Need help developing idea

[Souxiewannabe]

I have an idea for a story or series of stories about an alternate history where women getting the vote in America devolves into a matriarchy with men as slaves. I just have no clue how to develop this idea into a full fledged story so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GlennJenko]

Interesting premise.

I think my first questions for fleshing it out would be how exactly such a shift played out, how long it took, etc. Then look for an "angle" to take with it. E.g. choosing whether you want the main character to be one of the matriarchs of a man, and how they approach their social context.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

You could build on the relationship between the Temperance and Suffrage movements in the USA. Women play on the idea that men are uniquely vulnerable to the evils of drink and need the moral guidance of women to avoid destroying all that is good in human life (which was very much the Temperance message). Some terrible scandal involving drink and a very masculine man gets society (and the laws) to give women primacy in politics and also control of family wealth.

Say, in your alternate universe, a fictional US President was strongly opposed to Women's Suffrage, then was found to have murdered his wife and drunkenly beaten his mistress. (Like the real Woodrow Wilson, he had a stroke that affected his behavior, but doctors didn't diagnose it.) The reaction was to turn power over to women, who were perceived as too kind, caring, and nonviolent to abuse their power. This perception was wrong.

You wrote, "... in America ..." Perhaps other countries in this world went in the opposite direction? Or just a very different one?

--Annie

 

[Rob_Royale]

You're overthinking the idea. Trying to create an alternate history is time consuming, because you have to justify everything with, 'this happened because'.

Just create a different world. And there's no need to expand on that either, just add something special about the world that isn't in ours and readers will get it.

In my recent story, Velvet Collars, young nobles are auctioned off for the purpose of sexual education and the main characters drive off in a stream powered vehicle. All within the first 500 words.

Those two things let the reader know 'this isn't our world' and there was no need to explain further.

A matriarchal society is a very cool idea and I think it would appeal to lots of readers.

 

[TheRedLantern]

It may be worth checking out "The Power" by Naomi Alderman. It poses a similar question to you "What if women had the power to oppress men?" although it takes a bit more of a sci-fi approach than a political one (basically, women develop an additional organ or gland that lets them generate electric shocks that can kill men. I'm not ruining anything, that's all talked about in the first couple of chapters).

I read it. It's not a good book in terms of characters & storytelling, in my opinion, but it was a great book for the questions it asked and the implications it explored as a result.

I think it might have been made into a show for streaming, although I didn't watch it.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I feel you have the backdrop of the story, but need a story to play on it.

Keep in mind that the backdrop doesn't need to be explained. It only needs to be understood. You never have to go into detail what happened, nor the long history beforehand.

As an example and immediately a story idea we van follow a male activist that is for equal rights. From just following him we can understand the world without the history. Because he's for equal rights, and we name matriarchy, we already understand it. There is a matriarchal society where the rights aren't equal.

You can of course reveal something of the history. The man simply muttering his frustration that women getting a vote in [desired year] got out of hand. I would always vote against detailed exposition, unless absolutely, undoubtedly relevant to the plot. Even if you've crafted the most beautiful world, people can only take so much in at a time.

You can if course give all of it, but we can always find exceptions to a rule. In that case you sprinkle it in with the story.

The story about this man for equal rights can be about his fruitless struggle. How women are using him, and tell him he likes it (which he might genuinely do), so why is he complaining? You can give this external conflict an internal spin by having him at a protest, and a woman he really likes to be a slave for comes by. His personal love for it versus the greater cause can be a great tension point.

I could device some other story outlines, but for now this is the best I think.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

Yeah, I think it’s best if you just keep the details vague (like say something to the effect of “after the incident what started as a push for women’s rights got turned into the instatement of a dominating matriarchal government”)

Bigger thing is exploring the present of your story: is it worldwide? Like is MC trying to get to another country to escape or is that not an option? What do relationships look like? For example, do they recognize male partners or even husbands or do they only recognize lesbian partnerships and only keep track of male partners for the purposes of breeding?

I could see an interesting setting: MC grew up in the country where things were more equal: mom recognized his father as her husband (unofficially) though she did have to train son to act the part of a servant or slave in case a visitor from a more matriarchal territory.

However, his mother came into some wealth and she has to make an alliance via marriage to a more powerful family to save the household (as she went from an easily ignored country noble to a very rich and potentially influential one overnight without the education on how to work or survive that role) Wife isn’t too bad at first but when her new stepdaughter is fondly talking about her brother and asks why he can’t eat at the table, she makes it clear some changes will need to occur. She calls son to her room and explains he will now only wear a loincloth. His duty is to make love to her and make her pregnant so their two households will be united in blood (mom originally lied and said she only had a daughter, since she has a son her new wife is allowed to make him her sex slave).

Mom tries to intervene but her new wife wins out and declares son will get a “proper” education in the city. So after she gets pregnant she takes her slave/stepson to the city and he finds out how the greater society works.

Eventually he escapes and tries to either start a revolution or flee. But in addition to being escaped, it was found out of the women he had sex with, all of them gave birth to girls, making him very valuable.

 

[Carnevil9]

You could take the old "Connecticut Yankee" approach to telling the tale: some unexplained magical force propels our hero (or heroine) from our normal world into this alternate matriarchal babe-o-verse, and he (or she) has to figure out WTF is going on, along with the reader. The first Gor novel used this approach, too. So did both Alice in Wonderland books.

 

[TheOtherTeacher]

It's a lot harder to remove rights, than it is to prevent them in the first place.

Imagine a world where men have always been slaves, and women have always had all the power.

Watch the Barbie movie for an example.

I would suggest putting in a point that most men enjoy the situation. Free food, guaranteed work and occasional sex, to avoid the story getting too dark.

What's the story?
That depends on a male POV or female POV.

A male POV might be a man trying to change the system. Maybe sleeping with more and more influential people, trying to get rights for men. Maybe have a dark ending with him arrested for campaigning for men's rights.

A female POV could be a young lady suddenly inheriting her aunt's wealth and finding herself with male slaves / servants. She has to learn to love being their owner.