The Fairer Sex

What might the world look like if women were usually stronger and more aggressive than men? Perhaps a society existing very much like the one we know, but with almost every gender role reversed. Not only that, but what if the ideas about the sexes that evolved in such a world were far stricter, enforced through every aspect of society and any deviation looked upon with near-universal disgust?

It would mean every politician, business leader and person of authority was a woman. Schools funneling their female students into practical subjects, while the boys, no matter how gifted, get taught how to cook and clean and please. Men are looked down on, patronized and expected to keep their mouths shut on matters they're too silly and highly-strung to understand. They can find some low-paid work of course, as secretaries, waiters and other positions women view at best as beneath them and at worst as convenient targets for sexual harassment. Upon being snapped up for marriage a boy is expected to drop whatever career he's managed to make for himself and spend the rest of his life looking after the home and children and keeping his new wife relaxed and happy.

As for romance, women take the lead here too. They're expected to be dominant, relentlessly horny and aggressive, and in most circles female promiscuity is celebrated and prized. After all, a woman who can pin down and ride as many hapless, blushing boys as she wants is one who every other girl secretly envies. Powerful older women pursue and collect beautiful younger men as trophies and are looked upon with admiration for it. Deflowering an innocent boy is a near universal fantasy and almost all media adopts the female gaze, with lingering shots of cute bulges and bare male chests.

Men meanwhile, are expected to protect their purity and innocence. Religions preach the importance of male virginity before marriage , and sex-ed focuses on shaming boys who touch themselves or even worse, dare give anything more than a chaste kiss to a woman they're not involved with. It isn't at all hard for a man to get laid anytime he's brave enough to risk it. But if word gets out it can ruin his reputation, with rampant slut-shaming from both fellow males disgusted with his behavior and horny women looking for their own shot at the loose boy. And if a rather more aggressive girl decides to stop taking no for an answer and forces him, well that was his fault for being such a slut and dressing in revealing clothes. And he got hard, so he liked it anyway, right?

Not everything is cruel or harsh however. Women may look down on men, but they also care for and protect the ones they love. An older sister will viciously defend her younger brother's honor, a mother will carefully screen any new girlfriend her beloved son brings home for dinner for less than honorable intentions, and a wife or girlfriend will pamper and spoil her new man. In turn, many men happily submit to the authority of the women in their lives, and find pleasure in the smaller world they're expected to inhabit.

In this strange new world, there are many stories to be told, of men and women, happiness and misery, romance and . Where would you like to start?

Cover art by Zonshigi

Thanks to Wilparu for giving me the idea for this story!