Sex before gender: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the evolutionary paradigm of Utopia

Feminist Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 489-510

  Hausman, Bernice L ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0032165876     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178576     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Anne Edwards, "The Sex/Gender Distinction: Has It Outlived Its Usefulness?" Australian Feminist Studies 10 (summer 1989): 7, 9.
2. "Gender" was introduced as a term to signify social aspects of sex identity (as opposed to the biological aspects designated by "sex") in the context of treatment protocols for intersexual patients in the 1950s. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, feminists exploited this distinction between "sex" and "gender" to produce a profound commentary on the social construction of sex inequality. See Bernice L. Hausman, Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology, and the Idea of Gender (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995), 72-109, for a discussion of the introduction and elaboration of "gender" within medicine in the 1950s and 1960s.
3. Marie Tedesco, "A Feminist Challenge to Darwinism: Antoinette L.B. Blackwell on the Relations of the Sexes in Nature and Society," in Feminist Visions: Toward a Transformation of the Liberal Arts Curriculum, ed. Diane L. Fowlkes and Charlotte S. McClure (University: University of Alabama Press, 1984), 53.
4. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, The Sexes throughout Nature (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1875; rpt., Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press, 1976), 113-14.
5. See Elizabeth Blackwell, Essays in Medical Sociology, vols. 1 and 2, Medicine and Society in America, ed. Charles E. Rosenberg (New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1972). See also Kate Krug, "Women Ovulate, Men Spermate: Elizabeth Blackwell as a Feminist Physiologist," Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (July 1996): 51-72. For a discussion of other evolutionary feminists, including Elizabeth Blackwell, see Mariana Valverde, " 'When the Mother of the Race Is Free': Race, Reproduction, and Sexuality in First-Wave Feminism," in Gender Conflicts, ed. Franca Iacovetta and Mariana Valverde (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 3-26.
6. See Elizabeth Blackwell, Essays in Medical Sociology, vols. 1 and 2, Medicine and Society in America, ed. Charles E. Rosenberg (New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1972). See also Kate Krug, "Women Ovulate, Men Spermate: Elizabeth Blackwell as a Feminist Physiologist," Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (July 1996): 51-72. For a discussion of other evolutionary feminists, including Elizabeth Blackwell, see Mariana Valverde, " 'When the Mother of the Race Is Free': Race, Reproduction, and Sexuality in First-Wave Feminism," in Gender Conflicts, ed. Franca Iacovetta and Mariana Valverde (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 3-26.
7. See Elizabeth Blackwell, Essays in Medical Sociology, vols. 1 and 2, Medicine and Society in America, ed. Charles E. Rosenberg (New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1972). See also Kate Krug, "Women Ovulate, Men Spermate: Elizabeth Blackwell as a Feminist Physiologist," Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (July 1996): 51-72. For a discussion of other evolutionary feminists, including Elizabeth Blackwell, see Mariana Valverde, " 'When the Mother of the Race Is Free': Race, Reproduction, and Sexuality in First-Wave Feminism," in Gender Conflicts, ed. Franca Iacovetta and Mariana Valverde (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 3-26.
8. See Carol Stabile, Feminism and the Technological Fix (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1994), 27-36.
9. Krug's work on Elizabeth Blackwell provides an interesting comparison to Gilman, although Krug herself does not mention the latter; Valverde's essay on First Wave feminism does mention Gilman but only in passing.
10. Carol Parley Kessler, Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Her Progress toward Utopia with Selected Writings (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1995), 78.
11. As another example of what I would call the current misreading of Gilman, Frances Bartkowski writes: "In Women and Economics Gilman uses analogies to the animal world to describe male and female characteristics. . . . While Gilman does a great deal to prove that such concepts of sex distinctions are socially transmitted, she also accepts certain distinctions as biologically and psychically immutable." The problem here is more subtle than that presented by Kessler. Bartkowski does not explicitly use the terminology of sex/gender distinction to articulate her point, but the sex/gender paradigm is nevertheless the lens through which she interprets Gilman's ideas. See Frances Bartkowski, Feminist Utopias (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), 27.
12. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, ed. Carl Degler (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 101-2. All other references to this book will be cited parenthetically in the text.
13. Lois Magner claims: The ancient analogy of the "social organism" was used both by Spencer and Gilman, but their views of its composition and proper mode of behavior could hardly be more dissimilar. Within Spencer's system the individual units of the social organism owed nothing to each other or to the whole. Gilman saw the social organism as the form of life within which, and only within which, human beings could be fully human. Magner notes that Gilman "even claimed that the social organism did not exist merely as a useful analogy or illustration, but as a literal biological fact" (emphasis added). See Lois Magner, "Darwin and the Woman Question," in Critical Essays on Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ed. Joanne Karpinski (New York: G.K. Hall, 1992), 121-22.
14. There are extraordinarily few treatments of Gilman's evolutionism in the critical literature. There are two essays by Lois Magner, both of which are largely descriptive. See Lois Magner, "Women and the Scientific Idiom: Textual Episodes from Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Gilman, and Firestone," Signs 4 (autumn 1978): 61-80, and her "Darwinism and the Woman Question," 115-28. Ann J. Lane provides an extended discussion of Women and Economics in To "Herland" and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (New York: Pantheon, 1990). For a reader seeking an introduction to Gilman's ideas, Lane's synopsis is an excellent source. However, because Lane attempts to present to the contemporary reader the reasons why Gilman's ideas are valuable for current feminist analysis, she tends to make them understandable within the contemporary gender paradigm of feminist theory. The most comprehensive discussion of Gilman's relation to evolutionary theory and social Darwinism appears in Maureen L. Egan, "Evolutionary Theory in the Social Philosophy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman," Hypatia 4 (spring 1989): 102-19. Egan treats a wide range of Gilman's work, placing it in the intellectual contexts of philosophy, sociology, and evolutionary theory. Egan's work thus provides a fundamentally useful source for any scholar interested in Gilman's evolutionism; however, she does not consider Gilman's fiction.
15. There are extraordinarily few treatments of Gilman's evolutionism in the critical literature. There are two essays by Lois Magner, both of which are largely descriptive. See Lois Magner, "Women and the Scientific Idiom: Textual Episodes from Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Gilman, and Firestone," Signs 4 (autumn 1978): 61-80, and her "Darwinism and the Woman Question," 115-28. Ann J. Lane provides an extended discussion of Women and Economics in To "Herland" and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (New York: Pantheon, 1990). For a reader seeking an introduction to Gilman's ideas, Lane's synopsis is an excellent source. However, because Lane attempts to present to the contemporary reader the reasons why Gilman's ideas are valuable for current feminist analysis, she tends to make them understandable within the contemporary gender paradigm of feminist theory. The most comprehensive discussion of Gilman's relation to evolutionary theory and social Darwinism appears in Maureen L. Egan, "Evolutionary Theory in the Social Philosophy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman," Hypatia 4 (spring 1989): 102-19. Egan treats a wide range of Gilman's work, placing it in the intellectual contexts of philosophy, sociology, and evolutionary theory. Egan's work thus provides a fundamentally useful source for any scholar interested in Gilman's evolutionism; however, she does not consider Gilman's fiction.
16. There are extraordinarily few treatments of Gilman's evolutionism in the critical literature. There are two essays by Lois Magner, both of which are largely descriptive. See Lois Magner, "Women and the Scientific Idiom: Textual Episodes from Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Gilman, and Firestone," Signs 4 (autumn 1978): 61-80, and her "Darwinism and the Woman Question," 115-28. Ann J. Lane provides an extended discussion of Women and Economics in To "Herland" and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (New York: Pantheon, 1990). For a reader seeking an introduction to Gilman's ideas, Lane's synopsis is an excellent source. However, because Lane attempts to present to the contemporary reader the reasons why Gilman's ideas are valuable for current feminist analysis, she tends to make them understandable within the contemporary gender paradigm of feminist theory. The most comprehensive discussion of Gilman's relation to evolutionary theory and social Darwinism appears in Maureen L. Egan, "Evolutionary Theory in the Social Philosophy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman," Hypatia 4 (spring 1989): 102-19. Egan treats a wide range of Gilman's work, placing it in the intellectual contexts of philosophy, sociology, and evolutionary theory. Egan's work thus provides a fundamentally useful source for any scholar interested in Gilman's evolutionism; however, she does not consider Gilman's fiction.
17. There are extraordinarily few treatments of Gilman's evolutionism in the critical literature. There are two essays by Lois Magner, both of which are largely descriptive. See Lois Magner, "Women and the Scientific Idiom: Textual Episodes from Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Gilman, and Firestone," Signs 4 (autumn 1978): 61-80, and her "Darwinism and the Woman Question," 115-28. Ann J. Lane provides an extended discussion of Women and Economics in To "Herland" and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (New York: Pantheon, 1990). For a reader seeking an introduction to Gilman's ideas, Lane's synopsis is an excellent source. However, because Lane attempts to present to the contemporary reader the reasons why Gilman's ideas are valuable for current feminist analysis, she tends to make them understandable within the contemporary gender paradigm of feminist theory. The most comprehensive discussion of Gilman's relation to evolutionary theory and social Darwinism appears in Maureen L. Egan, "Evolutionary Theory in the Social Philosophy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman," Hypatia 4 (spring 1989): 102-19. Egan treats a wide range of Gilman's work, placing it in the intellectual contexts of philosophy, sociology, and evolutionary theory. Egan's work thus provides a fundamentally useful source for any scholar interested in Gilman's evolutionism; however, she does not consider Gilman's fiction.
18. See Ludmilla Jordanova, Lamarck (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).
19. See Valverde.
20. See Susan Merrill Squier, Babies in Bottles: Twentieth-Century Visions of Reproductive Technology (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 56-62, for a discussion of liberal eugenicist views. See also Bert Bender, The Descent of Love: Darwin and the Theory of Sexual Selection in American Fiction, 1871-1926 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), esp. 1-30, for a discussion of the impact of Darwinism on American intellectual circles. See also Egan.
21. See Susan Merrill Squier, Babies in Bottles: Twentieth-Century Visions of Reproductive Technology (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 56-62, for a discussion of liberal eugenicist views. See also Bert Bender, The Descent of Love: Darwin and the Theory of Sexual Selection in American Fiction, 1871-1926 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), esp. 1-30, for a discussion of the impact of Darwinism on American intellectual circles. See also Egan.
22. Ann J. Lane, Introduction to Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (New York: Pantheon, 1979), ix-x. Subsequent references to the novel will be provided parenthetically in the text.
23. Whether Gilman actually identifies with Van, her sociologist narrator, is more difficult to determine. The text of Herland provides her with ample opportunity to demonstrate his shortcomings; however, he is a more likable character than Jeff (who succumbs to Herland too easily) or Terry (who must be expelled). Van as a "sociologist" represents the class of right-thinking but misguided male sociologists that Gilman hopes to convince of her views. That he is such a sympathetic character suggests some form of identification on the part of the author.
24. Cynthia Eagle Russett, Sexual Science: The Victorian Construction of Womanhood (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 151-54.
25. See especially Charlotte Perkins Gilman, With Her in Ourland, The Forerunner 7 (June 1916): 152-57; this text is now available as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, With Her in Ourland: Sequel to "Herland," ed. Mary Jo Deegan and Michael R. Hill (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1997).
26. See especially Charlotte Perkins Gilman, With Her in Ourland, The Forerunner 7 (June 1916): 152-57; this text is now available as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, With Her in Ourland: Sequel to "Herland," ed. Mary Jo Deegan and Michael R. Hill (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1997).
27. For critiques of Gilman's racism and a commentary on feminist complicity with Gilman's beliefs, see Stabile, 33-35; Bartkowski, 41; and Susan Lanser, "Feminist Criticism, 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' and the Politics of Color in America," Feminist Studies 15 (fall 1989): 415-41.
28. Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 23. See also Bender. Degler also suggests that one effect of the demise of Lamarckian ideas in reformist thinking was the rise of eugenics: "[T]he abandonment of the belief in acquired characters was a stimulus for the eugenics movement" (24).
29. Magner, "Darwinism and the Woman Question," 123.
30. The concept of male variability and female conservatism was based on the idea that men differed widely and women tended toward a mean. For example, men exhibited both more genius and more imbecility and women were more prone toward average mental ability. Variability was linked to "katabolic" or destructive energy, while conservatism was linked to both construction and stasis (Russett, 89-103). Thus, Gilman wrote: Since the female had not the tendency to vary which distinguished the male, it was essential that the expansive forces of masculine energy be combined with the preservative and constructive forces of feminine energy. The expansive and variable male energy, struggling under its new necessity for constructive labor, has caused that labor to vary and progress more than it would have done in feminine hands alone. (Women and Economics, 132)
31. Valverde, 5.
32. Elizabeth Blackwell's views are distinctly different from Gilman's with regard to this issue. Blackwell argued that sex in humans was different from sex among "the brutes," because humans have a "sentiment of mental sex." The force of Gilman's argument is to liken human sex to animal sex, in order to propose that the former has become unnatural. See Elizabeth Blackwell, Essays in Medical Sociology, esp. vol. 1, chap. 1, "The Distinctive Character of Human Sex."
33. See Krug, 63-64, for a discussion of Elizabeth Blackwell's views of the degenerative effects of racial mixing.
34. For a discussion of Gilman's possible homosexuality, see Stabile, 34-36. For a discussion of Gilman in the context of a more sexually adventurous First Wave of feminism, see Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 38-42; and Lane, To "Herland" and Beyond, 333. K. Graehme Hall argues that Gilman's relationship with Martha Luther was purely platonic, because for Gilman "sexuality and love are distinct" (167), thus suggesting that the lack of sexuality in Herland has to do with Gilman's utterly conventional heterosexuality. See K. Graehme Hall, "Mothers and Children: 'Rising with the Resistless Tide' in Herland," in Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Woman and Her Work, ed. Sheryl L. Meyering (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989), 161-72.
35. For a discussion of Gilman's possible homosexuality, see Stabile, 34-36. For a discussion of Gilman in the context of a more sexually adventurous First Wave of feminism, see Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 38-42; and Lane, To "Herland" and Beyond, 333. K. Graehme Hall argues that Gilman's relationship with Martha Luther was purely platonic, because for Gilman "sexuality and love are distinct" (167), thus suggesting that the lack of sexuality in Herland has to do with Gilman's utterly conventional heterosexuality. See K. Graehme Hall, "Mothers and Children: 'Rising with the Resistless Tide' in Herland," in Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Woman and Her Work, ed. Sheryl L. Meyering (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989), 161-72.
36. For a discussion of Gilman's possible homosexuality, see Stabile, 34-36. For a discussion of Gilman in the context of a more sexually adventurous First Wave of feminism, see Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 38-42; and Lane, To "Herland" and Beyond, 333. K. Graehme Hall argues that Gilman's relationship with Martha Luther was purely platonic, because for Gilman "sexuality and love are distinct" (167), thus suggesting that the lack of sexuality in Herland has to do with Gilman's utterly conventional heterosexuality. See K. Graehme Hall, "Mothers and Children: 'Rising with the Resistless Tide' in Herland," in Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Woman and Her Work, ed. Sheryl L. Meyering (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989), 161-72.
37. In Patriarchal Precedents, Rosalind Coward writes that "discussions of sexual relations," held in the context of nineteenth-century investigations of the evolution of the historical relations between the sexes, maintained "absolutely fixed ideas about sex and sexual identity. Sex was heterosexual, reproductive activity and even those theories which argued for primitive promiscuity at the beginnings of human society, never questioned the different sexual entities of women and men." See Rosalind Coward, Patriarchal Precedents: Sexuality and Social Relations (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 254. For a resistant reading of evolutionary theory's heterosexism, see Martha McCaughey, "Perverting Evolutionary Narratives of Heterosexual Masculinity," GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, no. 2-3 (1996): 261-87.
38. In Patriarchal Precedents, Rosalind Coward writes that "discussions of sexual relations," held in the context of nineteenth-century investigations of the evolution of the historical relations between the sexes, maintained "absolutely fixed ideas about sex and sexual identity. Sex was heterosexual, reproductive activity and even those theories which argued for primitive promiscuity at the beginnings of human society, never questioned the different sexual entities of women and men." See Rosalind Coward, Patriarchal Precedents: Sexuality and Social Relations (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 254. For a resistant reading of evolutionary theory's heterosexism, see Martha McCaughey, "Perverting Evolutionary Narratives of Heterosexual Masculinity," GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, no. 2-3 (1996): 261-87.
39. Gilman, With Her in Ourland, 156, 155.
40. In her analysis of Gilman's racial views, Carol Parley Kessler states: "However acute Gilman's thinking was on women's issues, her views on race contrast strikingly and reveal ethnocentrism. On this issue, she was unable to think beyond her era," and she concurs that "Gilman's social Darwinist views blinded her to her own racism." See Kessler, 47-48. Maureen Egan writes: "In the implicit racism which pervades her cultural comparisons and her assessment of what she, along with her contemporaries, calls 'savage' periods and peoples, she echoes the prejudices of her culture and class. On the other hand, there is much in her social philosophy which is valid today." See Egan, 113.
41. Valverde, 4.
42. This issue becomes especially interesting given that "race" is currently sloughing off its status as a biological category. In examining "sex" as a category that involves thinking about "race," we might see that each term has a unique (although entangled) historical relation to biological theories and maps of the body.
43. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power, and Corporeality (London: Routledge, 1996); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996).
44. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power, and Corporeality (London: Routledge, 1996); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996).
45. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power, and Corporeality (London: Routledge, 1996); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996).
46. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power, and Corporeality (London: Routledge, 1996); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996).
47. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power, and Corporeality (London: Routledge, 1996); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996).