The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart
The Women of the World's Vision of How We Should eal With Male Violence
The Wanderground is a speculative fiction novel by Sally Miller Gearhart, first published in 1978 by Persephone Press. It is widely recognized as a foundational text of 1970s separatist feminism and remains a staple in women's studies curricula. The novel is structured as a collection of interlocking short stories and vignettes rather than a traditional linear narrative, many of which were originally published in feminist periodicals like Ms. and WomanSpirit.
The story is set in a future United States where society is sharply divided by sex. Men remain in oppressive, technology-dependent cities characterized by decay and violence, while women known as the "Hill Women" have fled to the wilderness to live in all-female communities called "ensconcements." In this rural sanctuary, the women have developed profound psychic abilities, including telepathy (called "mindstretch"), levitation, and the ability to communicate with animals and nature.
The central tension arises from a shifting cosmic balance; as conditions for women in the cities deteriorate, the Hill Women must decide how to respond to pleas for help from "gentles" (gay men who respect women) while maintaining their strict separatist principles. The narrative explores the debate between isolationism and alliance, underpinned by the tenet that men and women cannot coexist peacefully due to inherent patriarchal violence.
The novel is a definitive example of eco-feminism and lesbian separatism. It posits that women's liberation requires a complete rejection of patriarchal structures and technology in favor of a symbiotic relationship with the natural world.
The Hill Women replace machinery with biological and psychic powers, such as healing through bloodletting and reproduction through "ovular merging."
The text suggests that non-competitive, nurturing values are unique to women, while men are depicted as inherently destructive.
As a publication of Persephone Press, the book is a landmark of the "women in print" movement, which sought to create autonomous communication networks for feminists.
Sally Miller Gearhart, who passed away in 2021, drew upon her experiences as an activist and the first openly lesbian tenure-track professor at San Francisco State University to craft this vision of female autonomy. The novel inspired the name of the Wanderground Lesbian Archive and Library in Rhode Island
Sally Miller Gearhart on writing The Wanderground
https://youtu.be/Uij_JjXmtuQThe wanderground : stories of the hill women
by Gearhart, Sally Miller, 1931-
https://archive.org/details/wanderground00sallThe Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women
Sally Miller Gearhart
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