Old Rule: Women spanking men is a societal norm

You chew the end of the pencil, looking contemplatively at this strange book. You might just have imagined that disappearing barista's shirt... or you might not have. Even if it's not real, what a tempting notion. On an impulse, you write in the outline of a fantasy you've often entertained while playing with yourself. Your ears blush bright pink at the dirty daring of writing this someplace public like a coffee shop, but what the heck, right?

Old Rule: In American society, women are considered the smarter, more capable sex, whereas men are generally considered immature and in need of guidance.

Old Rule: Reasonable corporal punishment, generally in the form of spanking, is widely accepted as the best way to help men behave and meet the standards women set for them.

It seems silly written down, but oh, the shivery delight of writing that naughty word "spanking," and the notion that someone might look over your shoulder and see it... you feel like you're getting away with something, and the fantasy that you might not get away with it has your penis perking up a little all by itself, stirring in your loose denim shorts.

Shorts?

You were wearing khakis when you left the house this morning, weren't you? Why are you now in shorts? Why is the coffee shop decorated differently? There's a TV screen up on one wall, featuring an interview with... President Monica Gallagher? Who? The woman on the screen is in her fifties, with steel-gray hair and kind, intelligent eyes. The captioning on the screen beneath her reads:

"The states still not allowing men to vote claim that they're justified by the principle of subsidiarity, solving a problem at the lowest, closest level. I agree with the principle, but that's why I disagree with the policy. There certainly are men who simply can't be trusted with the vote, nobody denies that, but the decision as to whether a given man can be trusted should not lie with the state, but with the family. If an individual man cannot be trusted to vote responsibly, the women around him, who take care of him, are the ones in the position to make that decision. Certainly better than a governor hundreds of miles away who's just trying to hang on to her seat in an election year."

The camera cuts to the reporter interviewing her, a strikingly handsome and surprisingly young man, who smiles and says "Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to turn now to the economy..."

That's all you see, because you involuntarily close your eyes as a rush of memories hits you. You'd written Old Rule, after all, and American society as the organization. You've just changed the entire culture, going back centuries, and now all the knowledge of having grown up in that culture is washing over you, like in a dream where you remember that you've always been a werewolf, it just slipped your mind until now.

Your childhood copy of A Boy's Guide To American History. President Abigail Adams. The Departition Issue. The Matriarchal Reforms. The laboratories of democracy. State vs. federal authority. The Kansas Agenda. Neo-Egalitarianism. Loving authority. Always that term, loving authority.

All those old Allen & Burns radio shows with the hilarious spanking sound effects. The comic strips with Dagwood Bumred and his reddened bum in the last panel. All those cheap "men's novels" where the hero risks getting in trouble to seek adventure, and he always finds adventure, but always gets in trouble too. That classic sitcom Raising Ricky, and the look on Ricky's face when his wife would catch him at his latest scheme. You have a T-shirt of that iconic expression, with the catchphrase "I'm in for it now" printed underneath.

That old magazine ad with the man standing in the corner with a bright red bottom, over the slogan "It's not our job to make sure you buy the best: it's hers." The bestselling Woman & Boy: a Modern Matriarchal Marriage Manual, with its very detailed illustrations. Endless objectifying advertisements based on the fact that it's women who make the purchasing decisions, and nothing makes a woman make bad decisions faster than a very pretty boy. Young men pictured bending over car hoods seductively, or half-dressed and holding a deodorant, or holding out a Fuller-brand hairbrush handle-first toward the camera, face in an adorable expression of nervous contrition.

A nation where women are contentedly and caringly in charge, and men are beloved perpetual boys, to be cared for and cosseted and given the discipline that everyone knows they need.

You open your eyes slowly, mind adjusting to two sets of memories, even as you know that the new set is now the true one, and always has been. It's frightening to think that you've changed the world so much with just a few lines on paper, but as you compare your two memories, you realize that you've changed it for the better. This America is more peaceful and prosperous than the one you knew. Because you wrote American society, the matriarchy officially stops at the border, but it has had substantial global influence. In the family of nations, America is the crazy-but-lovable aunt. The American way of doing things may be weird, runs the conventional wisdom, but it does seem to work.

Your own personal memories are still falling into place, and there's a stark duality. In your old set, you've never been spanked. Craved it since childhood, but apart from a few shameful self-spanking masturbation sessions, never gotten what you craved. In your new mental timeline, you have ample sense-memory of being spanked, and you know it hurts worse than you imagined, and feels righter than you dreamed.

Just then, your phone rings, the ringtone a brief sample from the pop song "Little Red Wagon".