I'm not convinced I've built Chastity Planet quite right.By giving post-orgasmic women the option to reward men by making the front of the chastity cup open, I've made the whole power structure about male sexuality.
This is fine if I want the place to be like Ibiza, or Spring Break, with frolicking hotties on the rampage taking advantage of overwhelmed young men.
It's less fine if I want it to be a place where more demure ladies might take a holiday, only to be drawn in to wilder adventures.As it stands, there's no way that Chastity Planet could downplay the erotic nature of what it offers enough to allay the suspicions of parents sending their 18-year old daughters to the Conservatory.
There are two ways around this.
The easiest is just to close all chastity cups, end of story. The horny males still live in fear of earning demerits, or falling down the status ladder, but there's no chance of an orgasm.
The alternative is to rule that Chastity Planet is a federation of several nations, each with its own laws, and each loudly decrying the others for departing from the original feminist vision.The major continent is sealed-cup only, and so the main - ostenisble - destination for tourists and students. However, other more S&M cultures also exist....
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Hmm . . . I think - if you shift focus - neither option is necessary. Based on your story elements, and real-world developments, you can have a society that can support both a nurturing, pro-femal environment and the femdom/chastity culture.
First, you've got the anti-violence collars wired to receive transmissions. Why not incorporate "invisible fence" technology, too? Women could use it to mark the bedrooms off-limits, male-only curfews could be enforced, and some castes (or even all males) could be banned from certain areas.
Second, you could make it illegal for a male of any caste to ask a woman out. Computers could analyze his conversations periodically (say every night) and flag any suspicious phrasings for female review.
Third, you could have the chastity cup act also function as a plethysmograph, recording which females he tries to erect around. Such information could be posted on the Chastity Planet version of Match.com, where a female looking for a date (or just easy sex) could search for guys who "twitch" around her a certain number of times, and sort by other characteristics (age, caste, etc.) - or just check to see whether her crush "twitches" around her.
Here's some examples of how it could work in a college setting:
1) Co-Ed U accepts students of both genders - and with a number of degree programs respected around the galaxy, it attracts many outstanding off-world students. Only free neuters, kept men, and neuters are allowed on campus without special permission - and all males have a ten p.m. curfew. The honor code requires female students to not "abuse" males - and undergrads are not allowed to have kept men. Males who've earned a whipping are discretely escorted from campus, so a female student may spend her entire time at the school and never see an actual whipping
2. Female Only College bans all males from campus - and the city council passed a similar ban. Males are only allowed on campus with written permission from the dean of the school (or higher) who must escort them around campus, and their cups are locked in a "closed cup" configuration for the entire stay. This female only school holds a special attraction for everyone from feminists to abuse victims.
3)University of Gynosupremacy, located in a tropical climate, imposes a "closed cup" policy on all males on campus - with a twist. Taking advantage of the warm weather, males are also required to go completely nude (except for footwear). Male employees are also under "mute" status while on the clock, and the honor code strongly discourages any sexual activity with males (particularly if it would give him sexual pleasure).
So, with places like the first two universities, its quite possible for female tourists and residents to have a fun, empowering visit and totally miss the darker aspects of Chastity Planet's sexuality. Heck, it would even be fine to bring Grandma for graduation, and (at least the first two) wouldn't have any stigma elsewhere.
P.S. Oh, and if you're still worried, you could include a male character from a militantly gynosupremacist society, who finds Chastity Planet a freeing experience.
The tech level is limited on Vesta because it's in the Adult Zone, a buffer zone between the humans and an inscrutable alien race who are happy - curious? - to have humans found civilisations on their doorstep, but not if any children are present. The aliens police the area, but in human terms it is an outlaw zone since almost any constitution is possible.
The aliens limit the really hight technology to medical, communication and law enforcement, so complex arrangements aren't possible.
This is of course for story reasons. In a high tech future, nobody *needs* a slave, and if everything is hardwired, then nobody makes any decisions and there's no story
The demerit system (outside Minerva) and non violence collars together work well enough to keep pests in their place. It might take a shy girl a while to start using her power, but that's part of the fun.
"plethysmograph" wonderful idea! Not for Vesta, though, because that shifts the focus. Part of the fun of the place is that women can stop worrying whether or not he's physically turned on, since (a) they'll never know, and (b) he probably is.
Might use the idea elsewhere, though.
"University" ideas: New Athens probably has all women colleges, and even the co-ed ones are closed cup. Of course, a student couple in love always have the option to move across the straits to Femtopia so he can be her thrall...:)
There are also gynosupremacist states, in one of which there are no men whatsoever. Of course, some of the students like to get out on spring break.
Different states allows Vesta to present different faces to the universe. Minverva pushes itself as a place of sedate sex-free education, and dismisses Femtopia as a sort of outlaw fringe.
Hmm . . .it seems like you've really developed the setting a lot from the initial short stories. I look forward to reading more (and the book, when it comes out).
By the way, pretty much all of the tech I mentioned is stuff we already have. The last I heard, there wasn't a wireless version of the plethysmograph - but the actual device isn't much bigger than a wedding band or napkin ring (and even our version is very sensitive). So - in theory - all of the possibilities I mentioned could easily be defended to the aliens.
Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my comments.
-An Insomniac Night Owl
P.S. Upon further reflection, the possibility of the entire planet going "closed cup" feels like it has plot potential. It could be the ultimate tease - males in "open cup" societies wondering if the ban will make it through the planetary senate (or however Vesta is ruled). I don't think you'd want it to actually pass, though - its more fun to have it come up every ten years or so just to tease the males (although many of the advocates could well be sincere).
The "plethysmograph" more or less forms the basis for my Chastity Belt novel - it's hooked up to the timelock, and not in a good way. Wonder if anybody will actually build the real thing... Do you have a link?
Vesta is a patchwork of independent states, possibly including some very small and qirky ones. Styles of government vary wildly. Perhaps there's an island where the cups open for one day a year...
And thanks for commenting. It's good to be able to knock the ideas around.
So how are you eliminating the possibility of preganancy? Unless I've missed something (quite possible), there's nothing to prevent a woman on Vesta from collecting the semen of her kept male or some random bondsman and using it to impregnate herself.
Oh, and how are sports handled? Do the anti-violence collars limit male participation to non-contact sports? Can males box, or play paintball? And are there female full-contact teams (like an all-female league of American football)?
Here's a link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph) to a wikipedia article about a plethysmograph and its using it detecting sexual arousal. There are also a couple of made for tv documentaries (the kind of thing that airs on Discovery or TLC) that talk about human sexuality and how researchers study the topic (which is where I heard about it first) - but I'm afraid I don't have a link (or a picture).
The cup handles the contraception. Men can't do contact sports.
The chastity cups are a wonderful element, but I think you may be asking a bit too much of them this time. True, they can probably sterilize the neutered males of Chastity Planet - but the women of Chastity Planet could still get viable semen on off-world trips.
One way to address that would simply be to have a sci-fi version of Norplant - when a woman comes to Vesta, she gets a minor implant injected under her skin which suppresses ovulation for the length of her stay.
Another option would be to use chastizing pelvic protectors - when females based on Chastity Planet enter a penis-friendly area, they have to wear the female version of the cup to prevent pregnancy
I supposed forced abortion might also be an option (women re-entering the penis-free planet walk through a "miscarriage screen"), but that seems a little more controversial
Sure, they can all have implants or the equivalent that drop out once you leave.
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