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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What do the women in Whileaway do with their hair? , Feb 10 2003
... They chop it off with clamshells. There was a time when speculative-fiction (or science-fiction, pick your term) was filled with writers who experimented and challenged the status quo. These writers, people like Harlan Ellison, Samuel Delaney, and Joanna Russ, are challenging, talented, and even funny when they want to be. If you are open minded, try reading them and their peers.That background out of the way, of all the books in the speculative fiction genre I've read, this is my favorite. First off, yes, "The Female Man" is a feminist book. Guys, getting scared off at this point would be a bad idea. Jeannine's tragic life is something anyone forced into a role they can't stand will identify with. Janet's life is hilarious and exhilarating, filled with Whileawayan philosophy and sayings. Jael, aka "Sweet Alice", lives in a world that is as dark as Jeannine's and as strange as Janet's, but she has the power to take control of it. Lastly, Joanna, the author's mouthpiece, is the glue that ties the other three women together. The book is entertaining and nearly impossible to put down. The humor is perfect and the feminist ideas presented by Russ are still relevant today. Be happy that Russ has the ability to fling her readers across time and space then shoot them back, because few can make a book this fun and yet this sad. Many of the reviews here on Amazon.com are from people who just don't seem to "get it". Russ and her peers didn't always write novels that were neat and orderly, and this one in particular can drive the close-minded insane. Russ' style is closer to a James Joyce than a Charlotte Perkins Gillman or an Isaac Asimov, so be willing to read this book on her terms and hers alone. If you can do that, there is little to fear. Russ is a rebel, and at one point in the novel she even predicts the negative reaction of literary critics on her book and provides examples of the reviews she believed they would write. Think about that for a minute, she put fake negative reviews for "The Female Man" in "The Female Man" itself to prove a point about our uptight society. That's just a classic moment, and when you see that it perfectly mingles with the rest of the content and doesn't upset the flow, you can bow before this great novel yourself.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A complex, involving sci-fi novel about alternate realities, Feb 10 2004
Jeannine, anxiously awaiting marriage to her boyfriend, is a librarian on an Earth that never saw an end to The Great Depression. Joanna is a 1970s feminist trying to make it in a man's world by being just like a man. Janet Evason, a traveler from Whileaway which has not been home to a man in over 800 years, suddenly appears on a Broadway sidewalk. The three women are drawn to one another, presumably to learn and to share information. Things take a different track when they meet Jael Reasoner from an alternate Earth with separate, warring male and female societies. She has plans of her own for the three women.This is a fantastic science fiction book centered on the idea that any given situation has a number of choices. What happens if all the choices actually occur, creating separate realities. What would the Earth be like in each of those realities? How would humans behave and act? Author Joanna Russ lays all these ideas at your feet, and then throws in: and what if you could travel between these realities? Russ also gives the story a feminist flavor, having each of the characters represent a different aspect of a woman without being weak or vicitmized. They're very strong, very well-defined characters, challenging the reader to open his or her mind to all the possibilities around them. The only difficulty I encountered with this book was sticking with the narrator. I never really knew who was talking at which time because the scenes would change from chapter to chapter. A little confusing at times, but if you stick with the book, the outcome is definitely worth it.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
And then, and so, it was, Nov 15 2002
This innovative feminist science fiction classic centers on the story of four women, each from a different universe, whose worlds suddenly intersect. Jeannine is a librarian in a world where the Great Depression has never ended. Joanna is living in the 1970s in a world much like our own. Janet is from a lesbian utopia called Whileaway, where only women exist. The fourth woman is from a future where the men and women are literally warring with each other. Russ uses these women to express and explore notions of gender, sexuality, politics, and human rights in a unique style incorporating a quirky (and somewhat dated) sense of humor. While it may not have the immediacy of "The Handmaid's Tale" or "Woman on the Edge of Time", "The Female Man" stands alongside such feminist works such as "Les Guérillères", where it challenges how a story is told and gives the reader a refreshing view of what the fantasy/sci fi genre can be.
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