So Say the Mamas: A Feminist World

During the fall semester of 1990, one assignment for my undergraduate honors course in international relations was to do a report that involved almost anything but the standard 15-page, go-to-the-library, don't-forget-the-bibliography research paper. The results were fascinating. Among others, the submitted projects included a Monopoly-like board game on crisis diplomacy in the then-tumultuous Persian Gulf, an annotated slide show of editorial cartoons, an analysis of the political messages in the works of Dr. Seuss, and original music for guitar and flute and lyrics to several political songs, including the simply wonderful "Apartheid Blues." The projects also included a short story entitled "So Say the Mamas" by one of the women students.

The year was 2050 as "So Say the Mamas" opened. A number of women from around the world decided that the violence and inequality of the male-dominated world would never change and that it would be easier to forge a new civilization than try to fix the existing one. So they gathered a racially and ethnically representative group of women from around the world, acquired a spaceship, and left Earth, bound for the uninhabited, but habitable, planet of Xylos.

The women landed on Xylos and set about establishing a new society. Among the other provisions that they had brought from Earth, the women possessed a large quantity of frozen sperm that they could use for artificial insemination. By analyzing the sperm before implantation, the women could ensure that only female babies were born, thereby preserving forever an all-female population on Xylos.

At first, with relatively few women, the society on Xylos was governed by the "founding mothers" who had initiated the interplanetary move. This group was universally called the Mamas, and the rules that they established were promulgated with the declaration, "So Say the Mamas."

In time, the women of Xylos multiplied and moved beyond their initial political structure and, by dint of sheer numbers, beyond their original, close-knit society. The issue that the woman author of "So Say the Mamas" went on to consider was the nature of Xylos five centuries after its founding. Had the women established a world in which racial and ethnic differences had disappeared or were irrelevant? Or had racial and ethnic divisions built up? Was there equality on Xylos? Or had women established hierarchies based on race or some other characteristic? Was there a global government of Xylos? Or had the women divided themselves into sovereign states? Was there cooperation and peace on Xylos? Or had competition and warfare overtaken the planet? In short, was Xylos a brave new world, or had it become just like male-dominated Earth, which the Mamas had fled a thousand years earlier?

What the woman who wrote the story in 1990 concluded is not as important here as what you think. The year is 2550. How does humanity fare on Xylos? Place yourself in this society. You must, of course, pretend that you are a woman, if you are not. Based on what you know about this society as originally planned, answer the following questions as you think the society might have evolved five hundred years from its inception.

1		Do you think all women on Xylos would have equal rights?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
2		Do you think that social stratification would be based on age, race, or ethnicity?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
			C)	There would be no stratification
3		Do you think that the limited ability to reproduce would lead to a centralized system of health care?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
4		Do you think that there would be greater global cooperation on Xylos than on Earth?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
5		Over the course of five hundred years, would women create sovereign states as the primary means of government?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
6		Do you think that economic disparity would exist on Xylos?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
7		Would Xylos have an organized militia to defend the population from Earthlings or other extraterrestrial life?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
8		Do you think women would have to defend themselves from other women on Xylos?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
9		Would planet Xylos be more peaceful than Earth?
			A)	Yes
			B)	No
10		Would cultural homogeneity, based on a "women's culture," exist on Xylos or would cultural diversity predominate?
			A)	Homogeneity
			B)	Diversity
11		Would Xylos have a vertical authority structure or a horizontal authority structure?
			A)	Vertical
			B)	Horizontal
12		Where on the following scale do think political structures on Xylos would fit? Authoritarian is given a value of 1 and democratic is given a 10.
			A)	1
			B)	2
			C)	3
			D)	4
			E)	5
			F)	6
			G)	7
			H)	8
			I)	9
			J)	10
13		Where on the following scale do think political structures on Earth would fit? Authoritarian is given a value of 1 and democratic is given a 10.
			A)	1
			B)	2
			C)	3
			D)	4
			E)	5
			F)	6
			G)	7
			H)	8
			I)	9
			J)	10
14		Would the predominant economic system on Xylos be capitalist or socialist?
			A)	Capitalist
			B)	Socialist