"The Gate to Women's Country"

[fiefoe]

Talk about the gender wars. I can see why some readers object to its gender essentialism. Sheri S. Tepper laid out many clues for the final twist in the end, but it was still a nice sting of a surprise.

• could do nothing but stand aside upon its stage, one hand slightly extended toward the wings to cue the entry of some other character—a Stavia more capable, more endowed with the extemporaneous force or grace these events required.
• his twice-yearly homecomings—during which the initial shyness of the original separation had turned to fondness, then to shyness again, finally becoming the expected, though no less wounding, alienation—
• “I offer you the sweetness of honor,” he whispered, even his whisper penetrating the silence of the plaza like a sword, so sharp it did not hurt, even as it cut you to pieces.
• women’s studies would start this year: management, administration, sexual skills.
• It’s supposed to be a satire, you know?” She frowned, trying to remember something an instructor had said. “A commentary on particular attitudes of preconvulsion society.”
• “‘Infatuation makes otherwise reasonable women behave in unreasonable and illogical ways. It is a result of biological forces incident to racial survival.’” “And?” “And, ‘Infatuation should be regarded with forbearance. Though episodic, it is almost invariably self-limiting.’”
• "Think of Achilles. That’s Dawid. I can’t offend my friends, but you won’t really die, mommy. Athena will send a hind.’ Warriors all think like that or they wouldn’t stay in the garrison.
• Oh, Hecuba, Hecuba! You’re a woman! Can a woman believe such nonsense? Think! I was a maiden girl! Scarce more than a child! My head was full of new gowns and festivals and wondering whether I should ever have a lover or not. The words the poets poured into my mouth were the prideful boasts of Argive battalions! They say I offered to die for Hellas!
  IPHIGENIA My father used me as he would a slave or a sheep from his flock. I think that many fathers do the same. Then, having done, he claimed I’d wanted it. Perhaps it made him feel less vile. Men like to think well of themselves, and poets help them do it.
• “You never know,” said Michael. “We keep detailing enough of our best-looking men to court the Councilwomen and their daughters, we’re bound to find out something.
• We all like to invent worlds that are better than this one, better for lovers, better for mothers…. For all I know, Barten believes it himself. Many warriors do.”
• It’s one of the things we on the Council try to keep in mind, the need to keep sentimentality and romance out of our deliberations. Leave romance to the warriors: We can’t afford it in Women’s Country.”
• “Chernon told me all about it. All of the young warriors planned to have a fight with their sweethearts after seven or eight days. That’s so they can try some of the others.” “A basically self-defeating proposition,” sighed Morgot. “Since the ‘others’ are all at home crying, too.”
• “‘The silence of severance, a vessel of quiet to hold mourning, for those who have said welcome, and farewell; a time to summon once again those things not so much lost as unremembered.’”
• Metallurgy, for instance. A warrior might obtain an unfair advantage if he had learning that other warriors didn’t. Out of loyalty to his garrison, a warrior might make some device which could return them to the time of convulsions. Only equal match between equal warriors at arm’s length could decide things fairly without imperiling others, without threatening devastation.
• Servitors were clean shaven. Razors, like anything else made of good steel, were treasured possessions. Most of Women’s Country’s tiny steel production went into things like razors and scalpels and other medical equipment. The warriors did very well with bronze manufactured by their own garrison foundry.
• something some of us servitors have. We call it the long-feel or the time-feel. Not all of us have it, not even most. But some of us do.” “Just servitors?” she whispered. “Not warriors?”
• “When you are grown, you may be asked to serve on the Council,” she told Stavia. “Half of what we do is performance. Ritual. Observances. If we are seen to be in control, the people are calm and life moves smoothly. Nothing upsets the citizenry more than to believe its administrators are uncertain or faltering. Doing nothing with an appearance of calm may be more important than doing the right thing in a frantic manner. Learn to perform, Stavia. I have.”
• Michael said women weren’t strong enough to trust with power or weapons and that if it turned out they had any such thing, it would be perfectly honorable to conquer them and take the power away from them. Women didn’t have the right kind of minds to use such things properly, so it would be most honorable to remove the danger from them.
• Once a woman consented to something, that was it, no saying no later or running away.
• And his mother. “Honor is only a label they use for what they want you to do, Chernon. They want you to stay, so they call staying honorable.”
• with composting toilets of the variety used in many of the Women’s Cities—  ... the scarce commodities were allocated—drugs and glass, raw and worked metal.
• One said, “Woman proposes, the Lady disposes,” another said, “The one sure part of every plan is that it will be set awry.”
• She married late—you are aware of the custom of marriage?—and died in childbirth.” “Yes, I know of the custom,” she said, being careful not to show on her face what she thought of such barbarism.
• Did get hurt some as a child, probably. Found out it made people feel guilty, so he kept right on getting wounded, here and there, now and then.
• She made this decision coldbloodedly, almost in retaliation for what she had seen in his face, without recognizing that a large part of their emotion toward one another was hostile.
• The fire burned down and they settled into their blankets, reaching for one another like well-practiced raiders, stealing familiar treasure, grabbing it all by huge handfuls, not bothering to sort it.
• In the end, it was Septemius who suggested that they raid the Holyland in the guise of devils, leaving ambiguous evidence of the supernatural behind them wherever possible.
• You women were saying, ‘Watch us bringing sons to their warrior fathers, watch us weeping,’ and all the time the trick was going on somewhere
• “Misplaced nurturing,” Septemius corrected her. “The biggest chink in your female armor. The largest hole in your defences. The one thing you cannot and dare not absolutely guard against, for your nature must remain as it is for all your planning to come to fruition... You dare not change it. Still, it is hard when your own female nature betrays you into believing the ones who abuse you need you or love you or have some natural right to do what they do,”
• Why? Why didn’t Odysseus say how the women felt? How they looked? Why didn’t any of the sagas talk about that?