Herland: Experiements in Cultivation

So much of what we accept as natural is cultivated. It is cultivated over such a long period of time that we no longer think about it and cannot imagine it any other way. I think Gilman's point in Herland is that we need to examine and interrogate what we think is natural, to discover if it is actually cultivated. If it is cultivated, then we  can cultivate it in a different way, just like Gilman's women of Herland did.

In U.S. society, the types of things that have been cultivated in the past are gender roles. Kerri gives a neat summary as to how this can play out in her March 22 post on this blog. In addition, there are the obvious statistics, such as, the United States has only ever had male presidents; corporate boards continue to be dominated by males (2020 Women); males also continue to dominate the U.S. Congress (Manning and Shogan). It is easy to continue to ignore these statistics because, as Van suggests in Gilman's novel (68), "Some...things we have grown to accept as perfectly natural, or as belonging to our human limitations...."

Gilman presents an alternative to the cultivated order of U.S. society as it stood at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in some respects, continues to persist to this day. The education of women  was carefully developed and implemented (55), along population control through "negative eugenics" (59), health and hygiene practices virtually eradicated sickness (61), and the sense of community, which was described by Van (67) as "a unit, a conscious group...." was highly developed. Van adds (61) that "...they did not seem "cultivated" at all - it had become a natural condition." All of this was achieved by the women of Herland over a 1500 year time frame.

http://agriorissa.blogspot.com/2012/01/carrot-cultivation.html

As a society, we need to continue to do as Gilman suggests, through Van (68), and shine a light on those "things we have grown to accept as perfectly natural." We need to challenge these ideas that seem perfectly natural and come up with our own way to address a cultivated situation that has grown out of control. As a result, hopefully we can cultivate our own, healthier, society.




Works cited:

2020 Women on Boards. 2020 Women on Boards, 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1998. Print.

Manning, Jennifer E. and Shogan, Colleen, J. Women in the United States congress: 1917-2012. Congressional Research Service. RL30261. 26 Nov. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.