Threesome Being a Short Digression on Human Biology

As my dear readers may have noticed, it is very common in my world for women to have multiple sexual partners. In fact, this is not only the case among humans, but among most mammals as well as other classes of animals.

The first reason for this is simple biology. The birth ratio on my world is significantly skewed towards the male in that there are approximately five human males born to every female human. Also, women live significantly longer lives than men. Finally, even in your world, the greater the sexual dimorphism of a species, the likelier it is for the physically dominant gender to be polygamous, and that principle also applies in mine.

The extreme sexual dimorphism in my world means that all human societies are female-dominated, and cultural variations never vary in this regard. In the majority of societies in my world, women may take multiple husbands, and in the ones that are monogamous, women usually keep additional lovers in the house in arrangements similar to concubinage or slavery. Furthermore, women are socialized to be sexually adventurous and promiscuous, and having multiple husbands and lovers is considered a badge of prestige. On the other hand, even in recent times, men are still expected to be chaste and demure in matters of sex and other earthly pleasures, and to defer in these matters to the wishes of women. In this context, it is thus easy to see why it is that what is called a threesome in your world is merely a matter of course in mine.

Those Lazy Summer Days

We'd remember them now but for those crazy summer nights.

The Queen of Rock

A Lazy Country Afternoon

Life in a farming or ranching town in my world has some similarities to that in yours. The pace is slower, things are simpler, and there's that faint tang of manure in the air. But you get used to it.

In other regards though, life and the division of labor is quite different.

A lot of light physical labor on farms and ranches are performed by hands, young men who hire themselves out for temporary work for a hot meal, a bunk to doss down in, and a little bit of cash. Much of the heavy and important farm work is done by women, who are usually farm owners or are hired on a more permanent basis, and who usually oversee the hands in their light tasks.

Life for a farm or ranch hand isn't all that easy, the hours are long, and the work unglamorous. Yet there persists a mystique in my world about these boys, healthy from the fresh air, strong — for men — from the physical labor, used to the unadorned life, and to the rough and tumble ways of cowgirls and country women.

In my world, there's also a mystique about country girls too, although not quite analogous to that in yours. I've written before about dalliances between hands and the young woman who stands to inherit the property. For these lucky boys, their days of slop buckets and uncertainty could well see an end, for in these relatively liberal times, even farm boys sometimes get the girl.

At the Beach III

Update: Fixed some glaring errors that I had overlooked but were spotted by the ever-vigilant Undersquid, who gets a virtual hug. May 7, 2009

Update: Fixed some errors in the shadow that BobManDo pointed out in the comments. This may never end. May 17, 2009

The Love Nest

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.

Rough Women and Sex in Advertising

One of the most popular brands of denim and leather clothing for women in my world is Leigh, and their "Rough Women" advertising slogan has been in use for several decades. In fact, the phrase Rough Woman is as iconic in my world as Marlboro Man is in yours. While their older ads emphasized a rugged and individualistic woman against the elements, in their more recent years, their ads have become much more focused on sex. The first ad above is from a billboard, with enough hints of the fun stuff for women, yet safe enough for the averted eyes of sensitive men.

The ad below, meanwhile, has been running in the pages of women's lifestyle magazines.

Night in the City of Lights

An Afternoon at the Courts

I'd been down to the basketball courts just once before. My sister Tara plays ball there regularly, but that time I went, just to hang out and see what it's like you know, she was out of town for a state championship game. She's out of town often, see. She plays both basketball and baseball for her school, and this year she's gonna make All-State. She's always going out of town for games. So I went just once, cos I know if she caught me there, she'd belt me so hard I wouldn't be able to sit for a month. I didn't tell any of my brothers either, especially not Doug, cos he'd snitch on me for sure. There's always one in every family.

Timo goes though, pretty regularly. He goes he says, to flirt with the girls. It's a scene there, he says. If you wanna get with girls, he says, that's the best place to go.

What She Wants

In my world, when it comes to relations between the sexes, the female is the aggressor. Men send signals of availability, and women make the choice of whether they are interested in them or not. Sometimes, women make unwelcome advances, and it is impossible for men, being so much weaker physically, to resist them. Furthermore, the legal and economic framework in my world doesn't make it easy for men to refuse. Men have few legal rights even in relatively progressive cultures here. To press a case, they require a female representative, usually a family member or a wife, in court to represent them, and cases of rape and harassment are civil, not criminal, matters. Furthermore, the court testimony of a male requires the backing of a female.

In other respects, the economic situation of most unmarried men is also quite unstable, and the prospect of having a regular female lover who may provide some financial support, even if she already has husbands, can be quite hard to turn down. For men in my world, choices are sometimes very easy to make, but very hard to live with.

Incidentally, the usage of language in my world is not exactly the same as in yours. Words that exist in your English may have a completely different significance in mine. One such word, in this context, is mistress. In my world, it can be used to describe the usually already-married woman in an extra-marital relationship with a single male, usually much younger than she is. Many words exist in my world to signify the male in such a relationship, many of them diminutive and condescending, such as boy, toyboy, hobby horse and side dish.

In the future, whenever appropriate, I will write more about how languages differ between my world and yours.

Update: Made some small modifications to the text, but not the image. Feb 8, 2009