It seems like only yesterday t hat I asked readers of this blog or whatever the hell it is to think about what a society where women didn't get raped or sexually harassed any more often than they get eaten by alligators or sharks. And that's because it WAS only yesterday.
My feeling is that under such circumstances women would be a lot more open, relaxed and easygoing around men. That's because rape and sexual harassment wouldn't be a commonplace issue. Most women, even if they haven't been raped or sexually harassed, have close friends and/or relatives who have. They know it's out there, it can happen to them, very easily. That's why women are cautious around men in our culture, especially around men they don't know well. Women are always vetting men, because they HAVE to, for their own safety. Most men aren't inclined to rape or sexually harass women out of the blue, but enough men ARE inclined to do so, to cast a pall of suspicion on all the rest of men.
What if this were not the case, though? What if men simply were not interested in raping and sexually harassing women, in a society where birth control was safe, effective and readily available?
You know the answer, it's obvious. Women would be a lot more open and relaxed around men, more sexually open, too, and more sexually active. How open? It's hard to say, because nothing like this exists in any earth culture or subculture that I know of. Some subcultures are more sexually open than others – imagine the gulf of sexual expectations and experience between the child of a Hollywood movie star and the child of a poor Christian fundamentalist – but the widespread nature of sexual harassment and rape is like a wind that blows everywhere, no matter what the local weather.
I think though, that if women didn't have to worry about being assaulted, it would manifest itself at a very fundamental level, at the body language level. It would be kind of the way women act around their gay male friends, but with one important difference – there would always be the chance that she might wind up having sex with a straight male friend. The difference is, if she did, it would be consensual sex that she wanted, so a fun, positive experience.
Under these circumstances, straight women would think of straight men as being … like candy. A fun, good thing. The powerful effect of sexual desire would still be there to attract women to men as well. There would probably be a lot more of what we now call “promiscuity” but which would simply be normal sexual attraction acting in an atmosphere of safety and openness.
People from such a culture, if they were transplanted to Earth, would be noticeable. Their body language alone would give them away, without engaging in any promiscuous behavior at all.
Now let's think about the men from such a world. What would they be like? Suppose you knew, as a practical matter, that if you want to get laid you can do so easily, anytime, without spending a lot of money or going to a lot of effort. You could go out to a bar or nightclub and meet a woman who wanted to have sex as much as you did, one among many such women. How would that change things? How would you feel if a woman from our current world were to come along and just assume you were sex-starved and would rape her if you had the chance?
You'd feel insulted. Why would you rape this woman when you could fuck a woman who liked you and you liked, very easily? You're not some damn scummy rapist, you're a fun, sexy guy, all the girls you hang out with think so. You like women. Why would a woman assume such a thing about you? Yeah, it's insulting, makes you feel like less of man than you are. Your response to such a woman would probably be massive disinterest. Why would you want to put up with that shit?
Men from such a world would be noticeably different from Earth men, too. Much less … anxious, as it were.
So that's how I write the characters from Collar World. When Ariana Hufflepuff comes to Collar World and accuses people of wanting to rape her, there is much rolling of eyes. No one wants to have sex with her, much less rape her, because she's clearly got mental problems, from their point of view.
Thought experiments like this are what makes alternate world stories interesting to me. I try to create a real culture that has believable people in it that are just different from us, because their background is different from ours. That allows me to write stories that have punch, and that surprise readers with their differentness, but a differentness that somehow makes sense, that has an internal logic of its own. That's the goal, anyway.
Gratuitous toy use!
