The Gay Rebellion

Robert W. Chambers

Language: English

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Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel Project Gutenberg Science Fiction _isfdb

Publisher: D. Appleton & Company

Published: Jan 2, 1913

Page Count: 286

Description:

400. THE GAY REBELLION. Appleton; New York,
1913. 111. Edmund Frederick.
(Unlocated previous publication in 1911, according
to the copyright notice.) A nouvelle and short stories
based on Chambers's interpretation of the feminist
movement of his time. The idea behind the
stories is that feminism is simply a veiled expression
of sex interest (in the Gibson Girl mode) between
women and handsome, wealthy, upper class young
men. * The situation common to most of the stories
is that of a horde of women physically chasing a
attractive young man, capturing him, and dragging
him off to marriage. In most of the stories the
women are in open, violent rebellion, rioting, assaulting
their opponents, and destroying their property.
The result is a fantasy of history, borderline
science-fiction in dealing with the very near
future or an alternative present. The individual
stories are untitled, although it is probable that
they had titles in magazine appearance. Titles have
been supplied for reference purposes, [a] [ The New
Race University]. A pair of budding young journalists,
hearing of a selective breeding camp that the
feminists have established in the Adirondacks, decide
to investigate it. They soon learn that young
women prowl around with huge nets, capturing men
they consider suitable for creating a superrace and
dragging them off to marriage in the university. *
The journalists soon are forced to recognize that
they may not meet the eugenic standards that the
women have set up. One journalist permits himself
to be captured in a toupee, false complexion, false
shoulders, and balloon legs. His trick is discovered,
but love triumphs, [b] [Diana the Huntress].
Bad as things are in the United States, they are
worse in Great Britain. Young Lord Marque was
forced to flee the country after Lady Diana Guernsey
chased him across the countryside. He has hid out
in the American West, but without success. Lady
Diana finds him, and Marque realizes that Diana is
desirable. [c] [The Governor of New York], The
Governor of New York, a young bachelor, is besieged
in his office and forced to escape in the uniform of
his military aide. He is hotly pursued by an athletic
feminist. They have a showdown about women and
politics. The bill that the governor was about to
sign admitted women to the vote, but set up qualifying
examinations in chemistry, physics, psychology,
and biology. But as Professor Elizabeth Challis
points out, these words really mean cooking, housework,
and child rearing. [d] [ The Strange Tenant]
Young John Brown, chased by a horde of suffragettes,
takes refuge in a fine old house in Westchester
County. He converses with the young woman who lives
there and becomes friendly with her. But when he
steps out for a moment, he discovers that the house
is ramshackle, and that he had been conversing with
a ghost— an ancestress of his who had lived during
the Revolutionary War. * A fifth story is not set in
the same fantastic milieu.