作者：夏綠蒂．柏金斯．吉爾曼（Charlotte Perkins Gilman）
譯者：林淑琴
出版社：女書文化
出版日期：1998年03月08日
語言：繁體中文
ISBN：9579848157

一星期開天窗不寫作業馬上就鬆懈下來了。（滾動）這次的《她鄉》心得或許不合規定的作業標準，比較像是和個人經歷的比較。
我想可以注意一點是《她鄉》是一本 1915 年出版的小說。雖然當時已經是第一波女性主義運動興起的時間，然而那年頭大多數國家的女性都還沒有投票權。我不是很確定以當時的時空背景，是如何看待所謂的「女性特質」。然而直到 1935 出版的《三個原始部落的性別與氣質》，都仍將「過度敏感，稍有委屈便落淚」當作是（西方文化認定的）女性氣質。（雖然《三》這個描寫的目的是為了說明在不同文化中，這種特質並非女性專有而是兩性兼具的。）
在這樣的背景之下，或許我們可以將《她鄉》視為具有預言性質的科幻小說。誠然它在某些層面顯然過度美化與理想化一個女人國可能的樣貌，但書中三位男士在少女群裡打滾的部份，卻很有意思。女孩們的反應和今日的女孩似乎有些相像。
強勢的泰利吃了鱉，好好先生傑夫吸引了次多的女孩子，而在家鄉「只有女性朋友沒有女朋友」的范戴克卻大受歡迎。
即使一直到今天，還是有許多男性會試著用強勢而「指導」的態度來追求女性。這個方法在男性具有知識或經濟等方面優勢時或許有用，但在情況並非如此時，這麼作恐怕只會惹人生厭。（就在上星期，我才聽說了一位十年以上資深貓奴，不停收到追求者上網胡亂收集的「養貓小常識」。）
跋扈的缺點很顯而易見，然而好好先生又如何呢？除了在故事中的背景顯得沒有必要而有些可笑之外，根據曾經當過一段時間好好先生的我們家 En 表示，若為了當好好先生而刻意貶低自己，那麼對方也沒有理由給予對等的尊重。可憐的 En 當年是在終於決定不再當好好先生，改用平常心對待每一個人之後，女人運才突然好起來的。
這或許就是故事中索瑪所說的：「我說你像我們的意思就是這樣罷了——比較像人。我們和你在一起很自在。」
在視一名女性為女性之前，請先視我們為人。

Herland was published in 1915, the time of the first-wave feminism. At that time, women do not have voting rights in most countries. I am not quite sure that how people thought “femininity” means at that time. Yet it was mentioned that a tribe with people “sensitive and easily to weep” was looked as a femininity tribe in Western eyes, in the 1935 publication Sex and temperament in three primitive societies.
In this context, we might see Herland as a prophetic science fiction. It may be over beautifying and idealizing at some aspect. Yet the girls’ reactions facing the three men with different attitudes seems similar to girls nowadays.
Dominant Terry did no good. Jeff the Mr. Nice Guy was the middle one. Vandyck who had “good girl friends but nothing else” at his homeland was the most popular one.
Today there are still men try to be dominant and show a guidance attitude when pursuing women. This may be useful when they have advantages like knowledge or others, but only when they do have these advantages. (Just last week, one of my friend, who is a hard-researching working cat owner, received some indiscriminately collected “cat tips” from a pursuer.)
The drawback of being domineering is obvious. How does Mr. Nice Guy? Sometimes it seems to be not necessary and ridiculous, just like in the background of Herland. Also there is no reason to give someone respect if a man belittles himself first. The difference betwenn Jeff and Vandyck interested me, because my own husband was a Mr. Nice Guy during his college years. He was depressed for no girl loves him. Finally he despaired and decided to be Mr. Nice Guy no more and to treat everyone the same, male or female.
Suddenly it seems all girls came to him as pursuers.
This perhaps is what Somel indicated by “That’s what I mean about you being more like us — more like People. We feel at ease with you.”
A women is still a person before being a female.