James Nicoll described "The Queen Bee" as "so egregiously wretched that it inspires mockery and disparagement decades after publication",[2] and posited that Poul Anderson's 1960 story "Eve Times Four" — wherein four women in a parallel situation discover that no such legal requirement exists, that the planet on which they landed already had human colonies, and that their male companion had arranged the entire situation as an excuse to commit rape by deception — was written as a direct response.
"[3] Galactic Journey considered that the term 'misogyny' did not "adequately convey the sentiment" in the story, and suggested instead "hatred of women", noting that it begins with the viewpoint character hitting a woman.
[5] Gordon van Gelder, introducing the story in his 2017 anthology Go Forth and Multiply: Twelve Tales of Repopulation, noted that it is "justly reviled".
[6] Vonda N. McIntyre and Susan Janice Anderson, when introducing their 1976 anthology of feminist science fiction Aurora: Beyond Equality, specifically mentioned "The Queen Bee" as the type of story which should be excluded from the anthology, but stated that it may have "symbolic truth", in that "(w)omen in our society are conditioned to develop their physical attractiveness as a 'weapon' to 'kill off' other female competition.
Based on its dissimilarity to the bulk of Garrett's oeuvre, he proposed that its premise may have been a suggestion from Astounding editor John W. Campbell, who was known as a contrarian and provocateur.