Protest in the streets!

December 3rd

The Ivy League professor we secretly contacted went public with the accusation two days ago, and two other women we considered contacting joined the bandwagon based on pure speculation alone; although we happily provided them with the actual information after the fact, since it helped justify their public stance.

Roxanne had warned me yesterday that feeding this matter more and more information could lead to the situation boiling over, and she was absolutely correct. I was now standing in the middle of an impromptu campus protest organized by student unions before most of my missionaries had a chance to contact them. The college faculty's influence on hiring staff was the topic on campus and about a thousand students were here and marched with us. Roxanne's fear was rooted in my inability to control the crowd. I only have around 1% of the female student body under my control and even if they were here, they'd only be an eighth of the crowd. Plenty of guys are also here, either to play progressive to get pussy or because they genuinely are.

But personally, I wanted a wild crowd. Nobody could imagine that someone was pulling strings to achieve this, if no strings are being pulled in this moment. Realistically, it also leaves the opportunity for things I didn't imagine happening or for things I wouldn't have done myself.

The student march reached its end at a makeshift stage, where speakers from the student union started speaking. The occasional jab at the college was met by cheers from the audience, although as I had anticipated, the biggest cheers were reserved for bemoaning the loss of talent for this college, not the blatant sexism underlying these decisions. I looked at the crowd to see how many of my girls attended and some of them were here, including the suspicious missionary, the girl who converted Mary and the most influential college admin staff. I saw her feeling visibly nervous and a bit shaky from being in a crowd for so long. I wanted to approach her, but stayed a certain distance away to listen in, as she was approached by another girl whom I recognized as the newsletter reporter we wanted to convert.

Reporter: "Hey, I wanted to ask you some questions about the protest. Are you okay? Can I talk to you?"

Missionary (Experimental 2): "Y-Yeah, it's just a l-lot to take in. There's a lot of people here."

Reporter: "Do you want to head inside for a moment so we can talk more quietly?"

The missionary nodded and the two went away, eventually emerging at the window of a room in a nearby building, from which they were overlooking the protest. The reporter sat to us down below with her back. At first everything seemed normal, but then I realized that the reporter girl's arm movements to jot down notes became sluggish and slow with her eventually dropping the pen completely. Not even three minutes later, both emerged from the building again, with the reporter showing no signs of anything being wrong or different.

She started approaching other people to ask them for some statements before eventually making her way to me.

Reporter: "Hi, I'm Anne from the school newsletter. Can I just ask what made you join the protest? I want to get the feeling on the ground."

Me: "Honestly, what worries me most is just the loss of talent for our college. We seem to have rejected ambitious and smart professors for no good reasons. Imagine how much more renowned our college and maybe even our degrees would be if we had multiple Ivy League-worthy professors teaching and researching here."

Anne: "So you're not here to fight sexism?"

Me: "I mean, the only plausible explanation for their rejection is sexism, so in a way, that's why I'm here. But given that some departments have multiple female professors, I think it's only a problem in some departments and I think college leadership should step in and fix that. I don't care about the specific percentages of the quota, but come on, we can't continue like this."

She scribbled my words down and moved on to other people in the crowd. After another ten minutes or so, the last union speaker was up and announced weekly marches every week from now, a decent portion of the audience cheered, mostly girls in the front rows. The union obviously saw this as an opportunity to get new supporters. Clearly picking up on some lack of enthusiasm, the union leader grabbed the mic and added "We'll see you next week. We'll be protesting until this college gives us the best professors they can get. We deserve better and we're already paying plenty." The crowd roared at the mention of their own college debts.

Evening

Roxanne, Becca, and I were sitting in my room. The school newsletter had gotten an extra edition given current events. 'College's problems run deeper than sexism, crowd says' Roxanne read some of the article for us. "As I interviewed the protestors of what was announced to be a protest against the college's sexism, I was surprised to find a significant amount of men among the crowd. They were joined by many other first-time protestors. Their issues are not the sexism directly, they tell me, their issues are with the consequences of what appear to be sexist hiring practices in some departments. The newbie protestors bemoaned the loss of talent and wonder how much further their degree might have taken them if they had professors worthy of being hired by Ivy League colleges. What's worse for college leadership and the dean is that protestors see lacking central college leadership as the problem, and union leaders picked up on the sentiment by the end of the event. When weekly marches were announced, the crowd cheered more when the goal was declared to protest until the college hires better staff. I have spoken with union leadership and can confirm that they will stick with this goal, 'We've heard the crowd loud and clear', I've been told. These problems run deeper than sexism since they can't be appealed by a quota, a diversity program, or even just a PR campaign. They require people that succeed, an HR department able to spot them early, and both the financial and institutional support to push them into achieving the best they can. The mood on the ground is shifting and the demands are becoming harder to appease. I will report further in the next regular issue.'

Becca sighed "Well... it went decently well, I suppose. Union leadership could become an obstacle in the future if they recruit enough men as members."

Me: "Yeah... I'll just let some of my members join slowly. Maybe five to ten a day or so. That way we will maintain an eventual majority and have easier access to existing union members."

Roxanne: "We've got to be careful with union leadership, if they're too close to each other, they would notice changes in each other, just like with us at the council."

Becca: "When should we join them in full force?"

Me: "I wonder if we should. Just more of our girls could offset the natural shrinking of the protests over time, if the college doesn't budge. Using our numbers to make the protesting crowd not shrink could have a decent effect. Of course, if there is a big reveal like with our rejected professors, it's going to rile up people and going in all at once is going to make it even more impactful."

Roxanne: "My opinion would be to do Your stealth invasion and let our sisters join as they naturally could to keep up the appearance of an organic movement. If we get anything that could cause the crowd to get much bigger, let all sisters join the protest, even if it means skipping class for them. Big crowd sizes are imposing, especially if they stand outside the dean's office and demand his resignation."

I nodded in agreement and texted Dorothy to give me a list of randomized members so I could tell them to join.

Roxanne continued "Supreme Master, do You think long-term? Because the structures these men have built to keep the jobs among men would be just as useful for us once these jobs are occupied by women. We do ultimately want and need control over the hiring process and switching the narrative later won't fly with the male protestors we have now."

Me: "Just one more reason to flood the union and protests with my girls."

Becca: "Illuminating One, Your plans will still lead to conflict on campus. We sisters can change our convictions whenever we please, but the men won't see it the way we see it."

Roxanne: "No, sister Becca. It is every sister's job to try her hardest in life. Even if we use our future power to hire sisters who might seem less qualified on paper, they will all have more motivation and drive to achieve their goals. While risky, I believe Supreme Master is simply expecting us to do well enough to always have a sister better than any male applicant."

I decided to cut the discussion short and ended our meeting here, since there wasn't anything else to discuss.

Author's note: Good things are happening in my real life but they are taking my focus away from the story. I still have a chapter written in storage, and mapped out the plot until chapter 32 or something, but I'm unsure for how long I can still write/publish this story, in all likelihood I'll go quiet some time this month. I don't want to abandon this story, but I cannot predict where I'll be in my life once this is done and whether I'll still have the time and creative juices to keep writing this story.