Si yo fuera un hombre

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Si yo fuera un hombre y otros relatos recoge historias cortas, de estilo preciso y a menudo cargadas de ironía, cuyo común denominador es la urgente necesidad de un giro drástico, un corte en las relaciones de hombres y mujeres para la realización personal. Los protagonistas, casi siempre mujeres, acaban tomando las riendas de su existencia mediante un acto de justicia.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Feminism, Womens, American, Read For School

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of post-partum depression.

She was the daughter of Frederic B. Perkins.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"As for Mother Eve- I wasn't there and can't deny the story, but I will say this. If she brought evil into the world, we men have had the lion's share of keeping it going ever since- how about that?"

Quick read, feminist thoughts in a time when it was necessary.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with The Yellow Wallpaper last year, and after recently reading an article that Gilman wrote about why she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper (a brilliant article, I might add), I was definitely prompted to read more of her short stories. If I Were a Man is one I can across fairly quickly after deciding this, and I definitely have zero regrets in going for this one.

The writing was high quality and straight forward, the story was engrossing, and the message is one that still rings true (although in different ways) today. It was fascinating to see an early 20th century feminist's view of male privilege, and to see her make note of the little things she was so intrigued by while inhabiting a male body. It's amazing that a hundred years have passed, and we still don't have real pockets.

I would definitely recommend this (and anything by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that I have read thus far) to anyone looking for a good short story, and for anyone looking for some high quality first wave feminist fiction.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892), another story of the spaces between women and men. A woman, mildly frustrated by her husband's intransigence about a bill, wishes she were a man. Instantly her mind is now operating within her husband's body hurrying to the train and work. She is a man! Feeling the sudden differences in clothing, body, mind. Pockets! Sitting in the smoking car encountering the revelatory discussions men (apparently) have when women aren't around. "If I Were a Man" is only a quick six pages, but could've been drawn out valuably for many more. The story doesn't have the emotional jolt of "The Yellow Wallpaper," but has its own whimsical weight. Gilman may have wanted simply to spark thoughts, plant a seed, start a conversation. An interesting glimpse of 1914. [4★]

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freely available here: https://www.libraryofshortstories.com...

Poor housewife Mollie wishes herself into the body of her husband, Gerald, as he's leaving for the train to work. And of course, the first things she admires are the sensible shoes and pockets! Gotta love it, because I still feel the same way when I'm told I'm wearing "sensible lesbian shoes" and I am miffed my skirt has no pockets!

[Alba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le doy 3 estrellas. El relato de El papel amarillo es fantástico, y en general son todos muy buenos. El único problema es mi incapacidad para conectar con los relatos, soy de novela claramente.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 en realidad.
«Mollie era (como es de esperar). Era uno de esos preciosos ejemplares de lo que respetuosamente suele denominarse —una mujer de verdad—. Por supuesto, era pequeña —ninguna mujer de verdad debería ser grande—. También era guapa —ninguna mujer de verdad podría ser fea—. Extravagante, caprichosa, de humor cambiante, adicta a la ropa bonita que siempre le sienta bien, con todo lo esotérico de la frase (esto no se refiere a los vestidos en absoluto —ellos no pueden sentarla—, sino a esa gracia tan especial que consiste en ponérselos y pasearlos por ahí, y que tan solo se les concede a unas pocas, por lo visto).»
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
SI YO FUERA UN HOMBRE

Charlotte Perkins Gilman fue una prominente feminista, suffragette, activista social, prolífica escritora, editora y artista.
Su concepto del feminismo sirvió como modelo a las siguientes generaciones gracias a sus ideas poco ortodoxas y su forma de vida.

Este es mi primer acercamiento a la autora, y he de decir que solo un relato (de 9 que componen el libro) me ha fascinado, EL PAPEL AMARILLO, el cual refleja una historia semiautográfica, en la que relata la realidad del síndrome posparto. Un relato que roza el terror psicológico, al menos en mi caso. Muy perturbador, menos mal que también breve.

Aquí os muestro los títulos que lo componen junto con mis puntuaciones:

🧹CUANDO ERA UNA BRUJA (4⭐)
🖌️LO INESPERADO (2⭐)
👒SI YO FUERA UN HOMBRE (3⭐)
🏕️ LA CABAÑITA (2⭐)
🧶LA FUGA (2⭐)
👶EL PAPEL AMARILLO (5🌟)
🎃ESE EXTRAÑO TESORO (2⭐)
🥃ABANDONADO (2⭐)
👥EXILIADA (2.5⭐)

[Aracne Mileto · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Una madre antinatural - 5 estrellas
*Cuando era una bruja - 3.8 estrellas
*Lo inesperado - 3.5 estrellas
*La cabañita - 3 estrellas
*La fuga - 3.5 estrellas
*Ese extraño tesoro - 4 estrellas

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fear this ate

[Lauren Dillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do women really want? Charlotte Perkins Gilman knew - pockets!

"These pockets came as a revelation. Of course she had known they were there, had
counted them, made fun of them, mended them, even envied them; but she never had
dreamed of how it felt to have pockets.
Behind her newspaper she let her consciousness, that odd mingled consciousness, rove
from pocket to pocket, realizing the armored assurance of having all those things at hand,
instantly get-at-able, ready to meet emergencies."

And yet, over 100 years later, women's clothing still doesn't have adequate pockets! Of course, why would women need pockets? It's not as though they need to carry around the keys to the patriarchy or anything (eye roll).
This book was a feminist win for me, especially since it was written in 1914. I mean, wow! The gall of this woman to suggest that everything in society, down to the clothing, puts women at a sexist disadvantage! I think I'm a fan of this author.
As always with short stories, I felt that it ended abruptly and that something was missing, so it didn't quite get 5 stars with me... maybe I just don't 'get' short stories.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thing to pop into my head when reading the title was Beyonce's song If I were A Boy

Second thing to come to mind: THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1914. Let that sink in prior to reading this. This is a bold piece of work for this time period. Even now, women aren't treated completely equal but back then?? Women were just objects and something for men to complain about and control. I have so many thoughts on what this story brings up about the simplest way that men controlled women but I don't have the time. Instead, I want to point out the whole woman didn't have pockets in their clothes - so they couldn't carry money - men complained that women always asked for money but they didn't allow them to work either.. see the point she was making? I know her other work also holds these types of themes (I enjoyed the Yellow Wallpaper as well as others) but this one just sat different for me.

Anyway - I wouldn't call myself a feminist at all but it does amaze me that she published this in this time period. Brave woman. Definitely worth the read.

[The Wrath of Eleny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little short story about different gendered perspectives and how it takes putting pride aside to take a step towards change.

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought all the short stories were amazing. I'm impressed to get so immersed in such a short story. Also I love the writer's perspectives on women and their positions in the world of her day, which is sadly similar to the world of today. Gilman's style is witty, funny and easy to read, while also being subtle and ironic; she conveys social lessons quite poignantly in the guise of fiction. These stories are a bit dated in context, but the societal observations she is making are still relevant until now.

[Lavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pockets

[Rikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Charlotte Perkins Gilman so fucking much.

This is a flash-fiction platform for delivering in a simple, condensed fashion the glorious and cutting analyses Gilman explicated in Our Androcentric Culture, which I highly recommend. This could be read first or second, and both highly complement the other. I would argue that Our Androcentric Culture is required reading to more completely understand this piece. Add as well Herland for further illumination on her sentiment about hairstyles assigned to females, among other patriarchal mundanity.

If you are already familiar with gender as femininity and masculinity, as the patriarchal tool of sex-based oppression that facilitates and perperuates the subordination of females to males along discrete, hierarchical sex classes, then this short story will be an absolute pleasure for you, at once quenching your thirst for hearing from another feminist who "gets it" and further whetting your appetite for women's liberation.

If you hail from the neoliberal crowd, where personal choice reigns supreme and gender is an innate identity and sex is a spectrum, you will likely confuse this as a piece about a transman, particularly at this passage:

If ever there was a true woman it was Mollie Mathewson, yet she was wishing heart and soul she was a man.

        And all of a sudden she was!

        She was Gerald, walking down the path so erect and square-shouldered, [....]

        A man! Really a man-with only enough subconscious memory of herself remaining to make her recognize the differences.

        At first there was a funny sense of size and weight and extra thickness, the feet and hands seemed strangely large, and her long, straight, free legs swung forward at a gait that made her feel as if on stilts.

        This presently passed, and in its place, growing all day, wherever she went, came a new and delightful feeling of being the right size."

Rather than this being about Mollie Mathewson having been born in the wrong body, this is about Mollie Mathewson having been born into the wrong society. Specifically, a misogynous one. One in which she, like all other girls and women, have been raised to feel chronically less-than.

And that's what CPG explores throughout this: The revelations Mollie makes through Gerald's eyes, after having suddenly gained all his life experience, superior perspective, and--gasp!--pockets!

Gilman is never to be missed, imo, especially when it comes to her brilliant and unfortunately timeless critical feminist analysis of gender. Please, if you haven't already--and you're likely to have not, given how buried she is aside from The Yellow Wall-Paper--please read Our Androcentric Culture. Or at the very least start with this <4k-word short!

This piece reminds us of the importance of reading from our foremothers and -sisters: so that we can learn or be reminded of how so very little has changed, of how similar and consistent our wants and needs are, of the solutions we continue to dream up, only to have them forgotten--and, most importantly, why.

(Edit: Removed Goodreads book links because they worked on desktop but broke for mobile.)

[alina boop · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Boyhood—its desires and dreams, ambitions. Young manhood—working tremendously for the wherewithal to make a home—for her.”

“She began to struggle violently with this large dominant masculine consciousness. She remembered with sudden clearness things she had read, lectures she had heard, and resented with increasing intensity this serene masculine preoccupation with the male point of view.”

The spheres colliding… great short story.

[Maslela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't very impressed with this story. It is a strange but simple and to the point take on feminism. Her writing is as lovely as always but suppose I am not a fan of the topic very much and thought it weird.

[itselv]

And we’re yet to have pockets

[Aida Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

👏🏻Es un libro con 9 relatos para leer y releer.

Escritos con gran ironía ,con un trasfondo claramente feminista,que te hace sacar una sonrisa a pesar de las situaciones tan “humillantes”que vivían las mujeres de la época .Sin duda la pluma es interesante,inteligente y mordaz.Convierte situaciones cotidianas en un ejercicio de reflexión con una lectura amena .

📌Que nadie piense que es un libro “sencillo “ tras una lectura sencilla ,se esconden muchas capas ,se cuenta mucho más que un relato.

💜”Cuando era una bruja”.Tiene muuuucha ironía y trata muchos temas tabú de la época ,padecidos por la mujer,solo por ser:MUJER.

💜”Ese extraño tesoro”.Trata un tema muy típico ,que raramente se trata de forma abierta: la mujer si quería salir de su casa y divertirse tenía que ir con un hombre...el fin...si el hombre quería casarse...si ella decía que no a la propuesta de matrimonio y osaba hacerlo con varios pretendientes...

💜”Abandonado”.Como lo disfrute...que gran mujer es la protagonista de este relato👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

💜”Exiliada”.Es duro,trata el tema de los maridos con doble vida.

💛”El papel amarillo “.De los más conocidos de la autora,se basa en su experiencia con la depresión postparto.Te hace ver lo mal asesoradas que hemos estado las mujeres durante años por los médicos ,al punto de desembocar en enfermedades mentales.

📚Las ilustraciones interiores de #colesphillips son para enmarcar.Si le sumas una preciosa portada con un cuidado interior ,en cada relato hay unas preciosas ilustraciones para empezar y terminar (enamorada estoy de las flechas del final de cada uno).Y los ya esperados marca páginas con que nos obsequia la editorial 🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝🔝

Por estas cosas y por la cuidada selección de textos sin duda Uve books es mi editorial fetiche .

[Sukhmanjot Kaur Dhaliwal · Rating 2 out of 5]

😓 where to start... well i first read 'The yellow wallpaper' by gilman when i was travelling and it was a long journey and honestly i was really intrigued... i thought it was wonderfully written...and it gave me quite a depression. So i had another short story of her at hand... i thought why now?
It started of nicely i wd say.... i really thought the point about the pockets was very intriguing and made a strong impact...while being subtle.
But from then on it just started to disintegrate. I think she made a great point of how women feel and the various unrealistic standards that society holds them ( which is quite hypothetical ) but as for depicting the male point of view i think she didn't do a good job... it seemed outright biased ( which from the time she was living in... is very understandable). But the problem is that it was very presumptive. She took the male point of view quite granted. It generalised how they think , feel, walk , act, interact...etc etc etc. It was very basic and standard. I have always been fascinated by how humans act and think abd express things...and what i understood till now is that we can't take it for granted... we can't generalise it. She did not show what being a man is like...rather it was a woman's projection ( or more correctly her projection) of what they might be like. And i personally felt taht yellow wallpaper was crafted much more masterfully than this. But i guess as i hv said many times... a reader must know what to take away from a book... and i took what i felt was depicted with much more authenticity. I still like her style and i think i wd like to read more of her works ...

[Federico DN · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible.

Not worth reviewing it.

For the moment at least.

It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.

-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1914] [7p] [Fiction] [Not Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------

★★★★☆ The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories <--
★★★☆☆ The Yellow Wallpaper

-----------------------------------------------

Horrible.

No vale la pena reseñarlo.

Al menos por ahora.

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.

-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1914] [7p] [Ficción] [No Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the stories from The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings, of which I thought all the short stories were extraordinary - 5 stars for all of them. Each story takes a simple concept of female life, and probes at it, and what-ifs it, and exposes it until it reaches one of many ultimate conclusions. Gilman's style is witty and easy to read, while also being subtle and ironic; she conveys social lessons quite poignantly in the guise of fiction. These stories are a bit dated in context, but the societal observations she is making are still relevant over 100 years later; what a forward thinker. I can't get enough of this author!

[Maria Ivars · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this tale some days ago, and I was sure the author was going to leave an imprint on me once again.
You can read it in one sitting and, although some described realities are still perceived these days, I believe this piece reflects quite well the conditions that women had to bear in the past.

I encourage you all to give it a chance!!!

[Space Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

•Spanish:

Mollie es la esposa perfecta, en todos los aspectos, pero en el fondo siempre piensa "¿Y sí fuera hombre?". Ella obtiene un día completo como hombre en un momento histórico donde las mujeres solo tienen una vida casera. Y todo lo que no tiene lo ve a través de los ojos de su esposo.

¿Qué es lo que nosotras las mujeres queremos? BOLSILLOS 🤣 Me hizo reír muchísimo cuando la autora hablo de esto, es un cuento de 1914 pero aún así hablo de lo increíble que son los bolsillos. Nunca pensé que encontraría algo que me pueda identificar en un texto tan viejo.

•English:
Mollie is the perfect traditional wife, but she always thinks "What if I was man?" How would change my life if I was a man?"

She experience only for a day to be a man. She see everything that she doesn't have in her life through her husband's eyes.

It doesn't matter in what time, what a woman wants? BIG POCKETS!! or any pocket 😂 This makes me laugh soo much, this story is from 1914 and still she's talking on how great are pockets. I didn't think I would relate that much because it's a really old text.

[maria&#x1f90d; · Rating 4 out of 5]

'It's time we woke up,' pursued Gerald, still inwardly urged to unfamiliar speech. 'Women are pretty much people, seems to me. I know they dress like fools−but who's to blame for that? We invent all those idiotic hats of theirs,
and design their crazy fashions, and, what's more, if a woman is courageous enough to wear common−sense clothes and shoes which of us wants to dance with her?

'Yes, we blame them for grafting on us, but are we willing to let our wives work? We are not.

It hurts our pride, that's all. We are always criticizing them for making mercenary marriages, but what do we call a girl who marries a chump with no money? Just a poor fool, that's all. And they know it.
'
As for Mother Eve I wasn't there and can't deny the story, but I will say this. If she brought evil into the world, we men have had the lion's share of keeping it going ever since how about that?'

[Ru · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I Were A Man follows Mollie, a frustrated wife, and her day seeing into the thoughts and through the eyes of her husband.

Another absolutely fine short story from Gilman! Of all the short stories I rated around 3 stars, this one had the least interesting or unusual message, but for the time I can assume it was still very unconventional.
Whilst I wish it had provided more fascinating insights, the conversation and defense of women by Gerald was engaging and intelligent. I just wish this one had taken the concept a bit further and expanded upon it.

[Mari Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories from a feminist mind in times where the concept wasn’t even a thought. In a era where women where treated as weak and expected to be taking care of the house, Charlotte Perkins had a mind way ahead of her times and was brave enough to write about it.

Liked that the book includes The Yellow Paper story.

[Kole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost nothing happens. A man thinks about women and has a conversation about them with other men. The end. The perspective in this short story is… quirky. It’s told from the point of view of a woman who lives from the point of view of her husband. If that sounds confusing, well, that’s because it is.

[Yolanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story I read for a library chat event and I really enjoyed it and the event for the most part...I don't know where my notes are from that event but I remember during it a man was complaining about having to work. 🙄 I remember explaining to him that men created a system where men have to work so that they can have some value because they don't have inherent value like women do, therefore if he wanted to complain about having to work/provide/support/etc for a family then he should blame and/or complain to a group of men, not the group of women that were in the event. None of us were trying to hear it, two other women immediately said, "well would you have preferred to be born a woman and have to give birth instead?" He shut up real quick. He also had a lot to say about the small part of religion that was brought up in the story about Eve, and me bringing up men having to toil the Earth, while women have to suffer the pain of childbirth because of Eve's "sin". However, as soon as I came on camera and he saw me, he shut up again.


**Can read short story here

[Danyel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Charlotte Gilman's Herland awhile ago and was less than thrilled. This short story was a bit better. I am a huge fan of thought experiments and she provided an important critique of white, western masculinity in her epoch.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is straightforward and accessible. Gender roles and issues have changed dramatically; yet, misogyny is still a prevalent attitude throughout various cultures.

A hundred years does not necessarily make it irrelevant.