Creating Gender

Utopias & Dystopias.

Piercy has created a world of dystopias and utopias.

The world of multinational business, which governs most of the earth, is rich and powerful, but is dystopian. The multinationals dictate the nature of their employees' private lives, which is limiting to the lives of women.

Women's gender role is constrained by the essentially patriarchal world of Yakamura-Strichen (Y-S) within which Shira and her husband and child lived. Shira is 'owned' by the 'multi' who bid for her after she left university (who also had bid for her). Shira is a commodity to them.

Other women, who are contract wives or pampered sex items, owe their existence to the whim of both men and multi.

In contrast, Tikva, the free town in which Shira grew up, is a utopia, especially for women. Women have equal power in decision making; there is no violence against women and everyone is valued. Everyone has equal access to the net, the site of Tikva's economic endeavour. There is communal child care, education and food provision. Other cleaning and caretaking is done by robots.

Another very feminist utopia is that of Nili's community in the 'black zone'. It is completely cut off from the multis but it has very advanced medicine and science utilizing nano-technology. It is an all female society. Some women are physically enhanced to make them strong warriors and assassins who go out into the wider world. These women do not fit the stereotypes produced by the operation of binary opposition in Patriarchal society.

The world of the ghetto is far from secure as there is the ever-present risk of attack from the Christian community yet it has a fairly united population and at least one woman, Chava, manages to live a fulfilled life away from male control, and to help other women in her role as midwife.