The Female Man Theme of Sexuality and Sexual Identity

It can be difficult to separate questions concerning sexuality and sexuality identity from the act of sex itself in The Female Man, because so often the characters' sexual encounters are staged to tell us something about their societies more generally. For instance, Joanna and Laura have to overcome powerful anxieties before they accept that they want to be with women, and the novel suggests that those anxieties are products of the patriarchal world they're stuck in. Janet, who comes from a world where patriarchy no longer exists, has none of the same concerns. On Whileaway, no one thinks of herself as "lesbian"—women's sexual relationships with other women are so natural, there's no need to have a specific word for them.

1. Why is Laura so conflicted when she and Janet first go to bed together? What cultural taboos from Laura's world are the two women breaking?
2. Janet goes against her own culture's taboos when she goes to bed with Laura. How does the novel explain and/or justify her actions?
3. Jeannine is dissatisfied by her relationships with men, but horrified by the thought of lesbianism. What social conventions have shaped her desires and expectations? How does Jeannine benefit from those conventions, and how do they restrict her?
4. Why is Janet so appalled by male-female courtship behavior in Joanna's world? How does it compare to courtship behavior in Whileaway?

The only healthy sexual relationships we find in The Female Man are those between women. In Jeannine's, Joanna's, and Jael's worlds, heterosexual courtship is so heavily influenced by patriarchy, it poses a real danger to women.

Jael believes that the sexual relationships between "real-men," "changed," and "half-changed" Manlanders aren't "truly" homosexual (8.8.81). Instead, she thinks of them as symptoms of patriarchy's need for someone, anyone to dominate and oppress (give it a rest, why don't you?). As both Jael and the omniscient narrator see it, there are no gay men in The Female Man—only "real-men" and everyone else.