REVIEW from THE VILLAGE VILLAGER by LINDA LAVISH

  When I was given Sheri Tepper's novel, Gate to Women's Country, to read,
I was looking forward to a book which would allow me, as a woman, a glimpse
into the future which men are destined to create.  A world that has been
destroyed by lust, greed, violence and pride.  She gives me such a world
and this world is -- finally -- controlled by women.  But unfortunately,
instead of Heaven, Tepper gives us Hell.  While correctly seeing how both
unbridled militarism and religious fantaticism lead to a world without
sweetness and a world without light, Tepper's women are nothing more than
female versions of Nazi storm troopers.  In fact, their entire method of
controlling and using men smacks of Nazi biological experimentation.  

  I see several flaws in Tepper's vision of the future.  First of all,
women have all the power and all the control, but they still allow men to
direct their lives.  All of their genetic research results in appeasing the
bloated egos of one group of men (the soliders) while using the genetic
resources of another group of men (the servitors).  So instead of women
ruling the world entirely independent of men, Tepper's heroines make one
concession after another until it is plain to see that men actually control
the world they inhabit.  

  Second, Tepper's women are either stupid, stereotypes of women (the bimbo)
or just plain boring.  Our heroine, Stavia, has as much passion and life as
a turnip.  Her mother, Morgot, is as anal and as authoritarian as any man
could be.  She is cold, manipulative, power-hungry and totally wihout
feeling or compassion.  Tepper's women don't sing and laugh or dance in a
celebration of life.  At the same time, until Tank Girl or Aeon Flux, they
don't fight back either, at least without the direct assistance of men.  I
came to this novel looking for women I could.  Instead, I find that Tepper
has portrayed her women of the future in such a manner that gives every
sexist pesudo-intelletual in the country one more reason to be suspicious
of women.

  Third, I believe that Tepper herself mistrusts women.  A world without
men would be unthinkable to her.  Why?  I think Tepper actually hates
women -- as an extension of her own self-hatred.  This is the reason she
panders to men and the entire concept of white male dominance.  Proof of
this can be seen in her statement that lesbians can be eliminated through
genetic engineering.  In addition, there are no people of color in her
world so there are no women of color. This lack of cultural diversity in
turn results in the desolate, inhuman, lifeless existence that she calls
Women's Country, a country that is run like a Nazi prisoner of war camp
where only those who are white and male have any power at all.

  If I hadn't met her myself, I would have thought that Sheri Tepper was
actually a man writing to portray women in the most negative light possible.
I not only recommend against reading this terrible excuse for a novel, I
would even consider writing to her publisher demanding that they publsih no
more novels by this self-hating apologist for the power of men over every
aspect of our lives.