Gender Extremes and the Social Construction of Value

A Comparison of Ancient Sparta with Fictional Female Utopia “Herland”

(Originally submitted to Mary Titus in an undergraduate American Studies class on 28 October 2013.)

Both Sparta and Herland (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1915) are intentional communities; they exist for a distinct purpose and orient all aspects of society toward that purpose. Both societies flourished, but the ideals of each society are diametrically opposed. The context of the founding of each society explains why they developed such values as they did; moreover, the success of each society confirms the power of tradition to preserve social order.

Spartan values are a result of social necessity. Sparta drastically reconstructed its approach to military training after an insurrection by the slave class, which constituted fifteen-sixteenths of the Spartan population. In order to prevent another slave uprising, the Spartan lawmaker Lycurgus instituted social reforms that would make the remaining one-sixteenth of the population into an invincible military force. For example, at age seven, every male Spartiate began his agoge, or training, which Plutarch describes as “an austere lifestyle, full of hardships, but also one designed to train young men to obey orders” (Plutarch, Agesilaus). More than 50 years of each male Spartan’s life were dedicated to military service, so most of the male population was in service at all times. The Spartans valued bravery, military excellence, physical strength, and practical intelligence because those values were necessary.

The social structure of Herland, too, evolved in response to its demographics. The only reason Herland is able to exist as an all-female civilization is because of the miracle of virgin birth; this makes Motherhood the essential condition for Herland’s existence, just as military superiority was the sole reason the Spartan elite could exploit the labor of so many slaves. While Spartan life revolved around warfare and authority, Herland has no wars and no rulers (Gilman 51); all of Herland is a single class, united in the cause of rearing children.

Despite its lack of men, Herland resembles Sparta in many ways. Both were dominated by a single sex, and both communities share a neutralization of traditional gender stereotypes. For instance, Terry claims repeatedly that Herland’s women are “not womanly” (Gilman 50). Terry would have been equally frustrated in Sparta, as Spartan women were raised to be brave, direct, and physically strong. Both societies exalted a single profession that embodied the ideal of their dominant sex; Spartans were soldiers, and Herland women were mothers. In both societies the responsibility of childrearing was distributed over the community; in Herland all mothers nurtured all daughters, and in Sparta fathers were expected to discipline the sons of their neighbors. Herland and Sparta both enjoyed social stability — Sparta by institutionalized aggression, Herland by intuitive cooperation.

The two societies share an extreme commitment to principles that promote the good of the society; the success of each society and the polar differences between the content of their principles suggest that culture evolves as a way of preserving whatever social order is necessary for a civilization to survive in its environment. The Maternal culture of Herland stemmed from the central necessity of childbirth, and the militaristic culture of Sparta stemmed from the necessity of oppressing the slave class. One could not impose militaristic values on Herland as they had no one to fight. Nor could one impose peace and gentleness on the Spartans, for this would preclude the continued oppression of the helots. The role of historical and geographical context in the generation of values might lead one to investigate the source of the (rather conventional) “theory of the essential opposition of good and evil,” which is central to many religions (Gilman 87). Further, an examination of the gendered values of Herland and Sparta calls into question the assumption that any “gender” is superior to another and highlights the possibility of human flourishing in intentional communities based on diverse ideals.