Fake/communal husband

[Brandnewbuddy]

Fantasy idea:

So I recently finished the book “SlewFoot” Nice little puritan horror fantasy with a very satisfying ending.

Anyway a plot point gave me an idea. In the book as in keeping with the times it’s set in, the main character isn’t allowed to own property and after her husband dies it’s questioned whether she has to surrender her home immediately. A sympathetic minister is able to provide a loophole by stating that she’s managing her husband’s interests.

But that got me to thinking as women being able to own and manage their own property (at least in patriarchal society) is more recent than you might think, you could tell a story with that element in quite a variety of settings or do a fantasy setting. So these ideas are about women in those situations coming up with creative solutions.

1. Medieval setting: after a number of wars there’s very few men in a remote village. Worried how they’ll manage or if the authority over the town will come and claim all their land, the village hatches a plan: the few marriageable men are now communal husbands. While polyamory isn’t allowed they just mess with the registry or, if there is no registry, they just have the husband go by different names if anyone checks.

2. Two wealthy households lose their patriarchs. Terrified of losing their lands, one of them realize they have a bastard daughter they sent away to a convent. She isn’t on the books so a little bribing and a couple correspondences and she is ready to return in disguise, posing as a man.

The household figures she’ll be submissive, too afraid of being dismissed but perhaps they should have paid attention to the way the other sisters looked when she left. Maybe they would have realized the time there only grew her appetites and honed her into a schemer.

3. Fantasy: in the mountains there’s a tradition if a woman wants to manage her own property or if two women want to marry: they make a man sized doll and sit it in a room. Everyone officially recognizes the doll as their husband and the women are free to live their lives.

But for one woman or one couple: they wake up one day and the doll is moving or is gone and a handsome man appears claiming the name of their doll and saying that he is her/their husband.

 

[PennyThompson]

Fantasy: in the mountains there’s a tradition if a woman wants to manage her own property or if two women want to marry: they make a man sized doll and sit it in a room. Everyone officially recognizes the doll as their husband and the women are free to live their lives.

But for one woman or one couple: they wake up one day and the doll is moving or is gone and a handsome man appears claiming the name of their doll and saying that he is her/their husband.

I love everything about this

It feels like something a viking-esque society would do, to accommodate queer couples without angering their vengeful reactionary gods.

Helde and Inga have a good situation. They built a StrawHusband, and brought him out to the town square. They professed their love to their husband and said the marriage vows, they sacrificed the sheep and tied the cloth around their hands. Now their husband sits in the corner of the house near the hearth, and they're free to do as they please. The local priest and some of the village elders might frown on it, but they're adhering to the customs, they're following the rules.

Until the Great Aurora, the one that the priest says was a Godbattle in the sky, the one that made ball lightning roll across the fields and killed one of Snorin's cows. The next morning, Helde and Inga got up to find that their StrawHusband had come to life!

He's tending the hearth, making a pot of porridge like he's always been there. He's perfectly nice, kind, curious, innocent, kind of dumb... he's just not their type. But they have a responsibility to him, so they keep him as part of the household.

Strawman or no, he's still got needs and urges. They feel bad for him, but what can you do?

Except... Lars and Ole down the lane... Well they've got a StrawWife...

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

The idea came from an article I read which reported (I couldn’t find it again so I can’t verify) that there was an indigenous tribe in North America that allowed women to marry but since fertility was important to the tribe, the couple would make a symbolic baby out of rope to serve as a spiritual child.

I took that idea but switched it to a husband

 

[PennyThompson]

Unless you want to write something along those lines, I might save this as a story for the Dark Fairytales event later this year

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

Unless you want to write something along those lines, I might save this as a story for the Dark Fairytales event later this year

Go ahead! Any idea I post on here is up for grabs!