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The LRB Podcast

Mary Beard: From Medusa to Merkel

The LRB Podcast

London Review of Books

Society & Culture

4.4581 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2017

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mary Beard delivers her lecture ‘Women in Power’ at the British Museum. Read Mary Beard in the LRB: https://lrb.me/beardpod Sign up to the LRB newsletter: https://lrb.me/acast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the London Review of Books podcast.

0:03.0

You can unlock the entire LRB archive for free for 24 hours by visiting lrb.co.uk

0:09.0

forward slash open.

0:11.0

In 1915, the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman published a funny but unsettling story called Herland.

0:24.8

And that title hints that it's a fantasy about a nation of women.

0:32.5

And women only.

0:34.7

That has existed for 2,000 years in some remote, still unexplored part of the globe.

0:44.3

And it's a magnificent utopia. It's collaborative. It's peaceful. Even the cats have stopped

0:53.9

killing the birds in her land. It's clean and tidy. It's peaceful. Even the cats have stopped killing the birds in her land.

0:56.5

It's clean and tidy.

0:58.0

It's brilliantly organized in absolutely everything

1:01.2

from its sustainable agriculture and delicious food

1:05.4

to its social services and education.

1:09.4

And it all depended on one miraculous innovation.

1:14.6

At the very beginning of its history,

1:17.6

the founding mothers of Herland had somehow perfected the technique of Parthenogenesis.

1:26.6

Now the practical details are left a bit unclear, I have to say, the technique of parthenogenesis.

1:31.2

The practical details are left a bit unclear, I have to say,

1:36.4

but the women somehow simply gave birth to baby girls with no intervention from men whatsoever.

1:40.1

There was absolutely no sex in her land.

1:44.2

The story is all about the disruption of this women's world

1:50.0

when three American blokes discover it.

...

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