The Gate to Women's Country

Yikes. I'm so mixed on this one I feel the need to write a review (with some spoilers). This book is compelling, thought provoking and engaging. It's disturbing and challenging, exactly the sort of book that wouldn't be permitted in Women's Country where the only art allowed is a stilted propaganda play. This is a horrible dystopia where, for example, homosexuality and gender variance (conflated) has been "cured" (oddly easily for a post apocalyptic society) and sex workers are publicly shamed and humiliated for their own good. It's a dim view of humanity in which men are brutish and violent, and women soft hearted and over emotional. I really enjoyed the first half despite a nagging feeling that the author thinks this a utopia. In the second half the introduction of a rival dystopia to show how necessary Women's Country is seems to confirm it. When the full awful truth is revealed all who opposed the society are revealed to be either naive or lesser humans incapable of understanding.

This book was full of hate, liberally spread throughout the characters toward the opposite gender. I finished the book angry, but not sure where that anger should be directed.

Tepper's world is post-apocalyptic, after a world war which has caused society to revert back to village life. However, this society is different than the one we know - it's a matriarchy where the women are the scholars and leaders, and the men have the choice to either live as warriors outside the village walls excluded from society, or to live with the women subserviently.

It was really interesting to see the traditional roles of men and women reversed in the household. Some of the household men were just as intelligent, brave, and dedicated as some of the women. Some of the men and women were silly and useless. Yet, even the best men seemed to be... lesser. I have been trying to figure out why. Was it simply the flat characterization of those men? Was it the structure of society itself, and the assumption that women would lead? Was it something inherent in the "helper" role that the household men had?

As a thought experiment, the book does an excellent job. I didn't see the book as an accurate mirror of society however, and the level of animosity in the book seems unnecessary.