. None of the women reacts to events in ways that reveal character, so they remain two-dimensional placeholders. That made the book a collection of scenes without a continuous narrative thread, without the characters becoming developed, and without the overarching feminist theme being articulated.

On the other hand, one could argue that the scenes are self-explanatory, if heavy-handed: sexism is bad, gender-role freedom is good. But that’s not as engaging as discovering interesting characters who demonstrate the message.

The narration jumps indiscriminately among points of view, tenses, times, places, and voices. Many of the so-called chapters struck me as nonsequiturs, possibly snippets of poetry dropped in from another text. The chaotic narration makes the book difficult to read, to the point of it being literally nonsensical for the first 130 pages. Or was that just me? This anti-novel has won many, many awards for fiction, so I should only say it was not my cup of tea.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 01, 2013 Cokewater rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is literally the worst book I have ever read! And I've read some bad books. I suffered through the 50 Shades of Gray trilogy, and somehow The Female Man makes E.L. James seem like a modern Shakespeare in comparison. OK, maybe that's going too far. But seriously, finishing this book was like pulling teeth for me. In fact, I literally had a molar pulled out by a dentist without any anesthetic, and that was a better experience than reading this toilet paper by Joanna Russ.

First of all, it's no...more This is literally the worst book I have ever read! And I've read some bad books. I suffered through the 50 Shades of Gray trilogy, and somehow The Female Man makes E.L. James seem like a modern Shakespeare in comparison. OK, maybe that's going too far. But seriously, finishing this book was like pulling teeth for me. In fact, I literally had a molar pulled out by a dentist without any anesthetic, and that was a better experience than reading this toilet paper by Joanna Russ.

First of all, it's not even a novel. There is little to no discernible plot. Where is the story? Nothing happened besides some disjointed scenes that may or may not have been connected. I'm all for avant-garde storytelling, but Joanna Russ did not pull it off and it became irritating.

I should have put the book down after the first few "chapters" but I wanted to see if something worthwhile would come out of it. I've read books that I thought were bad at first but then absolutely loved by the end. I hated The Female Man more and more as it dragged on. There was a blip of enjoyment about halfway, a scene of a lonely spinster deciding to get married for all the wrong reasons. I would've liked to have that scene continue- desperate for an engaging character- but that character and her story were completely missing from every subsequent "chapter."

I read an except of The Female Man in the science fiction anthology book, Hive of Dreams. I was fascinated by the idea of Whileaway and actually went out and searched for the book, excited to read the whole story. What a huge disappointment. What a waste of time. What a waste of money.

I am a 30 year old man, but I am open-minded and would say I am in touch with my feminine side. My mother is a feminist and always had the upper hand in my parent's relationship. I found the attitude in this book completely outdated and offensive to men. I wasn't alive in the 70s, so I guess this book serves as a picture into the past. It was mildly interesting to see how men and women interacted back then. It's amazing how much the world has changed.

What I took away from the book, the over-riding thesis it attempts to make is that men can be beautiful in body but ugly and odious in mind. The only male characters are extreme jerks and assholes, the kind of person I avoid in my life and certainly don't appreciate in my fiction. If I could give this book no stars I would, but Goodreads seems to only accept one star as the lowest. (less)

like · see review

Dec 01, 2012 Lord Humungus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was recommended on a list and I'd never even heard of it, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The book was written in a difficult style, making the story hard to follow. I was constantly getting confused by the change in perspective, as it would shift between multiple characters with little hint as to who was talking or when in the timeline it was occuring. The author uses a proxy of herself in the book to voice her contentions with the many inequalities and injustices suffered by women. Sh...more

like · see review

Nov 25, 2012 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gender, sf

It's hard to write about this book for many reasons, not least of which is giving away the whole plot. Having read the back blurb I confess the interior was utterly unexpected, and far better. Initially it reminded me a bit of Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition in its jumping back and forth between dimensions and views and you're never quite sure what is happening or whose exactly are the eyes you are seeing through. But it all comes together. This is definitely a book to read twice. Once for the ah-...more It's hard to write about this book for many reasons, not least of which is giving away the whole plot. Having read the back blurb I confess the interior was utterly unexpected, and far better. Initially it reminded me a bit of Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition in its jumping back and forth between dimensions and views and you're never quite sure what is happening or whose exactly are the eyes you are seeing through. But it all comes together. This is definitely a book to read twice. Once for the ah-ha moment and then again for enjoyment and depth that the moment brings to the rest. As a story you fight to bring it all together yet it holds you until you do. I have only read it once to date, so I don't think I will come anywhere close to capturing its complexity. So I'm not really trying.

Intellectually it is quite challenging, dealing above all with gender, but at the level of who we are, what we make of ourselves, what society makes of us. It is about our construction. So of course it is also at the level of societal mores and daily demands on women. Written in 1975 it is of its time ... I see my grandmothers reflected here. I see some of the people on television, some of today's discourse. Like reading Gwyneth Jones, I do not see myself much here (nor my mother, but she is unique). A celebration of female diversity perhaps, it is certainly true we women have come a hell of long way--though echoes of some of these sentiments prove we have come nowhere near far enough. Of course I still know all too well the fury at patronising male assholes or those who believe women incomplete without marriage and children.

A quote I liked, I wouldn't say emblematic in any sense but nor is it unique (and what does it say about my tendency to write run-on sentences?)

You will notice that even my diction is becoming feminine, thus revealing my true nature. I'm not saying 'Damn" any more, or "Blast"; I am putting in lots of qualifiers like "rather,"I am writing in these breathless little feminine tags, she threw herself down on the bed, I have no structure (she thought), my thoughts seep out shapelessly like menstrual fluid, it is all very female and deep and full of essences, it is very primitive and full of "and's," it is called "run-on sentences."

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Nov 12, 2012 Pete Young rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some may have been thinking this inclusion on the SF Masterworks list is well overdue, and they’re probably right. Russ plays a part in her own novel (her most famous) about alternates of herself that may exist out there in the multiverse, with the broad differences between them being defined along the lines of their degrees of emancipation. By including herself in her novel even though she largely takes a back seat, this seemed to be the most honest way Russ could explore the subject of women’s...more Some may have been thinking this inclusion on the SF Masterworks list is well overdue, and they’re probably right. Russ plays a part in her own novel (her most famous) about alternates of herself that may exist out there in the multiverse, with the broad differences between them being defined along the lines of their degrees of emancipation. By including herself in her novel even though she largely takes a back seat, this seemed to be the most honest way Russ could explore the subject of women’s unequal role in society by comparing four possible universes, one of which is her own. The most prominent is of course the Joanna Russ that is Janet Evason, inhabitant of a far future Earth renamed Whileaway in which men died out in a selective plague 800 years previously; then there’s the Russ that is Jeannine Dadier from an alternate present in which WW2 never happened and American women are universally the stay-at-home types, and the fourth Russ is Jael Reasoner, combatant in a protracted and violent future war against men, who brought the four of them together for purposes she will eventually reveal. Russ does not fire off her flaming arrows at only the men, as her female characters often come in for an equally tough critique. She wrote the story scattergun-fashion with the four different points of view interchanging frequently and denying the reader any chance of experiencing a straightforward narrative, however the novel still hangs together nicely and the unusual composition is a major part of the book’s originality.

On publication The Female Man may have been a wake-up call for the men at the time who were prepared to take it on, as it is undeniably didactic. As a sequel to her Nebula Award-winning short story ‘When It Changed’, it’s probably fair to say Russ’s prickly and often very humourous rants are a little less reflective, directly, of the experience of Western women today. However much things have improved and however much the battleground may have shifted, the objective hasn’t: the glass ceiling is still there and the ongoing battles for equality of opportunity in the West are still no less important than those that went before. The Female Man can still put fire in the belly of feminists everywhere, including myself, and while it’s probably a layer or two beneath the current strata of feminist experience and thinking (that evolution could certainly be commented on better by others, not myself) it was certainly pivotal to some of the feminist literature that came after. However much this was a product of its day, its age is beginning to show a little and that’s actually something to celebrate, as its impassioned and very likeable ending itself makes clear. Certainly a masterwork, and still an invigorating book which I’m glad to have finally read.(less)

like · see review

Oct 04, 2012 Allan Dyen-shapiro rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Joanna Russ's 1975 classic of feminist science fiction would seem a little dated today if one were reading solely for the politics. Back then, society probably needed a smack in the face with these ideas. The idea of a lesbian relationship as shocking, for example, would be laughable to this generation.

However, this is still very worth the read for the radical leaps she takes in style. I love how she creates ambiguity with her shifts in point-of-view, as this is the tale of four women who are r...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 14, 2012 Gabriel C. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: among-others, scifi, 2012

This is right up one of my alleys: it's disjointed, difficult to follow linearly, but exudes careful consciousness and intentionality from every pore. It's somewhat old-fashioned now in that some of its more strident battles are long since won (although when I think about the women in philosophy blog, maybe I just live in a bubble, or delude myself, or I don't know), but it totally undercut that criticism on the last page when the author-figure looked forward to the day when the book would be cl...more

like · see review

Jun 08, 2012 Anna Anthropy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book. this book, this book, this book.

this book is angry, it's furious and brilliant. it reminds me of hothead paisan, except instead of being about a queer urban woman it's from the perspective of a white, middle-class professional. it lives in the same suburb as the feminine mystique, but the author still eviscerates men and fucks women on her journey to catharsis.

here is a book that, you realize, had to have been mismarketed to exist in the time and place it did at all. it's spun as a sc...more

like · see review

Feb 19, 2011 Alexis Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: engl-487-queer-literature

Science fiction meets feminist fantasy writing. Russ' fascinating take on multiple probabilities explores the lives of four women who each exist in an "alternate reality": Jeannine, stuck in a USa where the Great Depression never ceded; Joanna, a PhD living unfulfilled in a time much like the USa at the time of printing and clawing her way up in a male dominated field; Jael, a genetically modified assassin in the war between women and men in a future potentially our own; and Janet, brought to us...more

like · see review

Jan 08, 2010 Shirari Industries rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: men who want to understand female anger, women who want to understand female anger, queer folks

Shelves: gender, scifi

This book was written in 1975 in the U.S. It bristles with feminist fury from the book's schizophrenic narrator, different selves of one woman called out of different corners of space and time to come together and share the horrors they've been subjected to by men. Each version of the author-narrator poses a different way of responding to sexism - from a seemingly peaceful woman-only utopia, to an endless and violent war, to giving in and giving up one's autonomy.

Ultimately the solution is an un...more

like · see review

Oct 30, 2009 Cécile Cristofari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-sf

Not bad at all, especially since after a while you grow used to expect the worse whenever you pick a book that also happen to be an ideological manifesto. Granted, ideology is the main concern of The Female Man, and those who find feminism grating may want to read something else, but this is also a nice piece of SF and literature.

The narration may be a bit hard to follow at the beginning, due to the very short chapters that may appear outside the point alternating with longer, more narrative on...more Not bad at all, especially since after a while you grow used to expect the worse whenever you pick a book that also happen to be an ideological manifesto. Granted, ideology is the main concern of The Female Man, and those who find feminism grating may want to read something else, but this is also a nice piece of SF and literature.

The narration may be a bit hard to follow at the beginning, due to the very short chapters that may appear outside the point alternating with longer, more narrative ones. Another disturbing device is the interplay between the first- and third-person pronouns: it takes some time to understand who I refers to, and there is a kind of overall narrative blur in which the storyline (not what you would call a conventionnal plot either) eventually gets lost. But this is never pointless. The book is about women as objects that struggle to become subjects; so what could be more natural than having a first and a third pronoun struggle together in the narration? It is about control; and indeed the narrator gradualy blends with the author to attain a more and more explicit control of the story. And lastly, it is about women in general, not one random heroin; so the absence of plot is entirely justified, as it is not supposed to tell a single story, and aims instead at defining a complex state of matters involving the two halves of mankind.

As feminist books go, this one seems to me to be extremely successful. I cannot imagine a more powerful argument for gender equality than writing a perfectly good novel, thereby proving that women can be good at writing and thinking, too. However, some readers may ask whether we really need feminist novels nowadays; are we not supposed to have move beyond all that? I don't think so, personnally. Even though women's condition has improved greatly in the west, some problems among those exposed in the novel are still quite present. Of course, as one reader wrote here, we should have realised by now that women in some parts of the world encounter far greater problems than those from the wertern middle-class, and it is true that Russ's novel fails to address any of those very real problems that exist for women in other societies. Still, for its literary value as well as ideas, it is a really good book to have around. (less)

like · see review

May 16, 2013 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a living dream.

Four versions of the author -- Janet, from the all-female planet of Whileaway; Jeannine, from an alternate world where the Depression never ended; Joanna, from more-or-less Earth, circa 1968; and Jael, an assassin from a future where women are at war with men -- cross paths along the many-worlds continuum.

As you might expect, this is not a plot book. It's less tight and gem-like than "When it Changed," the short story it's expanded from.

The most haunting parts are the scen...more

like · see review

Aug 08, 2012 Nicholas During rated it 4 of 5 stars

A truly great feminist book, and even more amazing as a feminist sci-fi book. Reminds me a lot of Alan Garner's Red Shift, although unfortunately, not as well written—that book has some totally amazing dialogue, this one misses that with a more didactic tone. However, though I don't think it is that well written, it makes up for that flaw with some pretty impressive philosophical feminist musings on history, psychology, gender, society, violence, and the future. It is also surprisingly funny at...more

like · see review

Jun 11, 2012 Tom Liles rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stunning and brilliant from start to finish. I just don't have the vocabulary to communicate how good this book is. Sometimes when you get to the last few chapters of really good book the entire world just drops away? This is one of those!

Some quotes, committed here so I won't I'll remember them in the future.

"The violent and loud always assume the pacific and quiet aren't capable of defending themselves."

"I am not guilty because I killed. I killed because I am guilty."

"[Manlanders have] been se...more

like · see review

Jun 18, 2010 Katie M. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminist-interest, science-fiction

This is an important book for feminist science fiction, but it's not an entirely successful one. It's all polemic and very minimal plot. Much of the book is just description of the society of Whileaway, a future version of the world in which the human species is entirely made up of women. I love worldbuilding, but there was too much tell and not enough show. The narrative of The Female Man is hard to follow as it switches between narrators and between first and third persons. The book's message...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 07, 2013 Zulu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first times I (tried to) read this book, I wasn't really able to get into it. But over time it's really grown on me. I think I had a tough time initially because Russ makes the reader do the work when it comes to figuring out the various timelines/possibility continuums that are taking place. The POVs aren't consistent: sometimes they're first person, sometimes third person. Occasionally there's a dialogue-only section set up almost like a play.

What really came through for me and made me lov...more The first times I (tried to) read this book, I wasn't really able to get into it. But over time it's really grown on me. I think I had a tough time initially because Russ makes the reader do the work when it comes to figuring out the various timelines/possibility continuums that are taking place. The POVs aren't consistent: sometimes they're first person, sometimes third person. Occasionally there's a dialogue-only section set up almost like a play.

What really came through for me and made me love the book after several reads, however, was how Russ was challenging the status quo with her writing. This was published in the '70s, and Russ has not only women characters who feel stifled by the inevitability of marriage, and easy, confident, happy lesbian characters, and characters who use men for sex and finds no other use for them, and so on--in addition to all that, revolutionary as it no doubt was, there are also these little scriptlets that lay out exactly the kind of hypocritical games that men and women are expected to play with each other in the name of "normal" relations between the genders. Maybe at that time they didn't have the words "concern trolls" or "mansplaining", but Russ clearly knew what those were and could write them very pointedly.

Another thing that really strikes me about this book is how it complicates the utopia genre. It's a utopia in that our world is compared unfavourably with Whileaway (the all-woman future), but it's closer to a dystopia in the presentation of Jeannine's alternate timeline, and perhaps (depending on your reading) Jael's as well. Nor is Janet's Whileaway perfect. It's different, and women certainly can do more there since there are no men, but it has its problems that are both acknowledged by the characters and by the text, such as the death penalty, the required work week, the hints of eugenics, and so on. Jael's world is more clearly dystopic, with war, plague, and exploitation based on gender much more at the forefront of what we, the reader, sees. Yet the revelation that Jael's world is what (may/could) lead to Janet's world shows that Janet's world ignores inconvenient history and isn't as utopic as it might seem.

This is, to use Delany's term, a heterotopia: the presentation of several alternatives, none perfect, some better than others, all legitimate or possible in their own ways. I like that this is the next step after dystopia--that the goal of warning/projecting/didactism is still there, but the lesson is more complex than simply "don't go down this road" or "embrace socialism".

I also like the points that you can read both within/outside the text, as Joanna provides commentary that is probably Russ's directly, and yet has the plausible deniability of the implied narrator.

Anyway, very cool book, definitely rewards rereading. I shall write on it.(less)

like · see review

Jan 17, 2012 Stephanie Montilla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wonderful. I enjoyed its twists and tales, all of the dialogue; I just enjoyed reading almost every single sentence in this and the fact that it's very explicitly (and that's precisely part of its beauty) exploring on feminist issues and topics (that are really, you know, just human topics), within a self-conscious narrative (that in itself acknowledges future critics!)!
A bit excited, moving on.
It explores many subjects revolving around the idea of gender and the woman (or Everywoman) experienc...more

like · see review

Jan 29, 2010 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, sf-fantasy

I rarely read books these days where it feels like the author actually *needed* to write their book. I sometimes finish a book and think "that was clever" or "that was well-written" or "that was exciting," but rarely do I think "holy shit, that was so fucking necessary!" The Female Man is one of those rare necessary books. Reading it, I got the sense that these words were burning a hole in the author's stomach lining, so desperate were they to escape.

Which is not to say that I didn't feel offend...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 20, 2013 Larisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbt, science-fiction, women-s

This was a bizarre read. I can appreciate it for what it was and when it came out. I don't necessarily agree that it's outdated. More like a reminder that we've come a long way, and still have a ways to go. I wish the book could have explored Janet's world a bit more. The idea that the human race can go on entirely without men is fascinating, not in the sense that I'd actually want it to happen, but in the sense that, well. How exactly do they live? Reproduce? Is it really as utopian as we were...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (12)

More editions...

Genres

Science Fiction

155 users

Feminism

48 users

Speculative Fiction

23 users

Gender

19 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

13 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

13 users

Fantasy

13 users

Glbt

9 users

Classics

8 users

Science Fiction > Alternate History

8 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
by James Tiptree Jr.
China Mountain Zhang
by Maureen F. McHugh
Ammonite
by Nicola Griffith
Midnight Robber
by Nalo Hopkinson
The Child Garden
by Geoff Ryman

About Joanna Russ

Joanna Russ was an American writer and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism and is best known for The Female Man, a novel combining utopian fiction and satire. It uses the device of parallel worlds as a form of a mediation of the ways that different societies might produce very different versions of the same person, and how al...more

More about Joanna Russ...

Books by Joanna Russ

To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Female Man

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Female Man

“As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frog in jest. But the frogs die in earnest.” — 62 people liked it

“I'm not a girl. I'm a genius. ” — 27 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Female Man
avg rating	preview: The Female Man Goodreads rating: 3.55 (1771 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845529.The_Female_Man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320512746l/845529.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845529.The_Female_Man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Female Man by Joanna Russ[/url]

The Female Man

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website