When It Changed

by Joanna Russ

A science fiction short story about an all-female human colony planet whose inhabitants produce offspring by chemically combining ova because all their males died in a plague 30 generations earlier.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, LGBT, School, Feminism, Fiction, Read For School

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny. She is best known for The Female Man, a novel combining utopian fiction and satire. [Wikipedia]

Reviews

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When It Changed is a very brief work of science fiction that packs a punch. (seriously, it's only 7 pages long but accomplishes a great deal)

Set on an all-female colony 30 generations after a plague killed off all the men, the main character is a woman in her 30's with a wife and three children. Through small details we learn how this community has created a functioning society, a government, and loving family structures. Teen girls come of age by going into the wilderness and killing a beast, and occupation is not determined by gendered expectations. But men from earth have arrived, with all their misogynist pride. Astonishment that women could do so well on their own, and certainty that said women will celebrate the return of men to their society.

The prose can feel a bit choppy at times, but ultimately this is a very successful short story. Interesting that it was written in the 1970's and still hits so strongly today. Definitely worth a read and makes me want to check out more of this author's work.

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can only say they were apes with human faces.

After 30 generations of female only society, that was the first impression of the sight of men when they returned to the thriving colony of Whileaway. They are obviously of our species but off, indescribably off, and my eyes could not and still cannot quite comprehend the lines of those alien bodies.

A short story, but dense with layers of significance. The world-building feels real, and is revealed casually.

Published in the 1970s, it must have been an eye-opener at the time for a woman to refer to another woman as "my wife."

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

What we have here is a very short, short story about an all female colony world. At some point a plague had removed the y-chromosome from their population. Then one day some blokes from Earth arrive and due to problems at home they want to spread their seed a little.

The story is however not the one you're expecting. 'When It Changed' is a little thought experiment, but to me it is more of a character study. How would this situation feel to a person living it out?

I regularly skip authors' notes, but this little story had quite an interesting afterword which I liked almost as much as the story itself.

Anyway I enjoyed it, but it's sooper-dooper short and while very interesting, it's not very compelling, which is something I definitely need for a micro story to have a big impression on me. I liked that the author cared very much about not giving us the expected, typical structure for this kind of imagined world.

Here's a bunch of quotes with the thoughts they triggered when I read them:

"I've seen her [Katy] take the whole car apart and put it together again in a day." - well, speaking from some experience, this seems unlikely, or at least extremely impressive.

"on a country road as bad as only our district can make them" - is this a universal feeling? Do we all think our neighbours' roads are better constructed than our own? I've been living pretty close to a state border for a while now and it has always felt obvious that my neighbouring state takes better care of their roads, but now I'm wondering if this is just a case of the grass always being greener on the other side!

"She has even gone hiking in the forests above the 48th parallel without firearms." - sorry to say it, but this sounds very American. I regularly hike for several days and would never consider a gun necessary. Ok, we don't have bears in Australia, but it is Australia. Ok, the better point is that this story is set on a different planet in a very different universe.

"There are thirty millions of us now." - I guess I was picturing a much smaller population, so this was a pleasant surprise.

"and he walked past Katy's rifle into the square of light coming from the door." - wait a minute, wait just a minute. I thought that Katy never carried a firearm.

It'll take you 15 minutes so I do recommend you check it out.

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I said "Yes, here you are," and smiled (feeling like a fool), and wondered seriously if male Earth people's minds worked so very differently from female Earth people's minds, but that couldn't be so or the race would have died out long ago.

This short-story has been on my radar since I read The Female Man and a friend said I needed to read this one as well. I don't know anything about the background for those two, but they are clearly set in the same universe and logically it feels like this was Russ working with the idea for Whileway for the first time which then got expanded in The Female Man, but I might be completely wrong about this and I'm don't want to do the research to be sure now.

Anyway, this story is about first contact between Whileway civilization and what is probably "our" Earth. On Whileway some 30 generations back, plague killed all males and since then only women are born. As a result, Whileway is a very no-nonsense lesbian civilization that isn't quite in industrial era yet, but that is also totally fine with that, preferring the slow sure progress over rapid one.

Anyway, in this story a delegation of Earth men meats with women from Whileway and... well, I guess you can safely guess how it looks like.


If you are curious about The Female Man, I think this is quite a good taster. It is much easier to orient in than TFM, because it's straightforward and short. On that note, it is really short, so don't expect much our of the story, but I quite enjoyed it, some passages were SO satisfactory to read. Katy trying to shoot the guy while screaming that this is the reason why she never even touched a gun, because she knew this would happen? So yeah, pretty great time, glad that I gave Russ another shot, will be continuing exploring her work!

Note: Don't confuse this book with this book: When It Changed: Science into Fiction, that anthology is named after this short-story, but it doesn't actually include it!


You can read the story for free here: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/view...

[Abby Brens · Rating 4 out of 5]

school read!! bro if men invaded my lesbian utopia i’d be so fucking pissed oh my goddddd, i thought the author captured the like inherent dread of interacting with men and being perceived by men so so well there’s a line where the main character is worried about her wife being taken as a fool and her daughter learning what it’s like to feel like she’s silly and unimportant and i was like FUUUUCK BROOOO anyways that’s my scholarly review🤗

[Domizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before.

Science-fiction? Honey, this is THE dream!!! I hope I'll still be alive one day to see it happen <3

[Ryan Schwartz · Rating 3 out of 5]

a no men planet!

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this because of a class in college, and it definitely shows some the 60's movement for women's liberation. It was written in 1972, I believe. A short story basically where only women are living on a planet called "Whileaway", male astronauts land on the planet, and assume they are what these woman want. The story epitomizes how these men think they are the best thing to 'save' the women. Women who are not interested in men. Quite chavaunistic these men.

[Kassandra Sweet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required Reading for an English class. Fantastic feminist short story! If you have 20 minutes give it a read.

[papapattinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

woah this was actually super interesting

[jordyn davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is like an episode of the twilight zone.

[gideon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
hot mechanic hunter dueling lesbians. women's anger. portrayal of women's frustration, rage, and fear in the face of imminent loss of autonomy felt so good & cathartic to read. a similar feeling to stone butch blues tbh. i love u lesbian authors <3

there was some dumb bioessentialism tho

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it, the first Joanna Russ I've read, keen for more.

[Ryan Roblez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories in “Science Fiction: Stories and Contexts” recite the same themes over and over. I’m reading it for a college class and growing tired of the repetition.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly adore Joanna Russ and it was wonderful to find myself on Whileaway again. Russ continuous packs a punch and is a fantastic writer. She was keeping it real her whole career.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

To anyone who's assigned this for a reading; I hope these random notes help ❤️

Science Fiction and Society: Going Viral

-primal societal norms such as duels and hunting being a part of becoming an adult
-a mix of rural and urban features in the Whileaway society
-all women society where men died off from a plague 600 years ago; now the threat of men is looming over the women
-regular customs like shaking hands are foreign to the women
-women must have multiple skills to be a functioning part of society and are only allowed to pursue the arts in old age
-society is moving at a self aware slow place and is not in a rush to redevelop an industrial age
-the men already perceive themselves as saviors to this society even though it's thriving without them
-the men are patronizing, condescending, and outright rude to the women
-women are even able to procreate without men which shows how obsolete they actually are in Whileaway
-the men want to recolonize for their benefit alone; hints of societal collapse on their world and a need for more diversity in the gene pool
-these men are the virus and will ultimately corrupt Whileaway either quickly with a hostile takeover or slowly drain it of its advances and serenity

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5/5

When It Changed is a short, seven-paged story about a civilization that is comprised entirely of women and what happens when men arrive and take control.

I found this story to be very easy to read, as it read quite modernly although it was written in 1972. I also found the premise to be interesting and engaging, and I loved the sapphic representation! While I am aware that this is a short story, I do wish it was a bit longer even if it was only one or two more, just enough for me to connect with the characters. But, even though it is a short as it is, the theme was still easy to grasp onto. I particularly found it fascinating how the author explores how sapphic couples are treated and stereotyped and accompanies this with more colonialism-type themes.

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

I have never heard of Joanna Russ before. This story was recommended to me after I had read "Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler and it is definitely in the same vein of introspective science fiction short stories that were ahead of their time. I love short sci-fi stories, they tend to be some of the most thought-provoking and terrifying explorations into humanity and socialization. I am glad to now have Joanna Russ on my radar for reading more science fiction.

This short story is very brief, but it packs a punch in introducing us to a group of women who live on a planet that is ravaged by battles and subterfuge, but is fully populated by women who have learned how to create life with the absence of men and with each other. Men have just arrived to their planet and are claiming that sexual equality now exists on Earth. Essentially, I hope the men leave these women alone, but it already shows the darkness lurking and waiting to possess, destroy, and claim this colony/planet of self-sufficient women.

[ecem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

what she said in the afterword about the left hand of darkness made me go 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

"I had read a very fine SF novel, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, in which all the characters are humanoid hermaphrodites, and was wondering at the obduracy of the English language, in which everybody is “he” or “she” and “it” is reserved for typewriters. But how can one call a hermaphrodite “he,” as Miss Le Guin does? I tried (in my head) changing all the masculine pronouns to feminine ones, and marveled at the difference. And then I wondered why Miss Le Guin’s native “hero” is male in every important sexual encounter of his life except that with the human man in the book."

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my speculative fiction class—feminist utopias are an outdated idea nowadays, but I really enjoyed it. It’s short and cuts to the point—very vivid. A lot of the other stories I was assigned were from a male perspective. It was great to actually read about an all-female utopia from the women’s POV lol. The part where the men were like “Don’t worry baby, you women don’t have to be alone anymore, we’re here now” was the best part. The women don’t care if you’re there or not, bud. 4/5 for enjoyment and amusement.

[pepita_de_calabaza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo he leído en formato audiolibro en castellano gracias a Los Cuentos de la Casa de la Bruja. No había leído nada de la autora aunque siempre me ha intrigado mucho su libro "El hombre hembra". Este relato nos sitúa en otro planeta donde los hombres se extinguieron hace seis siglos y las mujeres han creado una nueva sociedad sin presencia ni nostalgia de lo masculino. Pero acaban recibiendo una visita de un planeta vecino que podría cambiarlo todo. La pluma de Russ se hace enrevesada en ocasiones pero no deja indiferente. Seguiré descubriendo a la autora.

[Steve LaForest · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the very best stories ever! Feminist SF at its most evocative.

My rating system:
Since Goodreads only allows 1 to 5 stars (no half-stars), you have no option but to be ruthless. I reserve one star for a book that is a BOMB - or poor (equivalent to a letter grade of F, E, or at most D). Progressing upwards, 2 stars is equivalent to C (C -, C or C+), 3 stars (equals B - or B), 4 stars (equals B+ or A -), and 5 stars (equals A or A+). As a result, I maximize my rating space for good books, and don't waste half or more of that rating space on books that are of marginal quality.

[True :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m actually pissed off that I can’t give her five stars. I had a blast and f e e l i n g s. Buttttttttttt there were two kinda three points I cannot get past, and trust, I wanna ignore them and say it doesn’t matter, but I need my worlds and narratives to be flawless. This includes gaps in the worldbuilding and not info-dumping in ways that kinda work, and you want to forgive them, because it’s a s h o r t story and space or editing well fuck that it took half a star, now I’m sad…but she was really great.

4.5⭐️

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is really depressingly easy to see this happening. A society of women running perfectly fine for 30 generations getting completely interrupted and up-ended because men come back and think they're god's gift.
I'd like to think there's a follow up that has the society show these earther men the nearest launchpad and invite them to leave and never come back.

[farheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

really interesting conversation on gender roles. russ did a really great lecture on women in fiction and women writers and the limitations that comes with both and it really matched up well with this short story.

[Annabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that came out of those men's mouth made me so uncomfortable...so I have to say, well-written in that aspect for sure. Definitely an intersting topic; could we and would we live in a society without men if reproduction was not a problem?

[Echoes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was powerful. I wish there was a little more world building. I’d love to know more about the history and culture of the colony and what Earth is really like. But that ending left me with so many thoughts. I really enjoyed this one.

[Elizabeth]

ugh this makes me sick. men ruin everything.

incredibly strong narrative voice. greatly and swiftly shows us important characteristics of our main characters. so unfortunately real in how it captures the condescension of how men can speak to women and its effect. gosh.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh... Kind of meh, for me the author fells biased...

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in an anthology reviewed here: http://www.skjam.com/2016/09/18/book-...