Die Töchter Egalias

by Gerd Brantenberg

A "must read" for any woman who believes that she can do anything a man can with more style and flair. Smirk.

Genres: Feminism, Fiction, Science Fiction, Classics, Satire, Gender, Gender Studies

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg is a Norwegian author, teacher, and feminist writer. She is also the cousin of radio and TV entertainer Lars Mjøen.

Brantenberg was born in Oslo, but grew up in Fredrikstad. She studied English, History, and Sociology in London, Edinburgh, and Oslo. She has an English hovedfag (main subject, comparable to a Master), from the University of Oslo, where she also studied history and political science.
Since 1982 she has been a writer full-time.

She worked from 1972-1983 in the Women's House in Oslo. She was a board member of the Norway's first association for homosexual people Forbundet av 1948, the precursor to the Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation. She has established women's shelters and has worked in Lesbisk bevegelse (Lesbian movement) in both Oslo and Copenhagen. In 1978 she founded a literary Women's Forum with the purpose of encouraging women to write and publish. She has published 10 novels, 2 plays, 2 translations, and many political songs, and has contributed to numerous anthologies.

Her most famous novel is Egalias døtre ("The Daughters of Egalia"), which was published in 1977 in Norway. In the novel the female is defined as the normal and the male as the abnormal, subjugated sex. All words that are normally in masculine form are given in a feminine form, and vice versa.

Reviews

[Robynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, you think our society's not sexist? Wait 'til you read this book. The author turns every aspect of our society that has any sort of a gender tinge to it inside out. Get ready to rethink the language that we use, the rituals that we observe, and the clothes that we wear.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in my ultra-feminist college days and periodically go back to re-read it. It's funny how we don't think of many traditions in our society as 'sexist' but when we read it in the inverse (a young boy is expected to have his first sexual experience during a prom-type event, and the older, more experienced women are very aggressive in their pursuit) it sounds ridiculous. It is entertaining until you realize how ingrained sexism is in our society.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me angry, which I'm sure is the point. Written in the 1970s to illuminate how sexist current society was, it effectively shows how ridiculous some of the inequalities really are, and how much of it we just ACCEPT (my shift in tense is intentional, since not a lot has changed since then). I got angriest for the examples I hadn't really thought of until now, but I grew up incredibly repressed in my home and my religion just by virtue of my gender, so it felt personal.

I would say that despite this book being over thirty years old, a lot of it still resonates with the undercurrents of societal expectations these days, even if on paper we have moved toward equality in some regions. I have yet to see men ever to have the same beauty expectation in a heterosexual relationship though, despite the "metrosexual" movement, and that was the issue that was most glaring to me throughout this book. I had to notice it, when the men (menwim) were being whistled at and being trivialized as "only being interested in fashion." I feel like I've had a conversation like that lately, where I had to fight to prove that I had intelligence, a fight I was expected to make since the assumption was the opposite.

Maybe I shouldn't write cranky reviews, but this book will definitely make you think.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

During my Psychology studies, the gender seminars offered were by far my favorite elective courses, and I took a fair amount of them. This book has been on my radar since a girl I held a presentation with in one of them recommended it to me—I'm convinced I never would've heard of it otherwise. From the get-go, it sounded intriguing, but something I'd have to be in the right mood for, so it ended up sitting on my to-be-read-list for five years, and on my shelf for two. The mood for feminist lit usually strikes me around International Women's Day, and this year this is the one I ended up picking off the shelf.

As the subtitle suggests, this is a thought-provoking, satirical, and feminist take on a gender-bent "utopia": In matriarchal Egalia, the female/woman (fele/wom) is the "norm", while the male/man (mafele/manwom) is the subjugated sex. What was remarkable about it wasn't so much the plot itself, but how it played with the language, turning any word or phrase with a gendered tinge to it on its head. The gender-swapped vocabulary makes for an awkward, challenging reading experience, but it's integral to the book, and the best way Brantenberg could've chosen to highlight her point: How much inherent bias is present in our culture and language; any language—remember, this was written in Norwegian. It worked in the English translation I read. I speak fluent Italian and German, and that would work perfectly well, too. All over the world, language is centered around men, because men define the world.

But cultural aspects were inverted as well: Manwim are the ones who must groom themselves fastidiously and wear an uncomfortable and expensive penis bra (peho) to hold it up and make it more aesthetically appealing to the fele gaze. Manwim's sexuality is also seen as one and the same with reproduction (while wim are perfectly capable of attaining sexual pleasure without the danger of impregnation), which is why they are the ones who must take the pill; they are the ones who must care for the children; inheritance passes down the fele line—anything else is unthinkable. While wim are rough, career-driven, and dominant in every aspect of their lives, menwim are the nurturing gender who must care for the family (when one is lucky enough to be offered fatherhood-protection by a wom). A Manwom is routinely subjected to sexist talk, cat-calling, a constant belittling of his opinion (when he even gets a word into a conversation), and sexual violence.

In the beginning, it's kind of amusing. But as you keep reading, you realize just how chilling it all really is. Mind you, it's very extreme in the stereotypes that are turned upside-down—gender norms we associate with the 1950s that we've thankfully somewhat left behind us—but I find that to be effective, a satire should be extreme to successfully mock and ridicule the status-quo. Viewed in its historical context, the plot about the masculist movement is also an interesting take on the women's lib movement of the 60s-70s. Being a satire, it doesn't offer a solution to the question of inequality, and it doesn't posit that a matriarchy would be better than the patriarchy we live in: It simply raises a mirror to society and makes you wonder why we accept things the way they are, and I promise that it'll provide the reader an at least small moment of revelation.

The writing itself is a bit choppy. I'm not sure if this was due to the translation, but I don't think so; there were sudden shifts in time that you found out about at some point from context, and the transitions in the narrative often just weren't very smooth. I also appreciate well-done satires, but I find them more punching as short stories or novellas; that's personal preference though. Parts of it (plot details, but also the tone it's written in) are definitely a little dated, although the underlying ideas and main criticisms (unfortunately) still apply today. For these reasons, I was torn between a three and four star rating, but I've decided to round up despite its flaws—it gets you to really think about the language we use, and the cultural traditions and "gender characteristics" we accept as the norm, all while pointing out how ridiculous some of these beliefs really are in a very tongue-in-cheek manner that will undoubtedly make an impression on the reader. Egalias's Daughters is meant to make you laugh while making you angry; it did those things for me, so it deserves the higher rating.

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es Tan bueno q da escalofríos. Nos cuentan la historia de Egalia que vendría a ser un mundo espejo en el q la sociedad es un matriarcado con todo lo q ello implica.
Es sorprendente y sumamente original como el cambio de roles afecta a múltiples facetas de la vida incluida el lenguaje.
Ideal para descubrir machismos interiorizados q en el rol de un hombre sueñan sencillamente ridículos.
Lo haría lectura obligatoria de instituto y de vida.
Altamente recomendable. El único pero? Que está descatalogado...

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a time in the 70s when menwim’s lib was treated with outrage and condescension. When the menwim-libbers threatened to crush the matriarchy, habitually burning their pehos at demonstrations, the wim in charge of the superstructure cowering in their castles and using scorn via the media to defuse the threat. Now times are different. Mothers For Justice campaigners climb up London landmarks in supershero costumes demanding more rights over their children in divorces. Sexism is scrutinised at the microscopic level and rage-waves are sent throughout the internet in continuous and loud protest. For the fact is the dream of equal does not exist until the current structure can be broken down and rebuilt. And until Simona Cowell is fired from a cannonball into the Ganges (this has nothing to do with sexism per se—a personal request). This excellent non-fiction account of the menwib movement depicts the struggle during the unliberated sixties and beyond from the POV of Petronius and his family, ignited by a fearless menwim teacher who dared to buck the school conventions. Incendiary material.

[Laurelas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarquable - c'est un livre absolument remarquable, furieusement d'actualité alors qu'il a pourtant été publié en 1977 pour la première fois (assez honteux qu'il ait fallu attendre 2022 pour une traduction française d'ailleurs...) et aussi inventif, qu'incisif et drôle.

Je dois bien avouer que la première partie du livre me laissait une drôle d'impression. Ici, les femmes sont le groupe dominant, et moi qui m'attendais un peu à autre chose, j'ai découvert qu'elles avaient tout simplement tous les attributs (sociaux mais aussi physiques) des hommes de notre propre société. Qu'il s'agisse de prédation sexuelle, de pouvoir, de comportements violents, elles étaient en tout point pareilles aux hommes...

Les hommes, eux, sont aussi passifs, exploités et malheureux que les femmes peuvent l'être dans notre société.

Bref, la seconde partie, avec le "réveil masculiniste" (qui fait bien sûr écho au féminisme de notre monde) m'a beaucoup plus plu, mais je n'en dis pas plus...

Véritable satire de notre monde patriarcal, le roman est traversé à la fois de moments d'un comique indéniable que de moments d'une grande noirceur. Et évidemment, je ne peux pas faire l'impasse sur tout le travail linguistique qui est opéré : les êtres humains y sont des "êtres fumains", en Égalie on utilise bien entendu le féminin neutre (ce qui surprend au début de la lecture, et oblige le cerveau à faire une petite gymnastique) et si vous en avez "rien à foutre" dites plutôt que vous en avez "rien à cypriner" !

Une lecture surprenante, très actuelle et un indispensable (à mon sens) d'une bibliothèque féministe.

Seuls quelques longueurs et passages un peu ennuyeux parsèment le roman, mais mis à part ça, il est vraiment très bien, vous l'aurez compris.

[Elon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oj, vilken svår bok att recensera.
Dels för att den inte är skriven som skönlitterärt verk i första hand, utan snarare ett politiskt verk. Och det märks. Det kan ligga i översättningen, men det kan också ligga i Gerds skrivstil, det är svårt att avgöra. Dessutom är boken skriven 1977, och presenterar ett samhälle som kan vara svårt att förstå om man inte levde under 70- & 80-talet. De 41 åren mellan att den skrevs och att jag läser den har däremot inte förtagit dess poäng. Det är plågsamt att inse att delar som känns fullt orimliga och nästintill galna känns nästintill försvarbara så fort man i huvudet byter kön på karaktärerna. Boken är otroligt lättläst i sig, förutom en uppsjö av nya ord som man själv behöver man-ifiera för att förstå, och berättelsen är egentligen inget speciellt, utan det är språkets och samhällets presentation som är hela bokens poäng. Och där lyckas den!
Jag kan inte hylla boken som ett litterärt mästerverk, men det är ett fantastiskt tankeexperiment som alla borde läsa, och reflektera kring.

[Krazykiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menwim can't wear trousers, there wouldn't be room in there for their penises and shamebags!

Cleaning in the kitchen, we have this one shelf that tends to accumulate... stuff. And on it, I found my copy of this book, and realised I'd never reviewed it. I also realised, bye-the-bye, that to have got on that shelf, my daughter must have had it in the kitchen, which somehow makes me quite proud, because this is not obviously a book a 15 year old girl would pick up, but it is one that perhaps more should read.

The plot is simple, almost non-existent, although pleasant enough. A coming of age story, a young man making forays into the adult world, finding out it's not all a bed of roses, and just "being a grown-up" doesn't mean you get what you want. The plot is not the point though.

What Brantenberg did, is simply flip the genders. On absolutely everything. Every place in our language, clothing, rituals, societal makeup, everywhere. I imagine she wrote a simple story about a young woman learning about feminism in the 70's, and then simply reversed everything, and therein lies the satire.

Instead of men and women, we have wim, and manwim. Adolescent boys are taken on excruciating expeditions with their stay-at-home-dad's to the mall to buy their first peho's, and then complain how stupid and uncomfortable it is to have to cram their penises into those stupid boxes. The symbols of sporting prowess are the symbols of menstruation, not masculinity.

The genius is that the author more or less doesn't comment on most of it, it just is what it is. And there's a lot of things that are so utterly invisible to us most of the time, but are cringe-worthy when they have a light shone on them in this way.

Of course it's dated, in that it was written in the 70's, and it is oh so very 70's in tone. A lot has changed, but then, a lot hasn't.

The only real reason to not read this, is that the language can be a little difficult. I'm not exactly a feminist scholar, there's probably a lot more to say about this than I can manage. But I do think this is something that is very worth picking up if you run across a copy. As an adult woman, old enough to remember the time depicted here, even for me the depth of impact gender has on language was illuminating in itself. The writing is otherwise clear enough that you get the hang of the reversal within a chapter or two. I say that having read it in Swedish, which like the author's native Norwegian, has neutral gender pronouns available which to some extent mute the effect of biological sex. Reading it again in English made the whole thing even stronger.

Recommended to: Everyone who says they are a feminist, everyone who says they are not a feminist, everyone who is in favour of gender equality, and everyone who is a member of a dominant social class (here's looking at you, white middle class men) and therefore has no actual idea what it feels like to not be that. And every teenager, ever.

You may not precisely enjoy it (or you might, the characters are quite engaging, and there are places it's drop dead funny), but I don't think it's possible to read this book without experiencing at least a small moment of revelation.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nej, alltså, jag är så besviken på den här boken. Jag vill så himla gärna kunna ge den ett högt betyg men det enda som gjorde att jag ens läste ut den (och att den ändå fick två stjärnor) var att premissen är så intressant och rolig. Ett matriark-samhälle där kvinnor är bröliga svin som går utan tröjor och män är väna och inställsamma med pehå, jag var verkligen säker att jag skulle älska den.

Tyvärr är den nästan chockerande dåligt utförd, med tråkig, ointressant och ofärdig världsbyggnad, tråkigt, värdelöst språk, tråkiga karaktärer och en sån himla tråkig och hattig och oengagerande story. Dessutom är det en massa småmissar med felaktiga meningarbyggnader, missade citattecken, konstiga översättningar etc etc.

Jag tror dock att det fallerar, som nästan alltid för mig, på att den är så förskräckligt dåligt skriven, det var liksom outhärdligt att läsa den. Det läggs ner tid på onödig dialog och så mycket saker som hade potential att vara intressant blir SÅ TRÅKIGT. Allting är platt, karaktärerna ensidiga, händelser ologiska, känslor outvecklade och outforskade. Den kändes som ett första utkast som av misstag publicerades, någonting som i grunden har fantastisk potential men som istället slaktades totalt.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if there was a matriarch, men ate the Pill, wore pehos ("The boys said it was awkward and uncomfortable, cramming your penis into that stupid box. And it was so impractical when you had to pee.")
and dressed in tiny clothes designed to show off your body?
The book is not just an interesting - sometimes absolutely hilarious, sometimes tragic - role reversal, but is also a commentary on the supposed neutrality of language.
Eg
wom, wim: woman, women
manwom, manwim: man, men
mafele: male
fele: female
Brantenberg makes some interesting points, but is very dated (it was published in the mid-70´s).

[Iselin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dette var en tankevekker. Å snu noe på hodet til det ekstreme viser seg å være den absolutt beste måten å få folk til å tenke over kjønnsrollene i samfunnet på. (Og dette kommer fra noen som bruker ganske mye tid på det allerede.) Det var som om det gikk et lys opp for meg hver gang boken tok opp en liten ting (som var en del av et mye større, undertrykkende system) og fikk meg til å relatere det til noe i vår virkelighet. Det er virkelig en kreativ bok, og alle nyordene (f. eks. dam, kvinnesker, herken, mone) la til noe viktig i historien. World-building? Yes. Veldig bra jobba med bakgrunnshistorikken og gode, solide forklaringer på hvorfor ting var som det var. Jeg hadde håpet på LITT mer histore (f. eks. hvorfor var vi i år 500-og-noe, hadde menn hatt makten før, hvordan var det i nabostaten Palluria osv.) men jeg aksepterer det vi fikk. Min største kritkk er egentlig at jeg synes noen av episodene var litt usammenhengende og boka litt merkelig bygd opp. That's all.
I begynnelsen synes jeg egentlig det var ganske morsom lesning, men jo mer jeg leste, jo mer ukomfortabel ble jeg. Twisten på slutten var ganske underholdende though.
Et par hot takes fra my man Petronius (fy faen for et navn) og mora hans på slutten her:
"Alle kvinner (menn) er homoseksuelle på den måten at de elsker hverandre og hater oss."
"Menn mangler all virkelig kontakt med livet. De er ikke stand til å tenke på hvordan det går med jordens folk etter at de er døde. I et samfunn der mennene fikk lov til å bestemme, ville alt liv på jorden dø ut." Ja, og vi ser jo kanskje at Ruth Bram hadde rett der. Off.

[Orla Hegarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feminist classic written in Norway in 1977. Fantastic. And disturbing. Perfect #herstory that is still all too relatable.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharp witted stroke of genius!
There cannot be a better way to present your argument and have it heard👌 enjoyed it very much. It was like stepping into a parallel universe where she managed to make me feel sorry for men or should I say menwom😂a feat that no one has been able to perform ever before. This book makes you angry, it opens your eyes to the injustices that are taken for granted as normal in the name of history, culture, religion, biology, and their perverted interpretations. Everyone must read it whether they like or dislike Feminist movements for equality and stuff, it will make it easier and clearer to judge things, period!!

[Agnė · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Lovisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

När jag väl vant mig vid språk och utformning blev jag förvånad av hur slagkraftig boken är. Just att den är så löjlig gör att man ifrågasätter allt på nytt. Språket är the main takeaway, jag vill börja säga en igen. Att dessutom få läsa en andra vågen-text var en lisa för själen i vår eländiga fascistsamtid :')

[Aitziber · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mom, a second-wave feminist, had this book laying around the house. I picked it up and had a lot of good laughs over it. Egalia's Daughters is set in a world where women hold the power. As such, many elements of the world that we take for granted are subverted here.

Women are called wim (wom for the individual), while men are called menwim (menwom for the individual). Men have to wear a kind of penis bra that holds their genitals up to make them seem more appealing to women. Men are expected to grow long beards and groom them fastidiously. Beards need to be clean, shiny, and men are expected to make them prettier with flowers or clips.

Women are dominant at work, at school and sexually. It is not uncommon for a boy's first sexual experience to be with an aggressive older girl who gets drunk and takes advantage of them. Of course, boys are elated that they got that older girl's attention and think that the aforementioned sexual violence just shows how attractive the girl finds them.

And so on. As the title says, this book is a satire. It's not meant to provide with any solutions or to argue that a world where women held the power would be inherently better. It will make you question your beliefs about what is sexist, what is traditional, what we accept as the way things are, and why. It would make great required reading for sex ed classes.

[Leni Iversen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satire where 1950s style gender roles are inverted. Everything is completely inverted, including every nuance of language. And the English translation is quite well done. Women are wom, men er menwym. Humans are huwyms. Men wear curlers in their beard and have to wear skirts because their anatomy just wouldn't fit into trousers. They also have to wear pehos to be decent in public. Hilariously funny and uncomfortably sad, this book tackles issues of parenthood, shame, sexual assault, and abuse. I found it a bit dated at first (it is from 1977), but it is a fascinating take on the 1960s-70s women's lib movement (her presented as the menwym masculist movement). And considering how much of the book sounds really odd but would still read as relatively normal if you just inverted the genders back, I'd say it's not that dated after all. Somewhat taken to the extremes, yes, but that's what satire is all about.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've fallen for a dystopia this hard since Brave New World. The novel is feminist without shame, which, incidentally, is how I might describe my own leanings.

It's hard to imagine a culture in which wom throws their blood rags in a parade for the Grand Menstruation Games, but Gerd Bratenberg creates a rounded-enough world in which it seems surprisingly plausible. Her plays on overtly patriarchal idioms and phrases are clever and hilarious. I'm sorely tempted to adopt the exclamation "Oh Lady!" into my quotidian vernacular.

Final note: I was planning on learning Norwegian anyway, but now I am extra motivated so I can read Egalia's Daughters in the author's language.

[khaz.]

dnf - I know what the book is trying to do, but reading a scene about a boy and three women assaulting him in the wood is my cue to stop trying this thing

[Liva Midtun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Feminist slay!

[Leo_Liek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wenn auch nicht unbedingt viele neue Erkenntnisse aus dem Buch hervorgehen, weil mich das Thema bereits eine Weile beschäftigt, so habe ich es doch gerne in die Hand genommen. Die satirische Herangehensweise in Form der Umkehr der Geschlechterverhältnisse hat mich mehrfach zum Schmunzeln gebracht und insbesondere einige der Wortänderungen haben dann doch auch zum Nachdenken angeregt.

[Hatti · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a masterpiece! A great anti-utopian feminist literature that really makes you think about just how gendered language is; this book needs to be talked about more

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coup de cœur absolu ! Bienvenue en Égalie, cette société purement matriarcale où l’homme est opprimé. Tout est brillamment ficelé, aucun aspect de la société n’est épargné (language, amour, sexe, état civil, carrière, politique…). Si ce livre vous paraît dérangeant ou d’un féminisme forcé à l’extrême, c’est que vous n’avez pas assez bien observé la société actuelle. La prouesse de l’autrice est que tout paraît scandaleux alors que le système qu’elle décrit est un simple miroir. Elle le prouve d’ailleurs à la fin du roman, en reprenant la scène d’ouverture du livre à l’identique, en inversant cette fois les genres. Bien entendu ce système ne peut perdurer, et un petit groupe d’hommes va se soulever. Absolument culte.

[Edgar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine Geschichte aus einer zutiefst matriarchalen Welt. Das Vertauschen der Geschlechterrollen in der Gesellschaft von Egalia ist konsequent umgesetzt und deckt so viele Ungerechtigkeiten und sinnlosen Gewohnheiten unserer patriarchalen Gesellschaft auf.

Definitiv ein lesenswertes und empfehlenswertes Buch, dessen Geschichte allerdings fast ausschließlich von der Prämisse lebt.

[LB · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read this book, you will see what the world we live in looks like to me. With an unmatched effectiveness Gerd Brantenberg points out all of the obnoxious problems that women and men face because they can't seem to see outside their provincial world of traditional sex and gender roles. The author managed to get at all of the the sex issues that our society can't seem to cope with, let alone see.

Adults often tell young people, "You know, things aren't just black and white. There are shades of grey... except for biological sex. (For the most accurate reading, say the last part of the statement with panic in your voice.)

This book will let you see, probably for the very first time, how blind this society is in regards to sex roles.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gender reversal. You don't realize how 'oppressive' women's lifestyle is until you imagine a situation in which men and women's roles are reversed. Women (wim) rule society and men (menwim) stay home to take care of the household. It's also interesting to pay attention to the language: 'wim' dominate the language more so than 'menwim' do, just as 'men' appears more frequently in language than does 'women.'

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

From reading the blurb, I thought I knew which situations would arise and how the text would handle each but I found I missed a lot. This book reminds you of all the things you've forgotten - the many and varied ways sex based oppression manifests and the real violence of female socialization. Worth a read even if it's a bit tedious at times.

I did find that some of the lines resonated poorly given the existence of MRAs though.

[Nicolas Arseneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bon 4,5/5
C'est engagé, c'est satyrique.
C'est un réel bijou de littérature, qui pousse son concept le plus loin possible.
Il faut féliciter l'autrice et la traduction !
Merci aux éditions Zulma de faire vivre ce livre en français aussi. On réalise malgré tout que si ce livre est encore autant d'actualité en 2022 (il a été publié en 1977!!), c'est qu'il reste encore beaucoup de chemin à faire.

[Emelie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionell! Kultläsning i högsta grad!

Boken är så övertydlig och klockren, samtidigt som den är underhållande och vackert illustrerar tiden den är skriven i. Rekommenderas som ett måste!