The Female Man (Bluestreak)

This book is really interest but SO HARD TO READ I wish there was an audiobook....

I recently finished The Female Man on a flight which happened to show a moment later an episode of Everyone Loves Raymond that was made sometime in this century. I thought, "Are we still in the 1960s?" Russ's "little book," as she calls it, cannot yet rejoice. That made me sad.I will now explain my reasons for giving the book four stars.Russ's inventiveness in this novel was cutting edge when it came out, and it's still a challenge to keep the character shifts straight. Given the idea of "probability travel" instead of "time travel," as Jael later explains, we find we may not have to keep them straight; there's even the possibility that all the major characters occupy a common psychological core as well as a common physical self. The interweaving and colliding of their stories keeps readers on their toes. The science fiction ideas propounded here have found their way into TV and movie sf, as well as many later stories and books. Despite that fact, in most of the futures and parallel worlds and matrices offered in/by the mass media, women are still portrayed from a 1960s "male-gaze" perspective, the occasional "tough" women of Battlestar Galactica and Alien notwithstanding. We can account for this in part by the fact that the little boys in charge of big companies haven't grown up and aren't likely to any time soon. (Just consider all the "alien" women on TV and in the movies who wear high heels, a hold-over of the Western imitation of the Chinese fetish of foot-binding. No intelligent beings would insist on such a practice.)As I reflected on the book, I thought of three others: The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, where he speaks of the "double consciousness" that people of color feel in white-dominant societies like the US; The Disappearance by Philip Wylie, in which he posits two parallel worlds of men only and women only; and Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which she considers the social practices of an assortment of different and not-so-different peoples one or more planes removed from us. The last work echoes for me Russ's theory of probability travel. The first work I found reflected in part 7, chapter 2, pages 137-140 in my copy. The second book came out in the late 1950s, I believe, and Russ may have read it or been aware of it.I suppose the parts of TFM that I didn't enjoy were the occasional screeds, such as on pages 140-141. (Which is why I gave it four stars, not five.) It's not that anything Russ said then wasn't justified; all her points are pretty much still justified, as witness many TV sitcoms, but especially ELR, which I mentioned above. Yet I cannot help thinking how much more effective it is to dramatize such points, as Russ effectively does throughout the book. Consider, for example, the exchange between Jael and the Manlander, culminating in Jael telling him to open his eyes (page 181). Speaking as a (white) male, I don't have any problem with Jael's actions there or even elsewhere, though I prefer Janet's approach, even when she has to deal with the old woman up in the wilderness.One other reviewer mentioned the absence of any direct discussion of race or class, both of which are important. (But see the bottom of page 161 re: race.) I suspect that including race and class would have doubled or tripled the size of the book. To see race, class, and gender treated in an sf context, see Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring and her later novel Midnight Robber; Andrea Hairston's Mindscape is another well-rounded look at all these attitudes; much of Octavia E. Butler's work, too, deals with all three, though not always explicitly. (Sometimes we do have to make the effort and "read between the lines.")

With the qualification that I've read more fantasy than sci-fi, I find this book unique. I certainly have not read a book like this before.Structurally, it is certainly different. It deliberately shifts between points of view and first and third person often and oftentimes without warning. This makes it difficult to identify the speaker at times, but if you can get comfortable with the complex structure and just settle into the dialogue and the story, there is a payoff.'The Female Man' presents four (five really, but the fifth is a sort of unofficial narrator) archetypal women living at different points on an imaginary timeline. Having these women living in the same world but at different times shows how society's expectations and role assignments color a female's options and choices.Structurally, it deliberately shifts between points of view and between first and third person often and oftentimes without warning. It is not always easy to identify whose voice is speaking sometimes. But if you can get comfortable with the complex structure and just settle into the dialogue and the story, there is a payoff.Joanna is an ambitious female whose skill at her job and being 'one of the boys' allows her to assimilate into a male-dominated workforce.Jeannine's tragedy is that she has come to see herself only as a reflection of a man. As a result, her life's goal is to attract a man. Her thoughts, words and actions are gauged according to how it furthers that goal.Janet is from Whileaway, an all-female society after all men were wiped out by disease. Though this seems to be presented as the utopian society, it actually highlights its flaws-- for all its independence, it's not quite ideal in Whileaway. Something is lost when the presence and uniqueness of each gender is absent and not celebrated.Jael is an assassin in the future where men and women are engaged in an actual protracted and violent war. The conflict is so protracted neither side really has no idea of the nature of the other gender.Sometimes, in the need to distinguish the unique aspects of each female, Russ almost makes her characters two-dimensional or caricatures. In retrospect, there might have been a need to skirt that line because each of the four needed to firmly represent a particular problematic aspect of femalehood.This is not quite an enjoyable read but it is certainly an interesting, thought-provoking and insightful one. It deals with a serious matter and treats it seriously. But it is not without humor occasionally injected in the discourse. I think the takeaway from this book is this: Expectations can mold and shape each female until society's expectations are all that's left of a woman' s self-worth, identity and goals.It doesn't have much of a story arch but I think it was sacrificed at the altar of dialogue to explain the female plight. Considering the year it was written, I would describe it as a book with an agenda. The strategic and frequent stream of consciousness commentary is certainly an indication. Indeed, one auto-commentary says that when the book becomes irrelevant, it would mean freedom and victory.

I adore this novel It was on my set texts for Utopias and Dystopias for my degree in Sociology. It features four different characters, one named Joanna like the author and consists of parallel universes that co -exist drawn from the principle that every decision made opens another portal to another world. Interesting stuff and a fascinating read. I read it ten years ago, so I'm enjoying remembering it as I re-read.

This book blew my mind, wasn’t sure what on Earth was going on, then read the intro then Started again then finally got it. So relevant with the situation with gender equality at the moment!

Jael and Janet are from the future (but not our future), Jeannine is from the present (but of another past), and Joanna is from now (or, rather from 1970). They meet, interact and communicate: the plot as such doesn't exist. We are very much in the realm of 70s cutting-edge, modernist sci-fi.This novel is a modern classic in at least two categories: it's a notable sci-fi title, and an important feminist novel. But most of all it's such a typical book from the 70s!The style is what might be called innocently modern, with a mixture of stream of consciousness, straight first person and even third person narration. The transition between perspectives is very fuzzy, often times one doesn't know which exactly of the four alternative characters (Jael, Janet, Joanna and Jeannine) is talking/being narrated. It actually reminded me quite strongly of this other 70s cult title,  The Dice Man , not because it's actually technically similar, but because it stems from the same spirit of the time.Russ concentrates on the cultural and psychological side of male dominance: and occasionally, especially when sketching little scenes of a male-female dialogue, the satirical edge is brilliantly sharp and very funny.Ideologically, it's interesting: firstly, because it's a historical account of feminist concerns at a particular time in a particular social grouping; and secondly, because it allows us to look from the perspective of almost 40 years (Russ's book was originally written in 1970) and try to judge to what extent the concerns are still valid.Possibly surprisingly, the biggest difference is perhaps in the attitudes to homosexuality; and possibly unsurprisingly, the least progress is in the women's own attitudes to marriage and breeding.Most still are, but most seem, at least to me, rather petty: there is no mention of the ACTUAL discrimination, of the effect of poverty on women, of reproductive rights, of equal pay, of colonisation of women's bodies...of hundreds of concerns that seem rather more valid to me than cultural dominance of the idea that woman who doesn't marry and have children is a failure as a human being. It is possible of course that the fact that I see is a petty is one of the symptoms of progress we have achieved. I personally think it's more a question of Ross's concentration on issues important for middle class Westerners, so typical for a lot of feminist movement in general, and especially in those times.As a sci-fi, the book works only to some extent: there is too much psychological and ideological rumination and not enough world building or plot.It's really 3.5 stars not 4, but Amazon won't let me have a half point rating, so I decided to be charitable. The Dice Man

Compelling if a little confusing.

Perhaps it's because I'm a thick-headed, linear, rude mechanical of a man, but I couldn't finish this book. This was not because I found it "too feminist" or anything - quite the opposite; that's what I wanted to read - but because the stream-of-consciousness narrative that flits between characters was intially very satisfying, often hilarious, but in the end, too confusing. In short, I largely enjoyed what I read, but became frustrated whenever I couldn't work out what was going on or who was talking in certain sections.I realise that my failure to even finish the book somewhat undermines my qualifications as its reviewer, but I felt I needed to warn those who like me, often forget which character is which and spend a long time scrabbling back to earlier chapters of the more disjointed sci-fi novels trying to work out what's going on.