Monday, March 28, 2011

More questions from Insomniac Night Owl

1> If Minerva considers gender a social construct, does that mean it makes no difference between hetero-, homo-, and bi-sexual relationships? And that longterm residents see nothing odd with any pairing (or group) of romantically involved individuals?

Yes.

2> If all males are communally owned in Amazonia - and women aren't allowed to "call dibs" on their favorites - does that mean the males all live communally (in dorms/barracks/etc.)

No! Males in Amazonia are owned by individuals. (I like the idea of free floating compliant males, though.)

3> If Amazonia doesn't use the demerit system, and guarantees the bodily integrity of the males, how does it punish troublemakers?

Just as slaves have always been punished - whips and chains.

4> Which way does Amazonia skew: angry female supremacists (men are scum, they should be punished as often as possible), or more positive (men are just inferior and should be pitied - and controlled - to keep them out of trouble)?

It doesn't. There's a big element of "pot luck".

5> What's the gender balance of the four major colony-nations? 50/50? 60/40? 90/10? And if skewed, are there more males or females?

About 50/50, I think. (I am aware that I am probably cheating on this.)

6>How does Minerva view female sexuality (and the female sex drive)? Is it considered a vice (albeit less of one than the male equivalent)? Or is it celebrated (and only the male needs are viewed askance)?

I think there's a measure of denial about it. The aim is to create a tranquil feminine environment where everybody does yoga...

7> What are the core principles (i.e. minimum requirements) that any Vestan colony-nation must adhere to? Is it just a requirement that males be "fixed" (anti-violence collar & anti-penetration chastity cup)? Or are there others?

Good question. Anti-violence collar and anti-penetration cup with built in temporary sterility. (Aliens don't want this zone filling up with humans...)

8> Can a female in Neutralia experiment with artificial male (feeldo) gentitalia constrained by a chastity cup, in order to better blur the gender lines? Can a Minervan female?

Eek. Cool idea. I'm sure it happens.

9>Can Femtopian females sell their neuters to Amazonia? Can they buy males off Amazonia?

No. I think a male can opt for sale to Amazonia rather than a transfer or demotion.

10>What standard are you judging "worse" by? It seems like you consider Minerva to be the "best" colony-nation for men to immigrate to - but it seems like Neutralia (overall) is even better. And I'd argue that Femtopia - while riskier (because of the demerits) - is at least equally as good (since it also allows sexual pleasure), particularly for males who immigrate with a loving/compassionate female partner.

They all have their downsides.

In order to preserve the male/female ratio, Minerva offers good cheap education to young males, and pays good rates for various service jobs. These can be completed in short tours, with cupless breaks off planet.

Femtopia is more fun, but lacks the educational opportunities and has risks.

Neutralia atracts fewer females, so thus has less money knocking around. You'd really only want to go there if that was what you actually wanted. Think of it as a sort of hippy commune.


11>Do you still consider Vesta a pleasure planet - and with a pleasure planet's reputation? Or is it a "normal" world with just some "eccentricities"?

It's an experimental colony. Parts of it are pleasure planet, but only for females :)


A) Neutralia needs more development - particularly since it seems to be in direct competition with Minerva, and (for males) it seems to be an even better deal. (Basically) equal civil rights and unrestricted access to orgasms? Any male immigrant would have to be a fool to turn that down, unless he was really into femdom and/or chastity. And with its gender neutral status, (in practice) it seems to overlap with Minerva's attitudes toward gender - since neither (officially) acknowledges a difference between genders.

Yes, Neutralia has much in common with Minerva. As per above, it has less money knocking around, and no galaxy class colleges. It's the place where the vegan feminist hippies live.

B) Giving males full & equal civil rights in Neutralia and (particularly) Minerva looks like it would pose structural issues. If males have a vote (and right to form protests), then (at some point) it seems like they would move to amend the Minervan constituion to allow their cups to open - and they're likely to get some female support for the position. At that point, it seems like the original purpose of Minerva would be lost, or the aliens would have to invade to re-impose the original rules (which would certainly hurt immigration -and possibly bring other planets into the situation/war).

The rules are imposed automatically using GPS, and cannot be altered. That's the whole idea of the setting - semi normality with a twist.

C> Oh, and for the term to describe a male "demoting" to thrall, may I suggest "dedicating", "devoting", or "pledging" (himself), as a more positive term?
Nice.

D> I’d also like to suggest trying to avoid making any one colony “better” than the others - try to leave at least one strong non-fetish advantage for each culture, and one serious drawback.

Good point.

E>It might suit Amazonia to use non-flesh tone colors for their cups - the better to emphasize that the males are "lesser beings" who have to be controlled. Perhaps metallic (for a "traditional" look), or maybe something bright and obvious (maybe the the Amazonian flag, or crest, covers the entire thing).

Yes.


F>A final suggestion would be to encourage strong trading/sporting links between the different colony-nations. For example, you could have a lot of fun (short story wise) having students from Minerva travel to Neutralia or Amazonia to "study abroad" or for sports competitions.

Exactly!


Z> How do the anti-violence collars work? Are they able to detect violent impulses, or does it take some initial act/symptom of violence to trigger (fresh blood, for example)? Or is there a way for them to sense the presence of another person, and prevent the male from approaching (without permission)? And do they simply inhibit the action (as a form of paralysis), or is it more of a shock collar model?

They have AI built in, and combine situational awareness with bio monitoring.

Y> You might want to give the female rings a "panic button", as a form of ultimate reassurance for the women.

Good idea. Would, again, involve AI, so would be context-driven.

X> Again, as a last ditch thing, it might be worth putting the chastity cups on a dead man switch - where the default setting is the absolute worst for the male - closed, tightest fit, etc. And if something major happens - the aliens disappear, a way is found to tamper with the cup, etc. - the males with better settings (Neutralian, high caste Femtopians, etc.) all devolve back to the absolute worst setting possible (for them).

That's what happens if you leave planet. :)

W> On a different topic, you might want to limit the technology of the human-ruled worlds outside the Alien/Adult Zone. If humans don't have self-replicating nanotech, and human tech follows its current path, the really sophisticated stuff (computers, biotech, etc.) would requires large, phenomenally expensive facilities to manufacture - and shipping across the galaxy (or universe) is likely to be very expensive.

I'll probably simply avoid this issue by not talking about it. I'm aiming for a TV SciFi level of "authenticity". The implicit assumption is that culture is still recognisable.

V>Do the women of Femtopia deliberately cultivate their own sexuality (and sexual appeal to males)? You could make an argument that they (and actually many of the women of Vesta) should be learning to belly dance, study tantric sex methods, do cardio-striptease (instead of yoga) for aerobic exercise, and so on. On one hand, it could be used to squeeze more labor (or devotion, or female orgasms) out of the males is a good reason to do so. And on the other, it could be an expression of the inherent feminity (and how they're different/better than the males)

Just as in our world, some do and some don't. In Femtopia, some particularly enjoy seducing neuters.

U>On the previous post (the Rule of Ten one), you have an image of a nude male performing cunnilingus on a female. Is that the kind of thing a Femtopian female can expect upon coming home after a hard day's work? Is that more an Amazonian thing? Neither? If so, would the female (of either culture) be embarrassed to have her friends see such a thing (assuming she's a long time resident, and not a newcomer)?

Nature, timing and frequency of erotic service would depend on the relationship for Thralls, and ultimately on the woman. In Femtopia, normal rules of decorum apply, though might be broken. Amazonia... not sure.


THANKS!

2 comments:

An Insomniac Night Owl said...

Thanks for taking the time to address my questions - I do have a bit more, but I'll try and keep it much more concise.

1) Female Immigration - For women on Vesta, what are the practical differences between being a tourist, a resident alien with papers, and a citizen?

2) Galactic Class ? - So, is the main university of New Athens the interstellar equivalent of the Ivy League, Oxford, and Princeton?

3) "Incest" in Femtopia - Can a woman in Femtopia own her brother/father/son's contract?

~If so, does her orgasmic state affect his cup? Or is it more of an "arrange his marriage" thing, where she can't open the cup, but tries to find him a nice/profitable mistress? Or just "keep him out of trouble"?

3) International Contracts - Can Femtopian males be owned by non-Femtopian females & legal entities? Could a Minervan business student buy a couple of bondsmen for a start-up? Or could Interstellar Expeditions (of Arcturus 7) own a couple of males to serve as local tour guides?

4)Males Owning Males - Can a Femtopian male own another male? Can he found a company to buy his own contract?

5> Spaceport/Station Policy What are the rules of the main Vestan spaceport? Does it adhere to purely Minervan rules, or is it the sort of place where each colony-nation's semi-apply (and thus incoming Minervan freshmen might rub shoulders with an Amazonian and her half-naked slaves)?

And a couple of random thoughts:

A)Male Masturbation in Neutralia - I think you want to impose limits on male masturbation in Neutralia - at least solo masturbation. If Neutralian males have unlimited orgasmic privileges, it seems to take away from the general feel of a "chastity planet" - and the focus on the women of Vesta.

Simply rule a Neutralian male's cup closes when not in proximity to another resident of Vesta would do the trick - and help enforce the idea of a unisex utopia (since even another male would work). Or, more complex, you could state that a Neutralian male's cup closes whenever his hands approach it, unless overruled by a Neutralian female's ring.

B) "Fixed" Females - the possibility of women experimenting with feeldo/cup combinations gives a whole new meaning to "gender studies", dosen't it?

C) Vegan Feminist Hippies - Out of curiousity, are there any women on Vesta who aren't feminist (if not outright female supremacist)? Somehow, I have a hard time picturing any of the four colony-nations tolerating male chauvinism.

D) Gender Balance - Keeping Amazonia and Neutralia gender balanced (50/50 mix) is going to be hard. It still seems like there'd be a lot of male interest in Neutralia (unlimited orgasm & potential for lesbian orgies)?

Conversly, Amazonia looks like it would have a hard time competing with . . . well, any of the other colony-nations for males. To keep their area gender balanced, there'd have to be a major incentive to bring males in: serious cash payments (perhaps like Alaska, Amazonia has substantial mineral resources, and all residents get a piece of the profits), or some form of involuntary immigration (taking in prisoners from other worlds, perhaps)

Oh, and I'm not certain if you want Amazonia gender balanced - based on the theme, extremes work better. A 10:1 male-female ratio would give each woman numerous slaves to attend to her whims, while skewing it heavily female keeps males from screwing things up (kind of a lesbian-feminist isolationist commune)

E) I'm not sure you want to impose a sucks-to-be-male cup configuration on all males leaving Vesta. I was picturing it something like the old "Damned" caste - something miserable and painful, and that would motivate males to work to get things back the way they were. And imposing it on all males abroad would interfere with recruiting (a nice, broad -if closed- cup is so much more attractive than a tight/evil format)

An Insomniac Night Owl said...

Thanks for taking the time to address my questions - I do have a bit more, but I'll try and keep it much more concise.

1) Female Immigration - For women on Vesta, what are the practical differences between being a tourist, a resident alien with papers, and a citizen?

2) Galactic Class? - So, is the main university of New Athens the interstellar equivalent of the Ivy League, Oxford, and Princeton?

3) "Incest" in Femtopia - Can a woman in Femtopia own her brother/father/son's contract?

~If so, does her orgasmic state affect his cup? Or is it more of an "arrange his marriage" thing, where she can't open the cup, but tries to find him a nice/profitable mistress? Or just "keep him out of trouble"?

3) International Contracts - Can Femtopian males be owned by non-Femtopian females & legal entities? Could a Minervan business student buy a couple of bondsmen for a start-up? Or could Interstellar Expeditions (of Arcturus 7) own a couple of males to serve as local tour guides?

4)Males Owning Males - Can a Femtopian male own another male? Can he found a company to buy his own contract?

5> Spaceport/Station Policy What are the rules of the main Vestan spaceport? Does it adhere to purely Minervan rules, or is it the sort of place where each colony-nation's semi-apply (and thus incoming Minervan freshmen might rub shoulders with an Amazonian and her half-naked slaves)?

And a couple of random thoughts:

A)Male Masturbation in Neutralia - I think you want to impose limits on male masturbation in Neutralia - at least solo masturbation. If Neutralian males have unlimited orgasmic privileges, it seems to take away from the general feel of a "chastity planet" - and the focus on the women of Vesta.

Simply rule a Neutralian male's cup closes when not in proximity to another resident of Vesta would do the trick - and help enforce the idea of a unisex utopia (since even another male would work). Or, more complex, you could state that a Neutralian male's cup closes whenever his hands approach it, unless overruled by a Neutralian female's ring.

B) "Fixed" Females - the possibility of women experimenting with feeldo/cup combinations gives a whole new meaning to "gender studies", dosen't it?

C) Vegan Feminist Hippies - Out of curiousity, are there any women on Vesta who aren't feminist (if not outright female supremacist)? Somehow, I have a hard time picturing any of the four colony-nations tolerating male chauvinism.

D) Gender Balance - Keeping Amazonia and Neutralia gender balanced (50/50 mix) is going to be hard. It still seems like there'd be a lot of male interest in Neutralia (unlimited orgasm & potential for lesbian orgies)?

Conversly, Amazonia looks like it would have a hard time competing with . . . well, any of the other colony-nations for males. To keep their area gender balanced, there'd have to be a major incentive to bring males in: serious cash payments (perhaps like Alaska, Amazonia has substantial mineral resources, and all residents get a piece of the profits), or some form of involuntary immigration (taking in prisoners from other worlds, perhaps)

Oh, and I'm not certain if you want Amazonia gender balanced - based on the theme, extremes work better. A 10:1 male-female ratio would give each woman numerous slaves to attend to her whims, while skewing it heavily female keeps males from screwing things up (kind of a lesbian-feminist isolationist commune)

E) I'm not sure you want to impose a sucks-to-be-male cup configuration on all males leaving Vesta. I was picturing it something like the old "Damned" caste - something miserable and painful, and that would motivate males to work to get things back the way they were. And imposing it on all males abroad would interfere with recruiting (a nice, broad -if closed- cup is so much more attractive than a tight/evil format)