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Mr. Steen

AP Lang. And Lit.

Pd. 6

2/25/02

To the members of the Pulitzer Prize Board:

I would like to nominate for the consideration of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction the novel Turning On the Girls by Cheryl Benard. This modern satire of a future utopia where the world is governed as a matriarchy raises many thoughts about gender inequality and the issue of power. Gender inequality in today’s society usually means that women are not offered the same opportunities as men. In Turning On the Girls Bernard lets this remain, but also introduces a very strong anti-male theme into the Revolution and New Order. In her opening explanation she tries to sum up the complexity of this complete switch to the new ways, away from the AR, the ancien régime. “There is much to do, just to keep things running and to prevent a backlash. And you’ve got to change everything: the schools and the toys, the books and the language, the television programs . . . everything. The rules. The women. The men.”

Women are to be reeducated to be independent, emotionally stable, and nurturing with classes to “launder out the sediment, iron out the kinks of centuries of exploitation and oppression.” As well men are reeducated in a nine-month program to teach them domestic skills so they won’t rely on women. They are segregated from society until they have proved they are able to be a productive part of the community. If they are deemed uncorrectable they are sent to Zone 6, where they are not associated with, but guarded as criminals. The story is based on the struggle for power between the two genders and the outcomes and surprises that each character learns from the other.

History is not history anymore; it is “herstory.” The material formerly known as history has now been labeled Chronics, and many known men from the past are excluded from the lessons: Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Lenin, Mao Zedong. Men and women feel very differently about such a change, though. Women explain this by stating that in the AR days people were made famous for doing terrible things. People who killed others were instantly famous, but now no one knows their names. The New Order thinks that it is dangerous to teach about such evil men because it might encourage others to follow their beliefs. But women insist that “men are not born bad. It was just the social conditions that kept them from contributing more to society and the family, depriving them of opportunities to be caring and making them act violent and destructive.”

But men, especially those opposed to the New Order, are furious and speak their minds in underground meetings of a counterrevolution group in the Restore Harmony Movement. They show pictures of these forgotten men and have a speaker come to educate them on ‘their heritage.’ Chronics is viewed as “a bloodless, watered-down porridge of feel-good do-good bedtime stories. And we, we men, the former heroes of history, have been turned into tame, vegetable-eating, housebroken eunuchs. Swords into egg whisks, gentlemen, that is where we stand today. Heroes into mother’s little helpers.” Justin, the lead male character torn between loyalty to the New Order and to the counterrevolution, is shocked to learn that great leaders from the past are being banished from the minds of the young. He is frightened that it is so easy to manipulate the future’s minds away from the truth of what really happened long ago.

When Justin inquires if any famous men will be included in the new memorial called Martyrs’ Mall alongside Parks, Mott, and Stanton, he is quickly answered with the question “Who does he have in mind?” He recommends Thomas Moore for his fight for religious freedom, but is told that being a firm supporter of burning witches, Moore will not be honored anytime soon in this ‘Female Genocide Park.”

The power struggle between the two genders is shown through the interaction of Lisa and Justin mainly, but is also apparent in every meeting of the two sexes. Justin is inferior to Lisa, not only because she is his boss, but because without her signature he will never be integrated into society. When his final evaluation comes, Lisa is to write up a report on him, which she forgets to do. Justin has to remind her constantly to complete it, but in the end becomes infuriated because he believes she is treating him like a dog, “begging for what he wants.” As well there are the HUE bands, which every one is required to wear. They are Highly Unlikely Event bands, which if activated will send security to help. But men’s bands are changed to new unremovable metal bands that have a stun function and can also be used lethally. The discrimination against men is growing in the New Order as children in school are now reading old newspapers complete with articles on rape, female mutilation, child molestation, and are being told that “men have always hated women.”

While the theory that men despise women is hardly backed by the author, we do see that Harmony is gaining power quickly. The master plan for taking back power is scheduled for Valentine’s day. They will short circuit the border of Zone 6 and “simultaneously unleash the criminal elements and the dissenting male supremacists. . . there will be a few weeks of chaos, but we don’t forecast an excess of actual bloodshed. I Anticipate mostly looting, possibly some significant property damage, and of course a considerable amount of rape. A revolution is not a dinner party.”

Lisa’s world is turned upside down when the power and respect she has known in her safe environment is ripped away from her as Justin and she infiltrate Harmony posing as a couple.

“I’m with her,” Justin says, politely indicating Lisa.

“No you’re not, buddy,” the man corrects him. “She’s with you.”

And in another instance finds herself being referred to as a pretty ‘thing.’ After her HUE band has been unceremoniously sliced by a razor in the hands of a redneck man, leaving her with no way to call for help, she feels threatened and vulnerable. “She had thought Alex was nice. She had thought she could trust him. And she had thought Brett was nice, and had loved him. Had believed that Justin was nice, and was her friend. So it doesn’t matter what happens to her, not really. Clearly she’s just too stupid to live in a two gender world.” There is no semblance of real equality. She is either in control or not, which is a very dangerous way to live considering that every one else on earth is feeling the same way.

The plot against the New Order is learned of and important choices need to be made concerning men. Women argue that they will never be safe from men, that if you give them just a little room to breathe they will use it to start another counterrevolution. Women don’t want to put at risk what took them more than two thousand years of world history to accomplish. In a council of the founding mothers that established the New Order it is explained that men aren’t made for equality, they don’t have a middle ground. These women had lived in the times of a male dominated world and have experiences and memories to keep them firm in their beliefs. “For one gender to dominate the other, the one that’s going to be subordinate has to be made to feel like a minority. It has to believe itself to be weaker, dumber, and dependent on the other. Men did it to us using violence, physical intimidation, and psychological warfare.” Without any males present, Women are deciding the future of humanity. Based solely on gender and only seeing the bad aspects of a stereotyped man, they offer terrible suggestions. “We don’t suggest killing all of them. We just want to reconfigure the demographic proportions to a more manageable level. We propose a population ratio of 70 percent to 30 percent.” Common sense and reason, however, take over. It is made known that, as a species, humanity is not very nice. Women are slightly less to blame then men, but not by much. “Our hands are a little more clean.”

The novel Turning On the Girls by Cheryl Benard creates a very scary future under the mask of peace and perfection. Society and politics still face corruption and are becoming more discriminatory against the male gender. Men are segregated, controlled, judged, and placed beneath women, who see this as the way things should be. The story is a reflection of the inequality in our society only twisting it, oppressing the men instead of the women. Comparing the patriarchy and matriarchy, it brings up the thought “is clever –but – ruthless better than nice –but –naïve? Didn’t clever -but –ruthless rule the planet for centuries, with uniformly displeasing results?” But in the scenario presented in the book, nice –but –naïve, doesn’t seem all that nice. Pent up feelings of outrage and injustice are given a voice, male and female, in the story. Characters are developed and shown to be ethical or not, regardless of gender. There are women and men fighting for the New Order of no disease, no crime, and peace. However, there are men and women fighting against it in the counterrevolution, believing that the old ways must be reinstituted if prosperity is ever to really come to society. The idea of who’s better isn’t solved with an easy answer, and the book doesn’t try to make it appear that it is. Cheryl Benard places horrendous actions of injustice before you and demands you to judge for yourself which is better, and begs you to “keep your hands clean, dear.” This novel is worthy of the Pulitzer Prize due to its strong statements about gender equality, justice, oppression, and human rights.