Lady Land: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Considering the large number of male-dominated societies in existence, it is understandable that fiction is open to the idea of the women occasionally wielding the power. Lady Land extends the idea to an extreme level.

In a Lady Land, the most common feature is that the population is predominately female. Males in this country may be considered inferior, or in extreme cases be immediately forced to [[Gendercide|death or expulsion]]. This may create problems in that most of the time, this leaves said society with no obvious method of reproducing. There's a very good chance that this issue will be brought up in-story.

 

 

This is a common portrayal of [[Hot Amazon|Amazon societies]], dating back to the original Amazons of Greek mythology. The Greeks used these stories to [[Scare'Em Straight|"demonstrate"]] why women should [[Stay in the Kitchen]] and not be allowed any power at all. This is oddly an easy construction regardless of whether the women in question are murderous or desperate, as in either case, the women are ''still'' centering their lives around men instead of trying to think of something else to do with their time. Some stories [[Take a Third Option]] and explore how a culture is affected without the influence of men by giving the characters living therein other motivations.

 

Not to be confused with the [[Jimi Hendrix|electric]] variety.

 

* Spoofed by ''[[The Slayers|Slayers Next]]''. To enter the town of Femille, all of the male characters (yes, even ''[[The Comically Serious|Zelgadis]]'') need to disguise themselves as women. In the end, it turns out that {{spoiler|there are more men living in the town than expected, including the princess}}.

* A common [[Fanon]] view of the Joketsuzoku from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is precisely this, based on the treatment of Mousse by Shampoo and Cologne, and by the fact that the ''one'' time we saw their village it was during a ''women's-only'' tournament. You might wonder why a genuinely misandrist society would have not executed an obsessed [[Stalker with a Crush]] out of hand over his harassment of a woman who unambiguously and repeatedly rejects his advances in no uncertain terms. The term "Chinese Amazon" shouldn't be taken so literally, as it's more of [[Cultural Translation]], and the name means something closer to "village of female warriors". Mousse is treated poorly mainly because he's an ''idiot''.

* ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' has Misshogi, where men are forbidden and all the women wear [[Fan Service|bathing suits]] (the founder is a bathing-suit designer, and the name of the town is a homonym on ''mizugi''). It's ultimately revealed this is the result of the founder reacting to her breakup ''way'' worse than usual.

* ''[[Vandread]]'' has planet Majarl.

* ''[[Nagasarete Airantou]]'' is about an island with no men. When the male protagonist of the series accidentally winds up on the island, all the girls are so excited to have a male around that they do things like have tournaments to try to win the right to become his bride.

* ''[[Ooku]]: the Inner Chambers'' has Tokeguwa Japan mutate into this after decades of ravages by an endemic [[Gendercide|Red-faced Pox]] that attacks only men. With a gender ratio of 1:4 in favor of women, men who make it to adulthood are barred from any remotely dangerous or strenuous occupations as "precious seed-bearers" while women have taken over all positions of authority.

 

 

* In ''[[Starstruck]]'', Galatia-9 ends in Omega 3, where life resembles that of the legendary Amazons. They fight hulking stupid male creatures (origin unknown) called Dromes.

* In ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'', every male mammal on Earth (save two, [[There Is Another|or so it seems at first]]) die, leaving the entire world to the women. It's subverted in that society is no more or less screwed up than it was before, barring the simple effects of around half the populace suddenly up and dying, though one female character notes that since that applies to mammals, not just humans, the biosphere may be screwed up when the next generation of the shorter-lived mammals is supposed to take its place in the food chain.

 

 

* The village of the Warrior Women in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. The men are scrawny or dandified, and the women swagger around. When the four and the Hunter show up, they are pushed around (well, they let themselves be pushed around) and called “man-beasts.”

** However, after Ringo defeats the warrior Mung in three seconds, the queen of the Warrior Woman immediately throws herself at him, calling him “Lord.”

 

 

* In ''[[Ghosts of Mars]]'' the human society on Mars is explicitly stated to be a matriarchy, and women are primarily seen in powerful positions. Doesn't stop the men from acting like machos, though.

* In ''[[Without Men]]'' a small town in Mexico becomes this when all the men get recruited for war(except for the priest and one women's son who gets away by disgusing himself as a girl) so the women have to learn to take care of themselves, the mayor's wife(played by Eva Longoria) becomes their leader of sorts.

 

 

* Pamela Sargent's The Shore of Women

** Cygnet XIV, the Cygneti homeworld, was historically (22nd century) blatantly sexist towards males, with intellect and authority only ever considered feminine traits. This causes problems for male humans in the [[Star Trek Enterprise Relaunch]]. Holor Sethe in the [[Star Trek: Titan]] series demonstrates that in some ways it hasn't changed too much by the 24th century.

*** Interestingly, and perhaps wisely, the all-female Klingon warriors of the qawHaq'hoch established their headquarters on Cygnet IV in the [[Star Trek: Voyager Relaunch]]. It makes sense; Klingons are patriarchal, so usually Klingon females operating without any males would be seen as odd; Cygnet might well be the nearest system to Klingon space where no-one would blink to see an all-female quasi-political organization.

** Then there’s the Megarite homeworld of Megara, where the ruling matriarchs are considered to be the more sophisticated of the species. They spend their lives sitting on beaches, doing little else, and consider travel to be "beneath" a female. The males are relegated to the distasteful realm of offworld trade and diplomacy, though many of them seem to enjoy it, being considerably more raucous and spontaneous than the somewhat stuffy females. Of course, there are exceptions, those Megarites who reject the traditional system. The young female Spring Rain On Still Water (in [[Star Trek: Ex Machina]]) prefers the more adventurous male life, and has been condemned by her matriarchs for "lowering" herself.

** Played much more straight in ''[[The Gate to Women's Country|The Gate to Womens Country]]''. The sexes are strictly separated; and the female ruling elite runs a program designed to breed out stereotypically "masculine" traits (aggression, dominance, etc). The sympathetic treatment of the female side, and the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|somewhat caricatured portrayal of males]], strongly indicates that this is [[Author Tract|her idea of a feminist utopia]].

* In [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s novel ''Second Stage [[Lensman]]'', the planet Lyrane II was ruled by women, who could be accurately described as highly telepathic Amazons. Their "males", by comparison, were almost dwarfish, subnormal in intelligence, and notably irrationally violent; their constant fighting among themselves (to the death, naturally) was seen as a form of "natural selection" by the ruling females. The "Persons" (as the Lyranian women referred to themselves) used the surviving males for breeding purposes (roughly one male to thirty "persons")- and then the last one "calmly blasted the male's mind and went about her business". The "persons" were quite capable of killing with mental force- well, except when the intended target was a Second Stage Lensman like Kimball Kinnison, that is. The fact that exactly none of the Lyranian "persons" was capable of even tolerating, let alone working with, a male of any species of Civilization for more than about three picoseconds (without at least trying to fry his brain) required the promotion of Clarissa MacDougall to Lensman ([[Unfortunate Implications|the first woman to be one]]) in order to perform an important mission there. The Lyranians defined MacDougall as a "near-person", most obviously because while she (a) not only shared their mental prowess, but actually exceeded it (even before she became an "L2" in "Children of the Lens"), she also (b) did not regard males as nothing but animals and (c) did not share their unconcern about public nudity.

** More [[Unfortunate Implications]]: the Lyranian woman cared nothing for their physical appearance. Their hair in particular was a filthy mess; they let it grow any old way, and roughly chopped off bits that got in the way. On the other hand, <s>Human</s> Tellurian women found Lyranian culture just as despicable as men did.

** Funnily enough, though, Far Madding is just about the only place in the series where all this chauvinism-flipping actually bears fruit in role changes, rather than just making standard-issue housewives mouthy and arrogant.

* In ''[[Animorphs]]'', one of the alien species, the Helmacrons, are female dominated, with the males serving as slaves. By the end of their first appearance, the animorphs have convinced the male Helmacrons to stand up for their rights, leading to a civil war.

** Notably, there's no feminist or anti-feminist message here--''both'' genders are ''totally psychotic.'' Arguably also serves as an [[Averted Trope|aversion]] to [[Insect Gender Bender]], since the Helmacrons seem to resemble bugs (including by being less than an inch tall).

* In ''[[Everworld]],'' the Amazons are shown among the series' many mythological elements. They apparently have a habit of attacking and conquering other nations, including Egypt (which was political unstable for [[Royally Screwed-Up|various]] [[The Gods Must Be Lazy|reasons]]). Feminist [[The Chick|April]] seems to like them, and Christopher was beginning to get cozy with their queen...until [[Villain Protagonist|Senna]] points out that according to the mythology, they murder male babies and sell weaker daughters into slavery. Whether or not this is true isn't shown, but they ''did'' apparently execute a man for fathering twin sons with one of them and were not generally portrayed as nice people.

** [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|They also]] [[It Makes Sense in Context|worshipped Madonna]].

* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has several. Hapes, Dathomir, Kuat...Usually there's some [[Author Appeal]] involved, e.g. Dathomiri using the Force to kidnap and enslave men.

* Tanith Lee plays with this in ''East of Midnight'', in which a charming rogue unwittingly travels from a male-dominated world to a parallel female-dominated one, in which he happens to resemble the consort of the (female) Moon King. It also happens that the man he resembles {{spoiler|is marked for execution.}}

** A later story in the same anthology, ''Solitude'' features a planet after a huge population crash. There is very little civilization at all, but the women live in semi-villages called "auntrings" and the men live as scattered hermits (both stories are in an anthology called ''The Birthday of the World'').

* One chapter of the Chinese classic ''[[Journey to the West]]'' involves our heroes entering such a country en route of their pilgrimage. The question of procreation is answered by a mystical river that women of age may drink from and get pregnant - [[Mister Seahorse|that two of the protagonists unknowingly drink from]] and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* [[Jane Yolen]]'s ''Great White Alta'' trilogy revolves around this. Women live separately from men in small groups, and men are used only for the purpose of reproduction.

* In the second [[The Heroes of Olympus]] novel we discover that amazon.com is run by actual amazons. They ''like'' men - in their place - which seems to be providing manual labor for the company. We never find out how the men feel about it but for at least some being sex-objects to beautiful, buff amazons might seem like a pretty sweet deal.

* The Hypolitan people in ''[[The Icemark Chronicles]]'' are basically this. Women are considered superior to men, and men only seem to gain status by association with a powerful woman. The ''southern'' Hypolitan in the third book take it [[Up to Eleven]]; their men are used as [[Cannon Fodder]], are literally slaves to their wives, and can be killed at any moment for insubordination or as a [[Human Sacrifice]].

 

** Actually, the end of the episode seems to imply that they expected nothing other than men to cause trouble.

* The ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode Angel One had a society where women were not only in charge of everything, but naturally physically stronger than the men, while the men (who all seem effiminate by earth standards) dress mainly for sex appeal and are the cooks, secretaries, servants, etc.

** This troper remembers a TV movie based on an unsold series idea by Gene Roddenberry that used that plot. Post-apocalypse Earth, and a hero from the past now living in a technologically-advanced enclave. The plot summary above is accurate if limited. (Troper does not remember a ''Buck Rogers'' episode with that plot.)

*** The Roddenberry series was called ''Genesis II'' about an organization trying to rebuild human civilization after the apocalypse. The Female dominated culture was one of several the organization was trying to influence. Interestingly the [[Aesop]] was not 'Female Dominance Bad' but that the men didn't need to be drugged into compliance but if treated with respect and kindness would happily submit to their female masters. [[Broken Aesop]]?

*** The first troper is remembering the Confederacy of Ruth from Roddenberry's 1974 film ''[[wikipedia:Planet Earth (TV pilot)|Planet Earth]]'', which was actually a kind of sequel to his ''Genesis II''. The idea of a female-dominated society where men were pets led about on leashes was first seen in the ''Genesis II'' episode "Poodle Shop".

* As quoted above, one of the provinces in the alternate universe of the short-lived ''[[Otherworld]]'' is ruled by women, with men relegated to semi-literate slavery.

* In one episode of Boy Meets World, Mr. Feeny gives Corey's class an assignment to plan out their future. Topanga envisions a future that involves moving all men underground and using them solely for breeding stock.

 

 

* The rock band D.A.D.'s song "Girl Nation" references this trope for humorous effect.

 

 

* The feminist orbital colony Margaret in ''[[Transhuman Space]]''. Given the transhumanism of the setting, they have to be flexible about the definition of "female". Given the equality of the setting, many people aren't sure why they bother.

 

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has several examples: The Asari are a [[One-Gender Race]] of women and the few men on their planets are all aliens. On Tuchanka, the female Krogan got fed up with all the [[Blood Knight]] shit of the males and formed their own all-female clans. Since they are just as big and strong as the males and there are only very few remaining fertile females in the entire species, all of the male clans want to be on their good side or they simply won't get any more chances to breed new sons for their own clans. And even if one clan would try to capture females, the female clans would just have to ask all the other male clans to get them back. And then there are also the Salarians who similar to insects consist of a small number of female matriarchs and much larger numbers of male drones. While only a very small minority, politics is the exclusive domain of women.

* The Viera from ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' live in segregated societies. The males live seperately from the females. Although no male Viera has ever been seen in-series, there are constant references by the females and [[Word of God]] says they exist.

* In the [[H-game]] ''Meet and Fuck: Star Mission'', the Human male has been nearly driven to extinction by "a succession of wars". Men are state property and [[Human Resources]], used solely for breeding. Their rarity has lead to their classification as a [[Endangered Species|protected life-form]].

* In ''[[Earth 2150]]'' and its sequels, the Lunar Corporation is a matriarchal society, after the females took power following a coup against the ineffectual LC board of directors. In the game, all units are piloted by women. It is assumed that their military is entirely composed of women. The exception is Fang, but he's a [[Eagle Land|USC]] defector.

 

 

 

** Just to point out ''how'' ridiculous, the "wears no clothes" bit does extend to soldiers baring everything but their heads, hands and feet. In cold, hostile environments where monsters abound.

{{quote|'''Mother Clerd:''' This is my lovely young son Freznip and my promising daughter Voor.}}

* In ''[[Draconia Chronicles]]'' a fantasy webcomic about warring nations of Dragon and Tiger people, both dominated by the respective females of the species. In a case of ''[[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism]]'' while the females of the species are anthropomorphic, the males are feral with normal male tigers and huge dragons. The males of the Dragons abandoned the females for not stopping the war with the tigers, leaving the females to reproduce using an "elixir" and becoming an entirely female society. While the male Tigers are present, they are protected in sanctuaries for reproduction and such while the humanoid females take care of military fights and the like.

 

 

 

 

* ''[[Hercules The Animated Series]]'' had an interesting version when Hercules visits the land of the Amazons. Men do live there, but they act incredibly feminine, wear aprons and basically do all the stereotypical woman jobs.

** Flash even tries to stand up against this, however Hawkgirl calms him down and points out it is just as hard or even harder for them to enforce the rule.

** Equestria is still a heavily matriarchal society, though at least part of that is because of the relatively small number of males.

* One episode of ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' saw the gang visit a world where this was the norm. Women ran the place, while men were subjugated and forced to do menial labor. Of course by the end of the episode, the two genders had reconciled. Interestingly, the leader of the women and the leader of the men were implied to be a married couple.

* Similarly, but on a smaller scale and subverted in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' where Springfield Elementary is divided into a boys half and a girls half. The boys half is a hell hole, but the girls half doesn't teach math.

* In ''[[Gandahar]]'' women are in power, ruled by Queen Ambisextra.

 

 

 

 

* In an interesting case, the samurai women in Japan, though in a more "traditional" role, were indeed better educated than most other women in East Asia at the time, as one of their chief roles was to teach their children. They were also trained in combat (granted, on more-or-less outdated weapons) and some women were renowned as equal in skill to many male samurai. The training was of course because aside from education, samurai women were to protect the home when the men were away (and provide backup when they were not).

** The weapons were more-or-less outdated, but they were also more practical for their role as home defense than what the men used. Women tended to train on naginata, a pole weapon with decent reach and designed to be utilized in several different positions. They also had knives and, in some cases, short swords. All of these would be relatively easy to wield in more confined spaces in comparison to anything above the length of a katana (samurai kept short swords on them partially for engagements in confined spaces, after all). Think of it as the difference in usefulness of a shotgun and pistol vs. a rifle. The shotgun can be fired easily and quickly and still have a chance of hitting the target at a short range. You have to aim a pistol, but it can be used in close-quarters due to tiny size. A rifle is most useful at longer ranges where aim is crucial and a short-range weapon cannot easily be used.

** Also accounting has long been a traditionally female activity and largely remains so for domestic purposes. While it is often the husband who earns the households income, it is he who receives and allowance from his wife, instead of the wife being given a budget for groceries and household items.

* ''The Atlantic'' magazine seems to think this is happening already, having published an article titled "the End of Men" in their Summer 2010 issue.

* Nineteenth century New Bedford partially qualifies. As all the men were away [[Moby Dick|killing big adorable sea mammals]] the wives often ruled much of the city.

** Traditional family structures in Jeju, Korea may also qualify, for the exact opposite reason. Women, rather than men, were responsible for the then-menial, low-class job of free diving for conchs, pearls, and abalone. The income from this meant that women essentially became the primary breadwinners on periphery islands where farming was entirely impractical (such as Jeju and Mara...[[Shin Megami Tensei|not that Mara]]), and thus led to a reversal of traditional social roles compared to the mainland.

 

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[[Category:The War On Straw]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

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