Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes

by Gerd Brantenberg

Book Overview

Reminiscent of Orwell and Huxley's dystopian novels, this classic of women's literature is an intelligent and well-written contribution to the sex-role debate.

Welcome to the land of Egalia, where gender roles are topsy-turvy as "wim" wield the power and "menwim" light the home fires. This re-telling of the prototypical coming-of-age novel will have readers laughing out loud and wondering who should prevail: poor Petronius, who wants...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580051251
• ISBN13: 9781580051255
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A provacative satire that makes you wish the world would change

Imagine feminism and classism gone amuck and a world where men are second-class citizens. That is Egalia's Daughters. Gerd Bratenberg isn't advocating such a world. Her satire makes clear the various flaws in many societies and the need to change them. Well done, Ms. Bratenberg! Thanks for a great read!

Imaginative and entertaining

This is a captivating story about coming of age and gender. Brantenberg artfully describes the process of growing up and questioning the expectations encountered along the way. An imaginary society is created and brought to life. I had trouble putting it down for curiosity about what would happen next!

Living in a Woman's World

After reading Egalia's Daughters, I realized that the author, Gerd Brantenberg, has many recurring themes which relate to the oppression of men in a woman dominated society. In my view, the language, family structures and the entitlements women are given for having children, are the most important topics in the satire. I am amazed by the language in Egalia's Daughters because the author chooses to go outside the norms when using this language, ignoring traditional uses of the English language (maybe due to the fact this language is translated from the Norwegian language to the English language). In my opinion, Brantenberg uses women-centered language to add to the satire of her work and also to point out the male-identified nature of language in our society. I agree with the author's choice to provide the reader with examples of the rationalizations the women use to support their positions of power and control. They are similar to the rationalizations the men use to support their positions of power and control in today's society. I also agree with the author's choice to award the women a palace where they can go and give birth because this is a form of respect given to the well-deserved hardworking women of the Egalsund sociey. I really enjoyed reading Egalia's Daughters because it really gave me a sense of the things our society takes for granted in women from another female's perspective.

Egalia - a true reversal of gender roles

Although the English version has about twenty to fifty editing errors and is not the original language it was written in, Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg, is a highly inventive study of female oppression through every stratum of society, down to the smallest detail, such as how women are oppressed liguistically. The english language denotes girls as females and women and denotes boys a simpler version or primary version of those words, male and men. Thus Egalia equates women with wym and males with mafeles, making the every word (except history) switch to give women a dominance over males.The most interesting part, however, is not the lurid sex scenes, which are probably more accepted in Norway(is she from Norway?) or the hard to grasp linguistic switch Gerd presents, but rather the success of the menwym (men) to find freedom and some level of equality within an obviously biased and completely unfair society in which menwym are nothing more than sex objects.I would suggest this book to anyone who does not agree with feminist thought. If you think women are treated fairly, read this book. It's not only completely entertaining, but educational as well. It made me think thrice.

For all who use cod biology to explain the position of women

This book describes a world in which gender roles have been reversed and in particular the fortunes of one "masculinist" boy who tries to fight against the opression of his gender. When you first start reading it lots of the reversals may seem artificial and a bit trite and you might think that this is nothing more than a feminist take on the UK comedians the two Ronnies' long run sketch "the worm that turned". Even at this level it is very much worth reading if your sense of humour is in anyway childish and scatalogical. This book goes further than this in two ways.First it has brilliant justifications for why women (or wim) have the power in the society described in the book which are just as convincing as the usual psuedo-biological "survival of the fittest" type arguements most recently put forward by a certain US law professor. This undelines the point that a story consistent with the facts is not necessarily "true" , even if a "true" story could be used as justification for the status quo. Second, by ascribing to the men in the book the characteristics usually asociated with women (so men are now from venus and women are from mars!) it also undermines the 70/80s feminst view that a society run by women would be much "bettter" than a society run by men. While none of this points are very profound it is after all a novell rather than an essay in feminist theory, it is a brilliant satire and should definately be read.