In my world, as I've written about here and here, it's very common for women to carry on affairs with multiple men. Many women maintain love nests, apartments in the city where they keep their boys, dropping in for quick lunchtime trysts or even afternoons off from the office. These men are oftentimes secretaries or assistants of their mistresses, but are usually just men with youth and looks on their side, latching on to any chance at financial stability. After all, a nice apartment and a steady income is difficult to come by for most men in my world.
Among the demimonde, competition is vicious and the eyes of women wander quickly to other men. Men in these relationships will do anything to keep their mistress' interest. Perhaps this is what makes women enjoy these relationships all the more, and what drives the jealousies of husbands who would love nothing more than to see this class of men spurned by polite society. Yet in spite of their best efforts, sometimes events and time conspire against these poor creatures, and they find themselves thrown unexpectedly and piteously to the sidewalk, faces streaked with tears, their futures bleak and uncertain. Hold your venomous thoughts awhile then, for the boy pictured above, for while he may be living high for now, providence may yet have a more unkind fate in store for him before long.
Am I the only one feeling very sorry for the men in your world? No, I can't be. I sometimes feel sorry for the men in my world as well. I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles, especially when we are the ones baking it.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that every once in a while some of those women decide to keep a special little guy that really made his mark, that stood above (it can happen) all the others.
My favorite part of this collage might seem strange, but I have my reasons: I really like the way he lays on the bed, the joining line where his head, shoulder and arm rest on it visible to the viewer. I'm not surprised, considering how long it's taken me to kinda dig the way the sheet should look, how they should sink, where the shadows and wrinkles that show that sinking should be, and the excellent job you do of providing that illusion!
Eye contact = freaking great! I don't know if you had to edit her eyes. I imagine you did, or got extremely lucky with the source image, but it's just right. Great job in this, both in setting up the image, and the heartbreak.
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ReplyDeleteWow is that what happens to comments when you remove them? I only meant to add one more sentence. Sigh.I have to admit I have been focusing more on the darker side of my world recently. Of course relationships that last are formed in my world, they're not that rare at all, but I've recently been trying to lay out the challenges and difficulties that men in my world face, even in the relatively liberal societies.
ReplyDeleteGiven the almost complete lack of political, economic and judicial rights for men in my world, I think feeling slightly sorry is justified. The status of men in my world in at this point in time is somewhat similar to that of women in yours in the 18th century, which is to say, not all that good.
Thank you for all the compliments and for focusing on the little details. Her eyes are replaced, good call on your part. The man was already lying on a bed in his source image so it was relatively easy to get the wrinkles and depression right. I just had to make it less pronounced to compensate for his lighter weight.
My turn to sigh. Sigh. I didn't manage to convey all that I should have... maybe because I didn't express all that I meant. It is sad, or rather it makes me feel sad (your work is not sad- to say that would be a mistake), because of what you describe.
ReplyDeleteIn the world inside my head shrunken men go through a very similar fate: they have no political power, very little to no financial control over their lives, and only burgeoning judicial rights that are as much of a joke as those we have seen for various minorities throughout history.
Because these worlds imitate terrible truths about the real world, there's a propensity to feel sad, but at the same time there's the awareness that these are fantasies that produce pleasure; that after we finish writing or collaging about the tortures or pain or abuse, we have built something that knocks our socks off.
So even if it sucked as a compliment, that's what it was! I meant to say that sadness is good in this case, because it makes happiness in these fantasies all the more tasty when it takes place (and it always does).
Even the crazy happiness of the vore and crush and violent gts people. :D
I think you've hit on something when you say that these terrible truths in our fantasies imitate things in the real world. I think one of the important things is that while we project cruelty into our fantasy worlds, it is just fantasy. These fantasies turn my crank, so to speak, when I think about them, but when I see torture, abuse, slavery and so on actually occurring in the real world, I find it extremely abhorrent. In that sense, I don't even find BDSM activities to be sexually appealing, even though consensual, since it's too real.
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