Date: January 7, 2006

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper

The theme was "U.S. Feminism and Feminist Literature." Other nominees for this meeting were:

• He, She, and It by Marge Piercy
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• What do you think of the servitors? Cerrig was clearly destined to father Stavia's children, even before she knew the secret of Women's Country - what do you think about that?
• Does Tepper's concept that violence can be bred out of human males (following the Laplander method of acquiring more docile bull reindeer) favor genetics over culture? If so, is this a flawed concept or do you agree that violence is a genetic trait in males?
• Do you think this society will last, or is it doomed to failure?
• Why do the women give the garrison full rations when the harvest is bad? Why not distribute the food more equally?
• Were you disappointed that Chernon read all those books and still ended up buying into all the warrior dogma? Did Tepper try to trick us into thinking Chernon and Stavia were going to be come enlightened and change the world?
• Why is a cadre of warriors with nothing better to do (i.e., no real work to speak of) so easily foxed? Wouldn't a good warrior have better information (maps, spies, exploration teams of their own, preparations)? Or is Tepper saying that violent men are just dumb?
• The men in the garrisons think they are free; the Holylander women know they are not. How different are the social structures and psychological techniques used to control each group?
• The economy of Women's Country is based on an extreme form of collective distribution. Could any society really work this way? (Chapters 22 & 25: Would the manager of the sheep camp really have given up the weird and useful dogs so easily?)
• Margot tells Stavia that there are clues hidden in books about what is really happening in Women's Country. Are there clues in Tepper's book about the women's secret? What are they?
• Were the servitors supposed to be sheep dogs?
• Dystopian or utopian?
• Is the selection for males with heightened perception (i.e., ESP) supposed to indicate that only males with more empathy can cohabit with women, as there seem to be only two types of servitors: the ones with ESP and the girly-men?
• It is revealed that it is only the servitors who are siring children, but what Tepper doesn't write about is whether the servitors also engage in sex with the women (the insemination process is artificial following carnival, but what about the other ten months of the year). Are we to assume that all the servitors are so unsexual and docile that jealousy and possession are no longer a part of them? (The ending with Joshua killing Michael indicates that this may not be so, but seems entirely too facile for the central concept.)
• Tepper's story seems to be built on an essentialist view of human nature - boys will be boys because they are boys. Are there any groups or individuals in the story who don't fit into this worldview?