The Female Man
by Joanna Russ
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of feminist science fiction, fans of early experimental fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in March, 2008
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 The other 90% is unnecessary polemic, thankfully out-of-date (at least I hope so!)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...more
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 The other 90% is unnecessary polemic, thankfully out-of-date (at least I hope so!)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...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
feminists, postmodernists, experimental-narrative aficionados
It's apparently a feminist sci-fi classic, but i didn't get it. it used experimental narrative form, apparently, which is interested but i had a hard time following it. the form was interesting because it was something new to me... it seemed postmodern.
i would have liked more utopia and possibility-travel. but i did appreciate the parts that were honest rants about the fucked up patriarchy that is western society and the character's/author's experience as a woman living in said society....more
i would have liked more utopia and possibility-travel. but i did appreciate the parts that were honest rants about the fucked up patriarchy that is western society and the character's/author's experience as a woman living in said society....more
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Read in December, 1998
[from my book lover's journal at the time of reading]
I bought this after giving up on Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad and immediately got into it but then stalled and required a month to finish it. Can only say i didn't experience it as Russ might've hoped i would--more likely, i experienced it in the way she would've expected of a man. I just don't understand it wholely nor do i agree that her complaints, assessments, accusations etc are accurate (or at least not as widely accurate as s...more
I bought this after giving up on Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad and immediately got into it but then stalled and required a month to finish it. Can only say i didn't experience it as Russ might've hoped i would--more likely, i experienced it in the way she would've expected of a man. I just don't understand it wholely nor do i agree that her complaints, assessments, accusations etc are accurate (or at least not as widely accurate as s...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
feminists, scifi fans, people who like narrative experimentation
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...more
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fun early 70s sci-fi feminism. yeah- the whole bit: multiple perspectives, vagueness about characterization and events, duplicity and circular time. despite these tropes (which have become much more established in sci-fi canon since 1975,) the novel retains a fair amount of freshness in approach to gender difficulties, technological psychology, and self-as-writer. at least the approach was fresh to me! it was atypical- non-self-conscious observations, criticisms, and veiled introspection.
...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm glad I read The Female Man since it's canonized within the marginal genre of feminist science fiction. While I found the scifi side of the book the most interesting, such as Whileaway, the utopian female society, and the interactions between characters from probability/parallel univerises, the science fiction really wasn't prominent enough for me. I might have enjoyed The Female Man more as a short story, but the pithy and explicit scenes that critique 1970s sexism stopped hi...more
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Read in March, 2006
recommends it for:
you
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....more
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....more
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To be fair, I have to start by saying I only finished half this book. I like feminist literature but I don't like science fiction. This was one of my favorite professor's recommended books, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it. This is a weird way to describe it, but it seems like some stories have an inviting presence and others don't. This book definitely did not...I would almost describe the writing style as cold. That could be just me since I know other readers have had very ...more
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I enjoyed parts of The Female Man - Joanna Russ writes funny critiques on patriarchal oppression that white middle class non-trans women in the United States endure. While these criticisms were entertaining, Russ fails to acknowledge privilege that the white middle class non-trans women have and centers (dys/u)topia around struggles this group of women.
Narrator switches and experimental form made The Female Man a little hard to take at points, and the last part of the book seemed like inspirat...more
Narrator switches and experimental form made The Female Man a little hard to take at points, and the last part of the book seemed like inspirat...more
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Read in July, 2007
This sci-fi third-wave feminist opus loses a great deal of the complexity and clevereness of the critique through some rather alienating thought experiments and broad philosophical strokes. This book was not intended for the 'uninitiated', but if you have patience and can retain critical composure, there are a few really good insights. The writing itself is often stirring, but rarely phenomenal.
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Read in January, 1999
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Potentially a good book, but I found the author to be too smug for my tastes. It was probably this passage that did it, and I paraphrase: "I anticipated all of your counterarguments, and I'm right, so nyaaah."
Not so much, no.
Not so much, no.
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Read in January, 2006
I am willing to admit that this book may just be too taxing for my intellectual capabilities. However, I had to bribe myself with necessities in order to finish it. Ex. If I read 5 more pages, I can go in the bathroom and pee....
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Second wave feminist SF with multiple threading of narratives, alternate universe/timeline versions of characters, and gut-punching gender critique.
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Read in October, 2001
recommends it for:
Utopian/Dystopian Lovers
To truly gain equality...you must kill all of the men? At least that is what Russ suggests in this feminist utopian novel.
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Hard to know what's happening at first (well, heck, throughout), but constantly witty and packing a poetic punch.
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one of the first books i read when i was getting excited about science fiction again.
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Read in January, 1991
Read in college for a literature class called women in science fiction.
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recommends it for:
everyone
Seriously, this book should be required reading for all humans.
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.55 (139 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.60 (95 ratings) number of reviews: 28popular shelves
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quote
"As my mother once said, 'The boys throw stones at the frog in jest. But the frogs die in earnest.""
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