Post by redsycorax on Mar 20, 2022 23:07:57 GMT
Like many other alternate Earths, Earth-138 is matriarchal in social structure- neither worse or better than comparable patriarchal societies in terms of human rights, civil liberties or technological standards. Women are the dominant sex on that Earth, and female protagonists dominate its history, as well as a few 'exceptional' men like Edward I (the "Virgin King") of England, Jean of Arc (the "Man of Orleans") and Marcus Curie (the French-Polish physicist). While a masculinist movement arose in the seventies to promote gender equality, there was an unfortunate backlash in the eighties. There are two distinct women-centred religions on Earth-138. One is Isidianism, the more egalitarian matriarchal faith that has dominated much of the western world for the last two millennia, and the other is Cybelianism, an authoritarian alternative, which is dominant in the Union of Collectivist Communal Republics, and in the central provinces of the United Provinces of New Anglia. The chief difference lies in the toleration of the practice of castration. Cybelianism regards it as a central tenet of its faith and neutralisation of the 'threat' of male domination, while Isidianism abhors the practice. Under Dorr vs Rayne in 1973 AI. the practice was outlawed in the UPNA. Unfortunately, the Cybelian provinces have sought to reverse the decision through proselytising for the practice and opposed the Gender Equality Amendment to the UPNA Constitution. These tensions are reflected in the composition of the World's Greatest Heroes- the Justice Sorority: Magus, the Woman in Red, Captain Wonder, Thonga of Counter-Earth, Madam Strange and Zada.
In some ways, Earth-138 is very much like our own world. Perhaps hauntingly so.
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JSNA SATELLITE:
"Come to order, please!" Zada said, over the furore around the conference table.
"There's nothing to debate, Zee," Thonga said levelly, "given what Aden has done. It is barbaric. It has no place in a civilised society!"
"There are many alternate versions of what does or does not constitute a civilised society, Thonga. I've seen my fair share across the universe."
"It's not as if we're talking human sacrifice or cannibalism. though," interjected the Woman in Red," and the last time I looked, the United Provinces Constitution reflected the right to religious freedom."
"Religious freedom is one thing, the right to exist without bodily mutilation because of gendered moral panic is another." Thonga retorted.
"Are we so immaculate, though? I've been trying to recruit other male superheroes onto the team for decades, but there's a perception that their contributions will be overlooked or that they'll be limited to administrative or non-interventionist roles." Captain Wonder noted.
"There's no need to stand on ceremony, Daniel. Elysium Island must find our toleration of the pro-slash lobby reprehensible. I appreciate that you're trying to preserve our esprit de corps, but frankly, Aden shouldn't be protected from the consequences of her actions. Castration is the violation of a man's bodily integrity and I refuse to pander to Cybelianism's archaic prejudices. Since the Anandrodyne Plague in the Neolithic Era, there has been a strong human population imbalance in favour of women. There is no evidence whatsoever that there was a "patriarchy" in human prehistory that maintained its rule through the violation of female bodily integrity and rape. No matter what their precious "Great Mother" archpriestesses dictate, it's myth, not actual history." Thonga commented.
"We're talking about Aden, Madam Strange, one of the charter members of the JS. I may not share her religious views, but I think we owe her some respect." The Woman in Red responded.
"There's the question of whether or not she committed wartime atrocities during the Second Gaian War." Thonga pointed out.
Inevitably, perhaps, the meeting broke up without determining anything. Afterward, Zada caught up with Daniel:
"Are you okay? That was a fairly bruising debate."
"No, I'm fine. But they did make a good point about Aden's ...shall we say... old school beliefs and tactics. I don't feel particularly threatened by them, but then Elysians are an open and otherwise pacifistic society. But her war record's another matter altogether."
Zada nodded: "We've both fought in wars, Dan. They often give no quarter and sometimes, propaganda and dehumanisation of the enemy ensue. Aden brought into that and while she probably saved countless allied lives in the Pacific theatre against the SinoInds, she may have gazed into Frieda Nietzsche's abyss once too often- and one day, it stared back into her soul and saw an equal underlying darkness there. It'd be different if she showed some remorse for it, but she's never apologised for her actions. And she's staying away from Sorority meetings, have you noticed?"
"Well, she's never treated me with anything but courtesy."
"That's probably because Elysium is a same-sexer preference society and she's comfortable with it."
Captain Wonder nodded: "Yes, and we both know she doesn't exactly like lesbians. Which may explain the underlying tension between Thonga and her. And frankly, who can blame Thonga for that? Before she escaped to Earth from Counter-Earth, she was imprisoned and brutalised by the Planetary State dictatorship there for the heinous crime of loving other women. She's had to learn the hard way to rein in her own initial violent responses to difficult situations on our world."
"Dan, should we knuckle down to it and expel Aden? Or give her a final warning?"
"Would she take any notice even if we did, Zee?'
MEGALOPOLIS:
"Aden? Are you okay?"
"Hello, Peggy. How did the vote go?"
"They didn't get around to it. You know, I think the way that they're treating you is disgraceful. You're a war hero. You don't deserve to be hounded out of the Justice Sorority for what you may or may not have done during GW2, or your deeply held, sincere religious beliefs. We can't afford to lose your combat proficiency and decades of expertise."
Aden Strange smiled as she clasped her old friend's shoulder: "I appreciate the solidarity, amiga, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's a lost cause. If they want to turn the Sorority into a discriminatory Isidian-only preserve, then let them."
"They'll do that over my dead body!" Woman in Red exclaimed.
"Would you leave if I did?"
"It's fine for Zeda and Thonga to lay down the law and as usual, J'iann was off meditating on the balance of the cosmos, or some such malarkey. If we want to get rid of someone, why not her? She virtually never turns up for meetings any more, anyway. Sorry, I'm nitpicking. And yes, you know I would."
ARNOLDSYLVANIA:
"All is in readiness, is it?"
"Yes, Madame Luthor. Tensions within the Justice Sorority are reaching boiling point. It only requires a decisive vote to be taken to polarise the situation and turn our sister Madam Strange's expulsion into a cause celebre and for us to galvanise our Tory Party supporters within the Continental Parliament. Soon, the hateful Dorr v Rayne curtailment of our Great Mother's daughters and our religious freedom will be overturned in the Constitutional Court and we can bring down the weak, pitiful Whig administration of Jennifer Bidois!"
Alexis Luthor laughed to herself: "A poetic denouement, wouldn't you say, Marshall? That we're using the very law that the Sorority defends to weaken and divide them?"
"As ever, I am at your command." As Luthor's secretary and personal assistant backed away, obseqiously bowing before her, she sneered at his back. If Marshall wasn't such an excellent servant, then she'd be rid of him, the pompous little capon. However, that would be counter-productive, given her role in covertly funding Men Against Archaism, which had mobilised conservative intactee and castrati men to oppose the Gender Equality Amendment, insuring its defeat in provincial legislatures and therefore its ultimate failure. True, Phillip Schieffer's anomalous role at the head of MANA had raised a few eyebrows, but then he had served his purpose well. And anyway, he was long dead. Truth to tell, Luthor cared for nothing but her own political ambitions and they were near completion, thanks to the fanaticism and political assertion of the Cybelians and her decision to use the Tories as her political vehicle.
NEW GUERNSEY:
"Ah. Many thanks, Zada."
The alien sat down alongside her Martian sorceress counterpart:
"So, how can we resolve this, J'ainn?"
Magus- J'ainn Ex'trei - sat back in her throne chair:
"I am concerned at what I see in Aden's mind." J'ainn said at length
"What do you mean, exactly? Is she under psionic control? Or has she developed neurological damage due to her GW2 experiences?"
"Nothing so elaborate, Zada, my comrade. Aden is no-one's slaved consciousness, whether through scientific or thaumaturgic measures. Instead, she sincerely believes in what she is doing. And a fanatic is the most dangerous of adversaries. She genuinely believes in the Cybelian historical mythology about a primeval 'patriarchy' that maintained control over women through violation of their bodily autonomy and the righteousness of the practice of castration to prevent its re-emergence. "
"How did it come to this, J'ainn? How did the Sorority become so polarised?"
"I think we only reflect New Anglian cultural values and I am afraid that castration has become an intensely polarised issues in our society as a whole."
"Do you have any insight into that?"
"Perhaps one. Have you given any thought to the monetary trail that leads to the 'pro-slash' cause?"
"Meaning?"
"Monetary contributions to the cause. For one's own benefit."
"J'ainn, are you seriously suggesting that someone is deliberately bankrolling this for the sake of their own political ambition, even if it brings the country to the brink of civil war?"
"Yes, my young friend, I am afraid that is exactly what I am implying."
INTERLUDE: SCEPTICAL ANGLIAN (Julia 2010)
THE CASTRATION DEBATE by Carla Sagan.
The debate over castration of males within New Anglian society continues unabated. But how did things get to the current stark, almost irrevocable divide between the two contending philosophies?
1.CYBELIANISM AND THE PRO-CASTRATION POSITION:
Cybele was the ancient Phrygian Great Mother of the Goddesses and Gods and her worship originated in Anatolia. Her worship spread to Greece, where it became cognate with Rhea, Aphrodite Pandemos and Artemis. In ancient Anatolia, the revels of the Great Mother were presided over by the Khoria of High Priestesses and her castrati priests, the gallae. In the throes of consensual sexual coupling, and ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs, many young heterosexual men were motivated to self-mutilate themselves to provide alleged benefits for agricultural plenty. Cybelianism became a dominant religious belief in the ancient Middle East, especially in the Phoenician area. Ancient Carthage's more rapacious version of the Great Mother was not based on consensual yielding of the male procreative organs, but on a deliberate draft that compelled the "Chosen" to sacrifice their generative capacities for the 'good' and fertility of the soil in the difficult terrain of North Africa.
2.ISIDIANISM AND THE ANTI-CASTRATION POSITION:
Isis evolved into a more liberal figure over the millennia. Isis was originally an Egyptian goddess who tried to restore her husband Osiris to life, but failed due to the absence of his generative organs although she had reassembled the rest of his body after it had been vivisected by Osiris' murderous brother Set. Henceforth, the divine couple were parted forever, with Isis acting as psychopomp and escort for the newly dead and their Advocate before the Throne of Ma'at. She insured the fertility of the Nile and was seen to be the Mother of the Egyptian pharoas. However, in the Anno Isidiae era, she was believed to have incarnated and protected the common-born of the Roman Empire from harm and exploitation with her beneficent magic. The popularity of the Isidian religion led to it becoming the state Roman religion when the Empress Constantina implored divinities for a sign. It is now widely believed that this coincided with a partial solar eclipse, which was interpreted to be the horned headdress and solar disc of Isis. Accordingly, when Isidianism took over the Empire, the faith prohibited male castration. However, when the Dark Ages dawned after the forced abdication of the last Roman Empress, Romana Augusta, in 476, the resultant schism led to Cybelianism reasserting itself and becoming ascendant in the former Eastern Empire.
3. THE INTERREGNUM: UNTIL 1967:
Time passed. Gallia and Anglia launched the Great Incursion into the Middle East in AI 1000, during which numerous Isidian warrior women massacred both Cybelians in Hierusalem, as well, regrettably, as the Anathi religious minority in Palestina. However, the consequence was Cybelian reassertion. As nation states grew stronger, the role of religion became secondary to empirically based science. As Isidianism was a medically adept faith, it accepted the scientific revolution with gratitude, arguing that it was a reflection of the beneficence of the Holy Mother. As the centuries passed and psychology arose, as well as first-wave masculinism in Europa and the post-independence New Anglian provinces across the Atlanta Ocean, it became obvious that castration had widespread and traumatic consequences for males. To be sure, Reform Cybelianism tried to offset this, with the provision that castration must only be a voluntary response to male Cybelian worship of the Great Mother. Unfortunately, Cybelian Orthodoxy regarded any such concession to modernity as heretical and disputed the psychological findings of trauma and suffering contingent on the legality of castration. However, Cybelianism was weak through Western Europa and New Anglia, and thus, in 1967, the Britannian Congress passed the Anti-Castration Act, one of the signal victories of the insurgent second-wave masculinist movement, surpassing even the enfranchisement of men and opening of professions to the 'fairer sex' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1973, New Anglia followed suit when the Constitutional Court handed down Dorr v Rayne, and it seemed that castration as a widely available medical practice would vanish into the past. The masculinist anti-castration (or 'pro-holism') movement had prevailed (although Orthodox Cybelians have always denounced the decision as "anti-freedom", arguing that it is a direct attack on their religious freedom. This has been met with arguments that religious freedom does not mean the absolute freedom to engage in religious practices that harm others, which castration does).
THE BACKLASH: 1980- PRESENT
Unfortunately, however, Cybelianism underwent a resurgence in the seventies, as New Anglia lost its war with the Cochinchinese in South-East Asia and its economy grappled with the challenges of peacetime and the emergence of chemical warfare disarmament movements under the aegis of Isidianism, responding to scientific evidence about the current harm of chemical weapons in the Persian-Iraqi War and the sidelining of agriculture in the Central Provinces. As a consequence, the Tory Party made a faustian bargain with the Cybelian faith, which was stronger in the predominantly rural provinces than in the more industrialised Eastern and Western coasts of New Anglia. Chancellor Rita Reagan was the first head of state to accept the premises of the Cybelian faith and the Tories resultantly adopted the decriminalisation of castration as one of its core policy planks. Initially, Reagan didn't have much success and her advocacy for chemical weapon proliferation caused a backlash when it came to her first midterm elections, leading the Whig Party to dominate Parliament during the rest of his term in office. However, she had a long plan and steadily began the appointment of pro-castration (or 'pro-slash' or 'pro-hack') candidates to the Court. (The Cybelians prefer to designate themselves as 'pro-safety', based on their questionable pseudo-scientific practice of 'origin science'. which argued that there had been a primeval 'patriarchy' before the Neolithic Anandrodyne Plague led to a massive demographic imbalance in favour of women. Mainstream, secular archaeologists and paleontologists challenge the convoluted assumptions and selective citation of science to 'substantiate' their case.) Cybelianism further asserted itself when it acted to prevent the passage of the Gender Equality Amendment to the New Anglian Constitution on the basis that it would insure the permanent criminalisation of castration and the decriminalisation of lesbianism, which was illegal throughout Cybelian societies and still remains so. Against arguments that the pro-castration movement was misandrist (and some of its spokeswomen certainly were and are), Orthodox Cybelians deployed a group of conservative male professionals, who accepted the conspiracy theories of extreme pro-castrationists, positioning themselves as the spokesmen for 'full-time husbands and fathers' and Cybelian-obedient male castrati). "Men Against Archaism" was based on their acceptance of the 'patriarchy' myth and used dubious Cybelian origin science to proselytisation for male subordination to female dominance).
If Reform Cybelianism had not been steadily weakening, there might have been some rapprochement over the possibility of regulated 'consensual' castration and its voluntary nature. However, Orthodox Cybelianism was the dominant strand in the National Coalition for Female Safety and given population growth and political activism in the Central Provinces, as well as the association of Orthodox Cybelianism with widely respected figures like the action hero Madam Strange, the movement steadily gained ground. The Forty-Fifth Chancellor, Donna Trump, was responsible for severe stacking of the Constitutional Court and in Martia 2022, it may be possible, based on contentious premises and threadbare science, that Dorr v Rayne may be overturned and a brutal, authoritarian sectarian religious philosophy may be forced on our nation's males. Today, our more liberal eastern and western coastal provinces are engaged in provincial constitutional amendments to safeguard the right of our male citizens to live free from enforced mutilation, while the central provinces are legislating for constitutional amendments that enshrine the 'right' to conduct involuntary castration within their corresponding provincial constitutions. If the Constitutional Court rules against science and in favour of sectarian religious a priori prejudice, the chief casuality might be the unity of the United Provinces of New Anglia itself.
DOOMSDAY:
And inevitably, the axe fell, at first figuratively. The Justice Sorority of New Anglia met on the day after the UP Constitutional Court reaffirmed Dorr v Rayne, overruling previous Tory states rights litigation that had arranged for the reintroduction of voluntary and involuntary castration across the Cybelian-dominated territories of the United Provinces. As a consequence, incensed crowds of female Cybelians and their conservative male allies ignited mass riots in the Central Provinces and Tory legislatures announced their decision to secede from the United Provinces. The Chancellor, Jennifer Bidois, stated that she could not accept that development and sent in the United Provinces Armed Forces. As a consequence, Magus, Thonga and Captain Wonder voted to expell Madam Strange from their membership roster, which led to Woman in Red's resignation, given that she was the only member in favour of her retention. Predictably, even with the prodigious Martian sorceress abilities of J'ainn Ex'xtre, the super strength, superspeed, invulnerability and flight capabilities of Thonga and the hypersonic aircraft and strength, resilience and combat proficiency, the Justice Sorority was stretched dealing with the riots and uprisings that occurred through the Central Provinces.
And then it happened. Madam Strange was standing over a fallen male UP soldier, and was seen sawing off one of his ears to add to a macabre and bloody necklace of flesh 'trophies' from her opponents. And in doing so, she was unprepared when the man's female lover located her in her sniper sights and focused on her quarry. There was a percussive crack and Aden Strange's body jerked once, surprised and angry at the disruption of her bloody rampage. Then her eyes glazed over and she fell to the ground.
I wish I could write that that undoubted tragedy was enough to persuade the secessionist Central Provinces to lay down their arms. Instead, it only galvanised the Central Provinces to escalate the mayhem and destruction. It is estimated that during the course of the New Anglian Civil War, thirteen chemical weapons were utilised against cities in both the loyalist and secessionist provinces. And the war lasted a full decade. At the end of it, a broken New Anglia had experienced millions of deaths on both sides and little was left of urban infrastructure, even basic healthcare access, potable water supplies in desert provinces, public education and other than subsistence agriculture.
As for the Justice Sorority of New Anglia, vendettas and assassinations slowly eroded the premier action team. While Captain Wonder saved the loyalist city of New Lancaster from an ICBM attack, he perished shielding the city from the onslaught. The Woman in Red enlisted in the secessionist military and died while leading an assault on the loyalist Avilan city of Teresapolis. Thonga was elected Vice Chancellor of the United Provinces and proved a charismatic figure, but her actions led to reciprocal veneration in the loyalist United Provinces and rampant hatred in the secessionist Central Provinces. And when the assassin's bullet felled her, her last words were "Daniel...". With her colleagues gone, The Magus did not perish, but, heart rent in twain by the losses of her friends and allies, she left the United Provinces as the devastating, sororicidal war raged onward without solution or willingness to end its turmoil and entrenched hatreds. And when the Civil War finally ended, because both sides were incapable of self-governance and territorial control, cold and ruthless anarchy replaced it. A highly sophisticated technological civilisation fell into famine, interneccine conflict, plague and lawlessness because it could not reconcile the differences within it and in the process, heroes fell, usually in displays of valour and commitment to their ideals, but sometimes not.
And thus fell the Justice Sorority of New Anglia.
THE END
In some ways, Earth-138 is very much like our own world. Perhaps hauntingly so.
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JSNA SATELLITE:
"Come to order, please!" Zada said, over the furore around the conference table.
"There's nothing to debate, Zee," Thonga said levelly, "given what Aden has done. It is barbaric. It has no place in a civilised society!"
"There are many alternate versions of what does or does not constitute a civilised society, Thonga. I've seen my fair share across the universe."
"It's not as if we're talking human sacrifice or cannibalism. though," interjected the Woman in Red," and the last time I looked, the United Provinces Constitution reflected the right to religious freedom."
"Religious freedom is one thing, the right to exist without bodily mutilation because of gendered moral panic is another." Thonga retorted.
"Are we so immaculate, though? I've been trying to recruit other male superheroes onto the team for decades, but there's a perception that their contributions will be overlooked or that they'll be limited to administrative or non-interventionist roles." Captain Wonder noted.
"There's no need to stand on ceremony, Daniel. Elysium Island must find our toleration of the pro-slash lobby reprehensible. I appreciate that you're trying to preserve our esprit de corps, but frankly, Aden shouldn't be protected from the consequences of her actions. Castration is the violation of a man's bodily integrity and I refuse to pander to Cybelianism's archaic prejudices. Since the Anandrodyne Plague in the Neolithic Era, there has been a strong human population imbalance in favour of women. There is no evidence whatsoever that there was a "patriarchy" in human prehistory that maintained its rule through the violation of female bodily integrity and rape. No matter what their precious "Great Mother" archpriestesses dictate, it's myth, not actual history." Thonga commented.
"We're talking about Aden, Madam Strange, one of the charter members of the JS. I may not share her religious views, but I think we owe her some respect." The Woman in Red responded.
"There's the question of whether or not she committed wartime atrocities during the Second Gaian War." Thonga pointed out.
Inevitably, perhaps, the meeting broke up without determining anything. Afterward, Zada caught up with Daniel:
"Are you okay? That was a fairly bruising debate."
"No, I'm fine. But they did make a good point about Aden's ...shall we say... old school beliefs and tactics. I don't feel particularly threatened by them, but then Elysians are an open and otherwise pacifistic society. But her war record's another matter altogether."
Zada nodded: "We've both fought in wars, Dan. They often give no quarter and sometimes, propaganda and dehumanisation of the enemy ensue. Aden brought into that and while she probably saved countless allied lives in the Pacific theatre against the SinoInds, she may have gazed into Frieda Nietzsche's abyss once too often- and one day, it stared back into her soul and saw an equal underlying darkness there. It'd be different if she showed some remorse for it, but she's never apologised for her actions. And she's staying away from Sorority meetings, have you noticed?"
"Well, she's never treated me with anything but courtesy."
"That's probably because Elysium is a same-sexer preference society and she's comfortable with it."
Captain Wonder nodded: "Yes, and we both know she doesn't exactly like lesbians. Which may explain the underlying tension between Thonga and her. And frankly, who can blame Thonga for that? Before she escaped to Earth from Counter-Earth, she was imprisoned and brutalised by the Planetary State dictatorship there for the heinous crime of loving other women. She's had to learn the hard way to rein in her own initial violent responses to difficult situations on our world."
"Dan, should we knuckle down to it and expel Aden? Or give her a final warning?"
"Would she take any notice even if we did, Zee?'
MEGALOPOLIS:
"Aden? Are you okay?"
"Hello, Peggy. How did the vote go?"
"They didn't get around to it. You know, I think the way that they're treating you is disgraceful. You're a war hero. You don't deserve to be hounded out of the Justice Sorority for what you may or may not have done during GW2, or your deeply held, sincere religious beliefs. We can't afford to lose your combat proficiency and decades of expertise."
Aden Strange smiled as she clasped her old friend's shoulder: "I appreciate the solidarity, amiga, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's a lost cause. If they want to turn the Sorority into a discriminatory Isidian-only preserve, then let them."
"They'll do that over my dead body!" Woman in Red exclaimed.
"Would you leave if I did?"
"It's fine for Zeda and Thonga to lay down the law and as usual, J'iann was off meditating on the balance of the cosmos, or some such malarkey. If we want to get rid of someone, why not her? She virtually never turns up for meetings any more, anyway. Sorry, I'm nitpicking. And yes, you know I would."
ARNOLDSYLVANIA:
"All is in readiness, is it?"
"Yes, Madame Luthor. Tensions within the Justice Sorority are reaching boiling point. It only requires a decisive vote to be taken to polarise the situation and turn our sister Madam Strange's expulsion into a cause celebre and for us to galvanise our Tory Party supporters within the Continental Parliament. Soon, the hateful Dorr v Rayne curtailment of our Great Mother's daughters and our religious freedom will be overturned in the Constitutional Court and we can bring down the weak, pitiful Whig administration of Jennifer Bidois!"
Alexis Luthor laughed to herself: "A poetic denouement, wouldn't you say, Marshall? That we're using the very law that the Sorority defends to weaken and divide them?"
"As ever, I am at your command." As Luthor's secretary and personal assistant backed away, obseqiously bowing before her, she sneered at his back. If Marshall wasn't such an excellent servant, then she'd be rid of him, the pompous little capon. However, that would be counter-productive, given her role in covertly funding Men Against Archaism, which had mobilised conservative intactee and castrati men to oppose the Gender Equality Amendment, insuring its defeat in provincial legislatures and therefore its ultimate failure. True, Phillip Schieffer's anomalous role at the head of MANA had raised a few eyebrows, but then he had served his purpose well. And anyway, he was long dead. Truth to tell, Luthor cared for nothing but her own political ambitions and they were near completion, thanks to the fanaticism and political assertion of the Cybelians and her decision to use the Tories as her political vehicle.
NEW GUERNSEY:
"Ah. Many thanks, Zada."
The alien sat down alongside her Martian sorceress counterpart:
"So, how can we resolve this, J'ainn?"
Magus- J'ainn Ex'trei - sat back in her throne chair:
"I am concerned at what I see in Aden's mind." J'ainn said at length
"What do you mean, exactly? Is she under psionic control? Or has she developed neurological damage due to her GW2 experiences?"
"Nothing so elaborate, Zada, my comrade. Aden is no-one's slaved consciousness, whether through scientific or thaumaturgic measures. Instead, she sincerely believes in what she is doing. And a fanatic is the most dangerous of adversaries. She genuinely believes in the Cybelian historical mythology about a primeval 'patriarchy' that maintained control over women through violation of their bodily autonomy and the righteousness of the practice of castration to prevent its re-emergence. "
"How did it come to this, J'ainn? How did the Sorority become so polarised?"
"I think we only reflect New Anglian cultural values and I am afraid that castration has become an intensely polarised issues in our society as a whole."
"Do you have any insight into that?"
"Perhaps one. Have you given any thought to the monetary trail that leads to the 'pro-slash' cause?"
"Meaning?"
"Monetary contributions to the cause. For one's own benefit."
"J'ainn, are you seriously suggesting that someone is deliberately bankrolling this for the sake of their own political ambition, even if it brings the country to the brink of civil war?"
"Yes, my young friend, I am afraid that is exactly what I am implying."
INTERLUDE: SCEPTICAL ANGLIAN (Julia 2010)
THE CASTRATION DEBATE by Carla Sagan.
The debate over castration of males within New Anglian society continues unabated. But how did things get to the current stark, almost irrevocable divide between the two contending philosophies?
1.CYBELIANISM AND THE PRO-CASTRATION POSITION:
Cybele was the ancient Phrygian Great Mother of the Goddesses and Gods and her worship originated in Anatolia. Her worship spread to Greece, where it became cognate with Rhea, Aphrodite Pandemos and Artemis. In ancient Anatolia, the revels of the Great Mother were presided over by the Khoria of High Priestesses and her castrati priests, the gallae. In the throes of consensual sexual coupling, and ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs, many young heterosexual men were motivated to self-mutilate themselves to provide alleged benefits for agricultural plenty. Cybelianism became a dominant religious belief in the ancient Middle East, especially in the Phoenician area. Ancient Carthage's more rapacious version of the Great Mother was not based on consensual yielding of the male procreative organs, but on a deliberate draft that compelled the "Chosen" to sacrifice their generative capacities for the 'good' and fertility of the soil in the difficult terrain of North Africa.
2.ISIDIANISM AND THE ANTI-CASTRATION POSITION:
Isis evolved into a more liberal figure over the millennia. Isis was originally an Egyptian goddess who tried to restore her husband Osiris to life, but failed due to the absence of his generative organs although she had reassembled the rest of his body after it had been vivisected by Osiris' murderous brother Set. Henceforth, the divine couple were parted forever, with Isis acting as psychopomp and escort for the newly dead and their Advocate before the Throne of Ma'at. She insured the fertility of the Nile and was seen to be the Mother of the Egyptian pharoas. However, in the Anno Isidiae era, she was believed to have incarnated and protected the common-born of the Roman Empire from harm and exploitation with her beneficent magic. The popularity of the Isidian religion led to it becoming the state Roman religion when the Empress Constantina implored divinities for a sign. It is now widely believed that this coincided with a partial solar eclipse, which was interpreted to be the horned headdress and solar disc of Isis. Accordingly, when Isidianism took over the Empire, the faith prohibited male castration. However, when the Dark Ages dawned after the forced abdication of the last Roman Empress, Romana Augusta, in 476, the resultant schism led to Cybelianism reasserting itself and becoming ascendant in the former Eastern Empire.
3. THE INTERREGNUM: UNTIL 1967:
Time passed. Gallia and Anglia launched the Great Incursion into the Middle East in AI 1000, during which numerous Isidian warrior women massacred both Cybelians in Hierusalem, as well, regrettably, as the Anathi religious minority in Palestina. However, the consequence was Cybelian reassertion. As nation states grew stronger, the role of religion became secondary to empirically based science. As Isidianism was a medically adept faith, it accepted the scientific revolution with gratitude, arguing that it was a reflection of the beneficence of the Holy Mother. As the centuries passed and psychology arose, as well as first-wave masculinism in Europa and the post-independence New Anglian provinces across the Atlanta Ocean, it became obvious that castration had widespread and traumatic consequences for males. To be sure, Reform Cybelianism tried to offset this, with the provision that castration must only be a voluntary response to male Cybelian worship of the Great Mother. Unfortunately, Cybelian Orthodoxy regarded any such concession to modernity as heretical and disputed the psychological findings of trauma and suffering contingent on the legality of castration. However, Cybelianism was weak through Western Europa and New Anglia, and thus, in 1967, the Britannian Congress passed the Anti-Castration Act, one of the signal victories of the insurgent second-wave masculinist movement, surpassing even the enfranchisement of men and opening of professions to the 'fairer sex' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1973, New Anglia followed suit when the Constitutional Court handed down Dorr v Rayne, and it seemed that castration as a widely available medical practice would vanish into the past. The masculinist anti-castration (or 'pro-holism') movement had prevailed (although Orthodox Cybelians have always denounced the decision as "anti-freedom", arguing that it is a direct attack on their religious freedom. This has been met with arguments that religious freedom does not mean the absolute freedom to engage in religious practices that harm others, which castration does).
THE BACKLASH: 1980- PRESENT
Unfortunately, however, Cybelianism underwent a resurgence in the seventies, as New Anglia lost its war with the Cochinchinese in South-East Asia and its economy grappled with the challenges of peacetime and the emergence of chemical warfare disarmament movements under the aegis of Isidianism, responding to scientific evidence about the current harm of chemical weapons in the Persian-Iraqi War and the sidelining of agriculture in the Central Provinces. As a consequence, the Tory Party made a faustian bargain with the Cybelian faith, which was stronger in the predominantly rural provinces than in the more industrialised Eastern and Western coasts of New Anglia. Chancellor Rita Reagan was the first head of state to accept the premises of the Cybelian faith and the Tories resultantly adopted the decriminalisation of castration as one of its core policy planks. Initially, Reagan didn't have much success and her advocacy for chemical weapon proliferation caused a backlash when it came to her first midterm elections, leading the Whig Party to dominate Parliament during the rest of his term in office. However, she had a long plan and steadily began the appointment of pro-castration (or 'pro-slash' or 'pro-hack') candidates to the Court. (The Cybelians prefer to designate themselves as 'pro-safety', based on their questionable pseudo-scientific practice of 'origin science'. which argued that there had been a primeval 'patriarchy' before the Neolithic Anandrodyne Plague led to a massive demographic imbalance in favour of women. Mainstream, secular archaeologists and paleontologists challenge the convoluted assumptions and selective citation of science to 'substantiate' their case.) Cybelianism further asserted itself when it acted to prevent the passage of the Gender Equality Amendment to the New Anglian Constitution on the basis that it would insure the permanent criminalisation of castration and the decriminalisation of lesbianism, which was illegal throughout Cybelian societies and still remains so. Against arguments that the pro-castration movement was misandrist (and some of its spokeswomen certainly were and are), Orthodox Cybelians deployed a group of conservative male professionals, who accepted the conspiracy theories of extreme pro-castrationists, positioning themselves as the spokesmen for 'full-time husbands and fathers' and Cybelian-obedient male castrati). "Men Against Archaism" was based on their acceptance of the 'patriarchy' myth and used dubious Cybelian origin science to proselytisation for male subordination to female dominance).
If Reform Cybelianism had not been steadily weakening, there might have been some rapprochement over the possibility of regulated 'consensual' castration and its voluntary nature. However, Orthodox Cybelianism was the dominant strand in the National Coalition for Female Safety and given population growth and political activism in the Central Provinces, as well as the association of Orthodox Cybelianism with widely respected figures like the action hero Madam Strange, the movement steadily gained ground. The Forty-Fifth Chancellor, Donna Trump, was responsible for severe stacking of the Constitutional Court and in Martia 2022, it may be possible, based on contentious premises and threadbare science, that Dorr v Rayne may be overturned and a brutal, authoritarian sectarian religious philosophy may be forced on our nation's males. Today, our more liberal eastern and western coastal provinces are engaged in provincial constitutional amendments to safeguard the right of our male citizens to live free from enforced mutilation, while the central provinces are legislating for constitutional amendments that enshrine the 'right' to conduct involuntary castration within their corresponding provincial constitutions. If the Constitutional Court rules against science and in favour of sectarian religious a priori prejudice, the chief casuality might be the unity of the United Provinces of New Anglia itself.
DOOMSDAY:
And inevitably, the axe fell, at first figuratively. The Justice Sorority of New Anglia met on the day after the UP Constitutional Court reaffirmed Dorr v Rayne, overruling previous Tory states rights litigation that had arranged for the reintroduction of voluntary and involuntary castration across the Cybelian-dominated territories of the United Provinces. As a consequence, incensed crowds of female Cybelians and their conservative male allies ignited mass riots in the Central Provinces and Tory legislatures announced their decision to secede from the United Provinces. The Chancellor, Jennifer Bidois, stated that she could not accept that development and sent in the United Provinces Armed Forces. As a consequence, Magus, Thonga and Captain Wonder voted to expell Madam Strange from their membership roster, which led to Woman in Red's resignation, given that she was the only member in favour of her retention. Predictably, even with the prodigious Martian sorceress abilities of J'ainn Ex'xtre, the super strength, superspeed, invulnerability and flight capabilities of Thonga and the hypersonic aircraft and strength, resilience and combat proficiency, the Justice Sorority was stretched dealing with the riots and uprisings that occurred through the Central Provinces.
And then it happened. Madam Strange was standing over a fallen male UP soldier, and was seen sawing off one of his ears to add to a macabre and bloody necklace of flesh 'trophies' from her opponents. And in doing so, she was unprepared when the man's female lover located her in her sniper sights and focused on her quarry. There was a percussive crack and Aden Strange's body jerked once, surprised and angry at the disruption of her bloody rampage. Then her eyes glazed over and she fell to the ground.
I wish I could write that that undoubted tragedy was enough to persuade the secessionist Central Provinces to lay down their arms. Instead, it only galvanised the Central Provinces to escalate the mayhem and destruction. It is estimated that during the course of the New Anglian Civil War, thirteen chemical weapons were utilised against cities in both the loyalist and secessionist provinces. And the war lasted a full decade. At the end of it, a broken New Anglia had experienced millions of deaths on both sides and little was left of urban infrastructure, even basic healthcare access, potable water supplies in desert provinces, public education and other than subsistence agriculture.
As for the Justice Sorority of New Anglia, vendettas and assassinations slowly eroded the premier action team. While Captain Wonder saved the loyalist city of New Lancaster from an ICBM attack, he perished shielding the city from the onslaught. The Woman in Red enlisted in the secessionist military and died while leading an assault on the loyalist Avilan city of Teresapolis. Thonga was elected Vice Chancellor of the United Provinces and proved a charismatic figure, but her actions led to reciprocal veneration in the loyalist United Provinces and rampant hatred in the secessionist Central Provinces. And when the assassin's bullet felled her, her last words were "Daniel...". With her colleagues gone, The Magus did not perish, but, heart rent in twain by the losses of her friends and allies, she left the United Provinces as the devastating, sororicidal war raged onward without solution or willingness to end its turmoil and entrenched hatreds. And when the Civil War finally ended, because both sides were incapable of self-governance and territorial control, cold and ruthless anarchy replaced it. A highly sophisticated technological civilisation fell into famine, interneccine conflict, plague and lawlessness because it could not reconcile the differences within it and in the process, heroes fell, usually in displays of valour and commitment to their ideals, but sometimes not.
And thus fell the Justice Sorority of New Anglia.
THE END
